Patent ID: 7494190

Claim:
A longwall support in a mine comprising: a plurality of longwall support units, which are placed side by side over the length of the longwall between passages, a mining machine that is adapted for movement along the longwall face, as well as a conveyor that extends over the length of the longwall between the mining machine and the longwall support units; a plurality of stays consisting of cylinder-piston units, which are each supported between an abutment on one of the longwall support units and a step bearing on the conveyor and pivoted such that each of the stays exerts by its longitudinal force a force component against the working face (advance force) and a force component in the direction of the longwall (staying force) for absorbing the forces that act upon the conveyor in the direction of the longwall, in particular downward forces of a hanging roof; and a control system with data acquisition, data storage, and programming, which continuously permits adapting at least one of the distribution of the staying forces over the length of the longwall, the sum of the staying forces that are active over the length of the longwall (total staying force), or the distribution of the advance forces over the length of the longwall to a desired position of the conveyor.