China News Service, Taiyuan, March 5th, title: Three generations of coal miners witness 70 years of "energy revolution"
Author Gao Yuqing Wu Ling Sun Yanbin
"Dig coal does not go down the mine, and coal does not see coal." This is the era of smart coal mines that Tong Xiaojun is experiencing in the "three generations of coal".
From manual drilling and blasting to semi-mechanization, from comprehensive mechanization to intelligent mining, three generations of Tong Xiaojun and his family have witnessed the "technical revolution" of Jinneng Holdings Coal Group's coal mining in the past 70 years, and also witnessed the change from "black" to "green" in Shanxi Energy. "The historical changes.
"Don't look at me young, but the time for me to connect with coal mines is not too short. It starts with my grandfather's generation..." On March 5, Shanxi Jinneng Holdings Coal Industry Group and Xin Mine's first comprehensive mining team Technical director Tong Xiaojun told reporters.
In 1989, Tong Xiaojun was born in a coal mine family.
His grandfather, Dianfu, and father, Tong Guang, were both underground miners.
Affected by his family's "coal mine background", Tong Xiaojun chose mining engineering as his university major, and entered the coal industry after graduating from graduate school.
Tong Xiaojun measured the location of the working face from the geological structure on the drawing.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
On the eve of deciding to work in the coal mine, his father brought Xiaojun with him to his grandfather's house.
In the 1950s, Grandpa and Tenfu became coal miners.
In those days, the underground working surface conditions were poor, coal mining was done by artillery mining, and the coal was scraped by manpower with shovel and shovels.
Tong Xiaojun recalled his grandfather’s words, “At that time, a class produced a maximum of more than 100 tons of coal. After a class came, his face was so black that he couldn’t even recognize himself. The sweat soaked all the clothes. Especially in winter, the clothes couldn’t dry. I put it on my body for two days, and I felt distressed by the cold.
Until the 1980s, the underground conditions in the mine of his father Tongguang improved a lot, and coal mining has developed from blasting coal mining to high-end ordinary mechanized coal mining.
"Coal mining is all coal mining unit cutting coal, from wood support to single hydraulic prop support, the safety factor is much higher." Tong Xiaojun introduced.
What remains unchanged is that, in the eyes of outsiders, miners are still synonymous with "bitter, dirty, tired".
Grandpa's memories and father's narration lingered in Tong Xiaojun's mind all the time, causing him to shake the thoughts.
"But I caught up with the good time." In July 2016, Jinneng Coal Industry Group selected the 8202 fully mechanized mining face of Tongxin Mine as a pilot project to build the first intelligent fully mechanized caving face in China.
This project won the first prize of Science and Technology of China Coal Industry Association.
In the same year, Tong Xiaojun entered the group to work.
Tong Xiaojun observes the operation of the intelligent working face equipment on the centralized control platform of the belt along the groove.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
There is no roar of machinery, no flying coal dust, in the tidy and open dispatching command center, the staff transported coal to the ground during various data fluctuations on the monitoring screen.
"Today, the intelligent fully mechanized mining face only needs 8 people per shift, the labor intensity of workers is reduced, the safety factor is improved, and the single-sided production capacity reaches 15.6 million tons. This was impossible to think of in the past." Tong Xiaojun said.
Installing and maintaining equipment, checking data, drawing drawings... is Tong Xiaojun's daily work.
Although the equipment is becoming more and more intelligent, the underground work is still hard.
He is not afraid of hardship, dirt, and tiredness, and he is determined to do something deep on the surface.
The Tongxin Mine of Jinneng Holdings Coal Industry Group, where Tong Xiaojun is located, is just a microcosm of Shanxi's "energy revolution".
As of the end of 2020, there have been 80 fully mechanized mining faces in Shanxi Province to promote intelligent construction, and 51 have been put into use; Xinyuan Coal Mine has built China's first 5G coal mine, and 6 coal mines including Tashan have successively realized 5G access; various robots and intelligent equipment In the province's major coal mines have been "online" one after another.
In Tong Xiaojun's view, China's coal industry has undergone a "qualitative change", and the future of the new generation of coal people is promising.
The dream of "unmanned mining" that generations of coal people have expected is becoming a reality in more and more mines.
(Finish)