Mining equipment
AHS™ – articulated headgear system
A mobile, self-erecting headgear that sits over a mine shaft, a launch and recovery system for the shaft, for personnel and muck-out, with no permanent infrastructure.
The Articulated Headgear System takes our offshore launch-and-recovery (LARS) engineering and applies it over the top of a mine shaft. It self-erects, and deploys and recovers both a man-riding basket and a material-handling grab down the shaft on dual winches, supplying down-shaft power as it goes. It’s a single, CE-marked, road-transportable machine that turns a redundant or flooded shaft into a workable one.
What it does
- Man-riding and material handling – dual identical winches (one actuated at a time): a man-riding basket for personnel access and a clamshell grab for muck-out, on a common wire.
- Articulated positioning – a self-erecting articulated boom positions the load over the shaft, offsets along the boom for man-riding and slews to discharge spoil clear of the shaft.
- Self-contained – integrated structure, winches, sheaves, hydraulics, control, load-bearing shaft doors and down-shaft trailing-cable power, in one machine.
- No permanent infrastructure – bears onto the existing reinforced-concrete collar; relocatable between shafts.
Specification
| Load rating | Man-riding 3 t WLL below hook; material handling 4 t WLL (grab incl.); total system structural rating 60 t (2 falls); wire MBL 30 t/line, target 10:1 |
|---|---|
| Hoisting | Max speed 1.0 m/s (man-riding reduced); accel/decel 0.2 m/s²; two crown sheaves at 30:1 sheave-to-rope ratio |
| Shaft served | Vertical shaft to ~135 m working depth; internal diameter ~2.75–3.70 m; load-bearing integrated shaft doors |
| Power | Main HPU ≥55 kW (winch-duty) + independent backup HPU for keyed recovery; site generators (by others); 7-core constant-tension trailing cable on a reeler |
| Brakes | Man-riding winch: two independent spring-applied, hydraulically-released brakes; brake SF 3:1 man-riding / 2:1 material |
| Transport & environment | Road-transportable, core structure ≤3.5 m wide (non-escort), modular; −10 to +40 °C; max operating wind 18 m/s; IP67 electronics |
| Codes | Machinery Directive / EU 2023/1230; EN ISO 12100; EN ISO 13849-1; BS ISO 19426 series (mine-shaft structures); DNVGL-ST-0378; AISC 360; LOLER 1998; EN 12385. CE-marked, full technical file. |