Study on the alignment method and experiment of scraper conveyor

Auto-alignment of scraper conveyor is an important precondition for the straightness of a longwall face. In or- der to realize the auto-alignment of scraper conveyor,an alignment method of scraper conveyor integrated with the working process of longwall face was developed on the basis of the survey track of a scraper conveyor. According to this method,the scraper conveyor can be continuously adjusted for alignment without the interrupt of longwall face. Through numerical simulating and experimental verification,the initial large straightness error of the scraper conveyor can be re- duced with the method. The straightness error was limited within a certain range. The range of straightness error was decided by the deviation (δm,δl ) of detection error and the advancing error of the scraper conveyor. When the detec- tion error and advancing error obeyed a normal distribution,the straightness error of the scraper conveyor was lower than 6(σm +σl ) for the mutual offset between the detection error and advancing error at the advancing points of the scraper conveyor. The straightness error was related to the current alignment and independent of the previous align- ment. This avoids error accumulation effectively.