Longwall Shearer as a Mechatronic Device

The paper presents some mechatronic aspects of the longwall shearer design. It is a complex electromechanical device with microprocessor-based control. There has been outlined a design evolution leading to increasing number of electrical motors, power electronic supply of haulage system and microprocessor-based control and monitoring systems. There have been distinguished two basic streams: energy flow and information flow. There has been noticed a discrete character of energy flow inside the power electronic system and a discrete character of the information flow in the networked microprocessor-control system.