Cable Jointing The World's Largest Walking Mining Dragline By A 3rd Generation Splicer

By Chris Dodds on 18th March, 2016

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We have featured some Splicing Superstars of the global Cable Jointing industry on T&D's Cables & Lines Blog.

Think Nicklin. O'Malley (Father & Son). Barker. Fielder. Brezovsky. Wilson. Doug Page. 

Today, we are delighted to present a newcomer to our Blog, Mike Fadlevich.

Fadlevich is the oldest name in the cable repair business. 

Mike is a 3rd generation Splicer and Vulcanizer of mining cable. 

Joe Fadlevich was Mikes's grandfather, Steve was his father and today Mike is training his son to carry forward the family name into the 4th generation. 

Mike has recently been splicing high voltage cable originally made for the Big Muskie dragline.

Big Muskie was a coal mining Bucyrus-Erie dragline owned by the Central Ohio Coal Company weighing 12700 tonnes and standing nearly 22 stories tall.

 

Big Muskie - Vital Statistics

• Manufacturer: Bucyrus-Erie
• Model: 4250-W, "Big Muskie"
• Weight: 27,000,000 pounds (12,000 t; 14,000 short tons)
• Bucket Capacity: 220 cubic yards (170 m3), 325 short tons (295 t)
• Height: 222 feet 6 inches (67.82 m)
• Boom length: 310 feet (94 m)
• Machine length (boom down): 487 feet 6 inches (148.59 m)
• Bucket weight (empty): 230 short tons (210 t)
• Width: 151 feet 6 inches (46.18 m)
• Cable diameter: 5 inches (130 mm)
• Electrical power: 13,800 volts
• Mobility: Hydraulically driven walker feet  

Big Muskie was powered by electricity supplied at 13.8kV via a trailing cable, which had its own transporter/coiling units to move it. The electricity powered the main drives, eighteen 1,000 horsepower (750 kW) and ten 625 horsepower (466 kW) DC electric motors. Some systems in Big Muskie were electro-hydraulic, but the main drives were all electric. 

While working, Big Muskie used the equivalent of the power for 27,500 homes, costing tens of thousands of dollars an hour just in power costs and necessitating special agreements with local Ohio power companies to accommodate the extra load. The machine had a crew of 5, and worked around the clock, with special emphasis on night work since the per kilowatt-hour rate was much cheaper.

Pictured : 15kV 6 Core 350MCM Cable - the cable measures 5 inches across, the ground is wrapped around a filler in the centre of the mining cable. This mining cable was made for the Big Muskie dragline that was in Ohio. The high voltage cable has 3 pair color coded : 2-Red, 2-White and 2-Black.

• 1959 Coal Age Article About Joe Fadlevich

Video : World's Largest Dragline Excavator

• Big Muskie Mega Machines in the World

 

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Category:  HV Cable Jointing & Terminating

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