MUIR- HILL EARTH HILL

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MUIR- HILL EARTH HILL

Post #1 by widget » Sun Sep 15, 2013 12:15 pm

Hello All :wave:

During my research on Blaw Knox equipment, I have been in contact with Dr Tom Shelley who was the Development Engineer with Blaw Knox from 1979 to 1983......He has been kind enough to send me a couple of photo's he took of a project he was involved with......A prototype MUIR HILL machine called the EARTH HILL , whilst it was on test in a chalk pit at Northfleet where the Bluewater shopping Centre is now.

He also told me that...... "The Earthmill, a mobile excavator was capable of shifting 400 cubic metres or 1250 tonnes of material per hour, and it never went into production because we never obtained an order for one. Like so many British companies, we were great at coming up with innovations but less good at selling them and making money out of them.Muir Hill, which was at the time, also part of Babcock Construction Equipment until we were all sold to International Baumaschinen Holdings which collapsed in November 1983".

I would like to thank Dr Shelley for sending me the photo's and letting me share with every one on the CMN forum :bow:

I wonder if you guys have ever seen this machine before or if you know anything about it?
If you have any questions about the machine, I might be able to pass them onto Tom and see if he can answer them.
Regards
Richard :thumbup:
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Re: MUIR- HILL EARTH HILL

Post #2 by Jeremy Rowland » Sun Sep 15, 2013 2:46 pm

Interesting concept machine there Richard; I would imagine that it was fitted with a rotary shovel at the front similar to a bucket wheel machine. :think: We do have some great ideas but like you say they were sadly never marketed properly.

Jeremy

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Re: MUIR- HILL EARTH HILL

Post #3 by Ian Fletcher1970 » Sun Sep 15, 2013 7:21 pm

Have seen a picture of that machine in an excavator book somewhere :think: :think: Believe Babcock were involved in the manufacture.

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Re: MUIR- HILL EARTH HILL

Post #4 by FOWLER MAN » Sun Sep 15, 2013 8:44 pm

Hello Richard,
The concept of continuous loading over the belt is simular to the old Euclid BV loaders and is proven to be the fastest possible method of excavation.
The difference is the Muir Hill machine is self propelled, eliminating the need for a big tractor to pull it. (Langs later used Allis HD 31s).
The Muir hill clearly has some sort of rotary digging mechanism to feed the elevators.
As has already been said, another bit of British innovation that sadly came to nothing.
Fred
Euclid BV loader.JPG
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Re: MUIR- HILL EARTH HILL

Post #5 by widget » Sun Sep 15, 2013 9:35 pm

Thanks for that bit of info Fred and the photo :thumbup: Here's the modern equivalent surface mining machine by Wirtgen, many of these are used in the Australian iron ore and copper fields which I'm sure many of you are aware of, but still of the same concept and backs up Freds comments.

Yes Ian, Muir Hill was at the time, part of Babcock Construction Equipment along with various other companies until they were all sold to International Baumaschinen Holdings which collapsed in November 1983. Who knows, they could have been a Muir Hill machine in the photo if that hadn't have happened :roll:

Richard :thumbup:
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Re: MUIR- HILL EARTH HILL

Post #6 by Tracshovel » Sun Sep 15, 2013 10:09 pm

Very interesting pictures of a rare British built prototype. Various companies over the years have dabbled with continuous loaders but few have every taken off, prpbably due to their inefficiency and costs compared to hydraulic excavators.
The Euclid BV and the Holland loaders especially are the exception, even then low numbers were manufactured.
Of course today the Writgen surface miners have become popular with some open pit mines for specific materials as they have overcome a lot of the earlier inefficiency and engineering problems.

Liebherr made a prototype of a similar fashion called the RB300 loader, except it had a tracked undercarriage and used more of a chain and slat type of conveyor system but all the same did the same job. As far as I know it too was only ever a prototype.

I found this link whic relates to the patent for the Muir Hill.
[url][http://www.trademarkuk.info/tm/1103686/rotaminer/url]

Northfleet appears to have been a good stamping ground for manufacturers keen to test their prototypes and low volume production machine. Mavor & Coulson of Glasgow (latterly Anderson Mining) had 35 ton Bucket Wheel Excavator work for a period of time, who knows what happened to it in the end?

More information on the Muir Hill Rotaminer would be most welcome.


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Re: MUIR- HILL EARTH HILL

Post #7 by essexpete » Mon Sep 16, 2013 8:15 am

Jeremy Rowland wrote:Interesting concept machine there Richard; I would imagine that it was fitted with a rotary shovel at the front similar to a bucket wheel machine. :think: We do have some great ideas but like you say they were sadly never marketed properly.

Jeremy


Perhaps it was simply to expensive and complicate to make it economical, although with the output figures who knows? Would it be fair to say that the chalk pits are still, in some cases, relatively small set-ups?

It reminds me slightly of the contract beet harvesters machines today although their machines are not lifting the beet but picking up a heap on the roadside to fill transport.

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Re: MUIR- HILL EARTH HILL

Post #8 by widget » Wed Sep 18, 2013 9:48 pm

More information on the Muir Hill Rotaminer would be most welcome.

I have asked Tom if he has any further info he can share with us :thumbup:
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Re: MUIR- HILL EARTH HILL

Post #9 by widget » Fri Sep 20, 2013 10:13 pm

Hi all :wave:
Tom Shelley has kindly sent us a bit more info about the Muir Hill Rotaminer......

The Earthmill, as it was originally designated, was fitted with a toothed drum equipped with picks, derived from those used in coal mining equipment. It was powered by a 400HP Cummins engine. Its original purpose was to very quickly dig scrapes into which tanks could drive so that they would be hull down and thus partially protected, in the event of a Soviet invasion of Western Europe. It fulfilled all the Ministry of Defense's requirements but as so often happens, they suddenly decided they did not want it. The Earthmill had a tendency to throw stones at anyone standing near the conveyors removing the material that had been dug by the cutting drum, but this was not of any concern to the MoD although it was to some potential civilian users. However, when we demonstrated it in the removal of overburden material in the chalk pit that was to become the home of the Blue Water shopping centre, I did not observe this to be a problem. Coming originally from a mining background, I am of the opinion that anyone with any sense keeps as far away as is possible from mechanical mining machines at work. There was a problem with failure of the Poclain hydraulic motors driving the cutting drum. This was because the motors were directly connected to the drum and shocks from picks hitting stones went straight into the metalwork of the hydraulics. The same problem was encountered by all the early cold planing machines that you now see removing road surfaces in order to lay new asphalt. When we tried to use the Earthmill as a cold planing machine on an old airfield runway at Driffield in Yorkshire, we had a Poclain motor failure while I was watching. The shock induced failures in the other cold planing machines were overcome by driving the cutting drums via rubber belts to absorb the shocks. Something similar could have been done with the Earthmill but the project ran out of money, and since nobody had bought one, no more money was found to put into further development.
Best regards
Tom
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Re: MUIR- HILL EARTH HILL

Post #10 by JimTough » Sun Oct 07, 2018 12:38 pm

I was a service engineer for Blaw Knox and was suconddf to Muir Hill I maintained and drove the Rotaminer at Bluewater.Durham .Drifield .Andover . West Germany with REME .Toronto Canada and Alberta Canada it would have been a flyer had David Brown (of DJB fame ) still been at Muir Hill the development needed more investment typical B&W ,
The maximum loading rate on Coal when I pushed it to the max was 25 ton in 12 seconds which would equate to 7500 ton per hour believe it or not and that was with all its faults them corrected and that could have easily taken 2 seconds per 25 t off , it was fine on coal and soil on sand it was great unless there was floating granite in the
sand we tried it on asphalt but the big peumatic tyres were too flexible for a 6 mm tolerance
Hope this helps


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