Mobile roof support load rate monitoring system

Mobile roof support (MRS) machines are used as roof support during pillar recovery in retreat operations in lieu of wooden posts, cribs, or hydraulic props. A Mine Safety and Health Administration permissible load rate monitoring system was developed for the MRS by researchers at the Spokane Research Laboratory of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The system uses a dedicated embedded processor to monitor changes in pressure inside the hydraulic cylinders of the MRS through multiplexed data acquisition channels and converts these pressure changes to load rates that sequentially activate three load-rate-indicator lights mounted on the machine. Each light represents a different loading rate to alert mine personnel to dangerous conditions during pillar extraction.