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Winding engine at Markham Main colliery being topped up ©
NCMME
often combining the functions of two previous machines, such as the Dosco Roadheader which could both cut and load. More streamlined systems for lubrication were built into the designs and so a job which in the 1950s might have used three machines and ten different types of lubricant instead by the 1970s used one machine and two or three grades.
As machinery has moved into the twenty-first century, centralised lubrication systems have been developed that minimise the need for additional maintenance. These computerised systems can monitor levels and are capable of self-administering the correct lubricant, to the correct point, in the correct quantity without a fitter being present.
The choice of which oil manufacturer to use was left to each colliery’s mechanical engineers. Over the years, engineers and fitters developed preferences for one make or another as many well-known companies such as Castrol, Mobil, Shell and Fuchs produced specialist lubricants for the industry. In fact, it wasn’t unheard of for a new engineer to bring his own preferences with him and switch the colliery to a completely different range of oils when starting at a new pit.
Century Oils Ltd was a popular firm for collieries in the Yorkshire area. Originally trading as Walker Brothers Oils from around 1870s, they became a public company in 1956, changing their name to Walker’s Century Oils Ltd and later Century Oils Ltd. While the company was bought by Fuchs Lubricants (UK) in 1991, the brand ‘Century’ continued to be one of the most popular mining lubricants, supplying to Kellingley Colliery, West Yorkshire, the last British deep mine, up to its closure in 2015.
While the closure of Kellingley marked the end of British deep mining, worldwide demand for coal is such that a record breaking 7.8 billion tons of coal was produced globally in 2013. Coal fuels over 40% of the world’s electricity production and is used in over 70% of the world’s steel production. Throughout the world, modern mining machines, often developed in the British coalfields, are vital to the continued production of coal. And the importance of lubrication for efficient mining should not be overlooked.
LINK
www.ncm.org.uk
Written by Mark Carlyle, Curator of Industry, NCMME, exclusively for Lube Magazine
16
LUBE MAGAZINE NO.132 APRIL 2016
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