- Author
-
Watson, R. W.
|
Furno, A. L.
|
Doyak, W. J.
|
Brewer, R. L.
- Title
- Evaluation of the Safety of One-Hour Compressed Oxygen Self-Rescurers--Results of Destructive Testing.
- Coporate
- Bureau of Mines, Pittsburgh, PA
- Report
-
RI 8890,
1984,
70 p.
- Keywords
-
mine fires
- Abstract
- At the request of the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) the Bureau of Mines evaluated the potential hazards of three compressed oxygen self-contained self-rescuers (SCSR's) designed for use in underground coal mines. The evaluation followed the lines used in a similar investigation of chemical self-rescuers and involved laboratory experiments as well as field trials designed to simulte a mining environment. They included bullet impact, bonfire, feeder-breaker impact and feed-through, and mining machine runover tests. The work showed that the units were not inherently unsafe but that under certain conditions of extreme abuse they can present a potential ignition or explosion hazard. This, coupled with a survey of reported damage on SCSR's currently deployed in underground mines, which indicated a relatively high frequency of incidents leading to the destruction of the units, led to new recommendations on the deployment of SCSR's. The recommendations formulated by MSHA state that the units should be either properly worn by the miner, stored in heavy containers, or otherwise protected from situations in which they might be accidentally ruptured or destroyed, such as runover by mobile mining equipment.