Patent ID: 8551233

Claim:
A dust scrubber for suppressing dust generated by long wall mining shearer of the type which includes a shearer body with a shearer arm, the shearer arm having a front face proximal to a long wall mine surface to be cut and a shearer drum supported at the front face of the shearer arm so to rotate about an axis transverse to the long wall mine surface to be cut, the dust scrubber including a housing having an inlet, an outlet and a passage between the inlet and the outlet, an extraction fan for drawing an air stream containing dust particles into the scrubber and through the housing passage, and particle extraction apparatus for removing particles from the air stream, the dust scrubber having a scrubber mounting adapted to mount the dust scrubber behind a rear face of the shearer arm so as to remove airborne particles generated by operation of the shearer drum, wherein the inlet faces in a generally horizontal direction away from the shearer body and the outlet is configured to direct an outlet stream in a direction having a component directed towards the mine surface.