Case Study
Flender gearboxes help reduce Signal Peak’s
maintenance costs and maintain productivity
Veteran executive John DeMichiei knew Montana’s only
original coal mine, in and out of service for several years,
needed a shot of capital to reach its potential. But financing
the single-section mine presented challenges.
Even though the Signal Peak Energy Bull Mountain mine was
forecasted to produce one million tons per month and have a
30 year lifespan, investors were skeptical largely due to the
high initial capital investment of the project.
The investors were shown that over the life of the mine, one
billion tons of high quality, 10,300 Btu bituminous, trans-
portable coal was there for the taking from underground and
surface reserves. The coal, much higher in Btu content than
coal from the Powder River Basin in Montana and northeast
Wyoming, was very attractive to both domestic and foreign
markets.
In the later part of 2008, DeMichiei found the funding –
a partnership between the Boich Companies and Ohio-based
FirstEnergy. The Gunvor Group would later join as a third
investor.
Vision, direction and execution
DeMichiei’s guarantees have come to fruition. For the past 12
months, the mine’s 300 employees have produced more than
one million tons of coal per month. The mine also reports better
than 98 percent availability, or up time, exceeding the industry
target of 95 percent.
DeMichiei says getting to these levels of efficiency and
productivity required a team of committed and experienced
mining pros.
“Mining is a demanding business and success depends on people
committed to this company,” DeMichiei says. “These relationships
are built on years of trust.”
One of those valued experts is Bud Viren, Signal Peak’s vice
president of engineering, who designed the mine’s backbone –
its extensive conveyor system. Viren knew DeMichiei’s promise to
investors rested on reliability. Every minute of downtime would
take at least $500 from the bottom line.
usa.siemens.com/gearboxes
The mine is located 30 miles north of Billings. Being the only
underground coal mine in Montana meant replacement parts and
equipment, provided at the discretion of suppliers hundreds of
miles away, could not be counted on. By standardizing, Viren not
only ensured that the equipment and parts were handy and
interchangeable, but conveyor belt drive outs would be quick,
training would be uniform and maintenance would be routine.
Viren called Dick Bailey, president of Conetic Resources,
Lakewood, Colo., and a Siemens manufacturer’s representative,
whom he worked with over the past 20 years on other mining
projects. Bailey and Viren understood mine conveyors, especially
gearbox and drive technologies that kept the conveyor belt
moving without over tensioning or inducing dynamic waves into
the belt like a rubber band.
“Bud’s relationship with Dick has been a tremendous asset,” says
DeMichiei. “He is a partner and a friend. We’ve called him at 2
a.m. That kind of commitment is the name of the game and we
don’t skip a beat.”
Bailey suggested Viren try Siemens’ Flender right angle,
alignment free, 24:1 ratio gearbox as part of several drive
packages that included three or four, 500HP power units with
three or four air cooled variable frequency drives and a PLC
located in an adjacent control room. Operators monitor and
control the belt from two remote HMI panels that give them info
on tension, torque, speed, faults, trends and alarms. Redundant,
fiber optic communications link all areas of the mine.
“You basically support the gearbox and integral D-Flanged 500HP
motor (power unit) off of a pulley shaft via a rigid coupling with a
single torque arm vertical support to the drive base,” says Bailey.
“This makes it easy for underground miners to quickly change
power units from one drive location to another.
“After the first one was installed, they were so impressed that
they ordered 15 more of the alignment free 24:1 ratio Siemens
gearboxes,” Bailey continues. “They have also ordered several
size 18, bevel helical, 200:1 ratio gearboxes used on their large
constant tension winches.”
Technician monitors mine productivity and performance
Viren says the gearboxes are now a standard part of every Signal
Peak Energy underground conveyor drive system. He says the
reliability of the gearboxes was expected, “but what really sold
me on the gearboxes was that they are like Swiss watches – you
can hardly hear them.”
“Noise is always a factor in an underground mine,” Viren says.
“These are the quietest gearboxes I’ve ever heard. That not only
helps the miners do their jobs, but it also shows the gearboxes are
not under stress and will not breakdown. The only time these
gearboxes go down is during our six month planned maintenance
for oil changes. That’s it.”
DeMichiei, who also served as District Manager for Coal Mine
Safety with the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA),
agrees that the quiet gearbox is a plus. “The lower the under-
ground decibels the better in terms of operator comfort,
communications and safety,” he says.
Bailey adds that the gearboxes, built at Siemens Elgin, Ill., plant,
operate cooler than other designs. “The gearboxes have ribbed
housings that promote 30 percent cooler operation,” Bailey says.
“That is a huge benefit to the mine. The gearboxes have more
skin area in a smaller, compact enclosure and the clean and
efficient fan design of the input shaft assembly allows air to reach
areas of the gearbox that need cooling.”
Moving one million tons a month
The mine is one of the largest long wall mines in North America
and consistently produces the promised one million tons per
month, according to DeMichiei.
The maximum cutting height of each long wall panel is
14 feet tall, and the 29 panels are each 1,250 feet wide by
22,000 feet long.
The mainline conveyor line starts outside the mine and is
controlled by one Quad 500HP drive located adjacent to the
mine entrance.
“These are the quietest gearboxes
I’ve ever heard. That not only helps
the miners do their jobs, but it also
shows the gearboxes are not under
stress and will not breakdown.”
– Bud Viren
Vice President of Engineering,
Signal Peak Energy
Technician monitors conveyor performance
The panels are developed perpendicular to the mainline entry.
The long wall head gate entry conveys long wall coal at a rate of
5,000 TPH (tons per hour) on 60”BW (belt width) belts. The head
gate conveyor has a head drive of three or four 500HP power
units and a tripper drive midway in the length of the 22,000 foot
panel with three or four 500HP power units, depending on the lift
requirements dictated by panel geology. The long wall face is
1,250 feet long from the head gate entry. The head gate entry
becomes a tailgate entry when the mining of the current long
wall panel is completed. Conveyor equipment is then leapfrogged
to the next head gate position 1,250 feet from the current head
gate position.
Future head gate development coal is mined with an under-
ground continuous miner – a machine with a large rotating steel
drum equipped with tungsten carbide teeth that excavates coal
from the seam. The coal is transferred to 60” BW conveying
system via shuttle cars and a feeder breaker, at the rate of about
600 TPH, to the completed panel length of 22,000 feet.
Leapfrogging the competition
While the mainline drives will remain in place for the life of the
mine, the head gate, tripper and tailgate drives move about once
a year as one panel development ends and the next begins.
“The real trick in the business is to have the continuous miner
development complete the next head gate before you are
finished with the long wall panel,” Bailey says. “The alignment
free drive has cut that installation time from three days to a half
a shift. As the miners retreat from the head gate entry toward the
mainline conveyor, the tripper drive is removed and then
transported to the next long wall panel.”
The alignment free, right angle gearbox design eliminates the
need for a solid base, which is common in older mines. Instead, a
pulley is attached to the base of the drive that is connected to the
conveyor. The pulley’s shaft is connected to the gearbox, either
on the left or right side, with shrink fit fixed couplings.
“In the past, flex steel couplings connecting the pulley shaft to the
gear box low speed shaft were the norm, making it essential to
Special rail line delivers coal to waiting customers
“The alignment free drive has cut that
installation time from three days to a
half a shift.”
– Dick Bailey
President,
Conetic Resources
painstakingly ensure the entire drive system was properly aligned
to match the pulley shafts,” Viren says. “Moving the drive required
removing it from the base of the foundation, and then realigning
and resetting it. It was very difficult to get a proper alignment.
Now the mine is extremely productive. When we move a long
wall development, the time to move and realign the drives has
been greatly reduced.”
On the way to customers
After the coal is conveyed out of the mine, it is stacked on a raw
coal stockpile, then crushed and moved into a coal washing
plant that can process up to 2,000 raw tons per hour. The 100
percent washed, high quality bituminous coal is also low in
sulfur, ash and sodium.
The coal is then loaded into a batch weigh system that is one of
the fastest and most efficient load-out facilities in the western
United States. At maximum capacity, the load-out facility can fill a
150-unit train in under two hours, or an average of two to three
train loads per day.
The coal is transported from the mine via a 5.7 mile railroad spur.
The spur is part of a 35 mile rail line that connects to Burlington
Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) railway line. The coal is exported to
Europe and the Pacific Rim and to utilities operating on the Great
Lakes of North America.
“Siemens will be part of this
operation for many years to come
because of this kind of commitment
to Signal Peak and the mining
industry in general.”

– John DeMichiei
President and CEO,
Signal Peak Energy

Viren and Bailey plan for future expansion of the mine

He who laughs last …

Today, those investors who didn’t listen to DeMichiei’s money-

making proposal may be reconsidering their decisions. The Signal
Peak Energy Bull Mountain mine is among the most productive,
efficient and safe worldwide.

“When you are doing underground mining, the key is produc-

tivity,” Viren says. “You don’t want a lot of downtime for
moving equipment. So, the right angle alignment free
gearbox design has truly helped our business. Others have
tried an alignment free design, but they have not been as
successful as Siemens.”

Over the course of the next 25 years, the conveyors and drive
system will continue to leapfrog from one panel to the next until
all 29 panels are complete. DeMichiei says there are numerous
other seams of coal adjacent to and beneath the planned
development, offering the same high quality product for years
to come. Flender gearboxes improve mine productivity, safety, and reliability

“The coal was always there, but not the technology or the team
to mine it,” DeMichiei says. “We put our trust in Viren and his
relationship with Bailey and let them do it their way. They did
their homework and the results speak for themselves. Siemens
will be part of this operation for many years to come because of
this kind of commitment to Signal Peak and the mining industry
in general.”

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