Mine Hoist Performance Testing

Under U.S. Bureau of Mines contract funding, researchers at the Colorado School of Mines have studied mine hoist electrical systems. One of the three phases in this study is the development of an automated inspection and testing system. A previous paper (1) by the authors discussed a group of useful hoist performance electrical parameters that could be used to determine the operating condition of a hoist. However, to test the hoist system and gather hoist performance parameters in the most efficient manner, testing procedures must be created. Minimum hoist downtime, safe testing procedures, efficient measurement gathering techniques, unnecessary stress applied to the hoist, and application to an automated method are important criteria when creating hoist testing procedures. This paper discusses some important hoist tests with respect to the above criteria.