Authors
Peterson-JS; Kovalchik-PG; Matetic-RJ
Source
2005 SME Annual Meeting, February 28 - March 2, Salt Lake City, Utah, Preprint 05-72. Littleton, CO, Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration, Inc., 2005 Feb; :1-8
Abstract
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has initiated a study of a roof bolter to reduce noise exposure to mine roof bolter operators. An important part of this research involves determining the effect of various drilling configurations on the performance (penetration rate) and sound power emissions when drilling into granite. Test conditions included various combinations of rotational speeds and thrusts, hex and round drill steel of 1- and 1-3/8-in diameters, vacuum and wet conditions, and drill media of differing compressive strengths. This paper details the effects of each of these on the performance and sound power level emission. When drilling into granite, it was found that wet drilling generated lower sound power levels and performed better than vacuum drilling.
Keywords
Noise; Noise-exposure; Underground-miners; Health-hazards; Mining-industry; Noise-induced-hearing-loss; Mining-equipment; Underground-mining; Noise-sources; Roof-bolters; Drilling
Contact
NIOSH Pittsburgh Research Laboratory, P.O. Box 18070, Pittsburgh, PA 15236
Document Type
Conference/Symposia Proceedings
Source Name
2005 SME Annual Meeting, February 28 - March 2, Salt Lake City, Utah, Preprint 05-72