determination of workloads in cutting head of longwall tumble heading machine

The mining organ of the longwall heading machine KGS-320 with radial tools was the subject of the analysis. Cooperation of single knife with the mined solid rock was estimated in order to determine values of the forces and moments that might occur in the mining process and to estimate the energy consumption of the mining process. Analogous determination of forces and moments values as well as energy consumption of the mining process for the whole mining organ with regard to all the knives installed. Following the thorough analysis of the solid rock mining process with the longwall tumble heading machine mining head the PC computer program simulating such organ’s mode of action has been developed. This program presents the simulation of the mining process in the part regarding direct contact of the cutting tool (knife) with the rock mass. The result of this simulation is force and moments distribution, which are transmitted via the mining organ (head) during one full turn (360o) and, as consequence, via whole longwall heading machine.