The Eickhoff history started in 1864 when the company was founded by Johann Heinrich Carl Eickhoff. It began as a small foundry in Bochum,Germany built to meet the needs of the mining industry by supplying wheels for mining trolleys. In 1914, Eickhoff built the first bar cutting machine in Continental Europe. The first hydraulic cutting machine was launched in 1950, and the first longwall shearer loader was introduced in 1954.

To continue better serving the ever changing needs of the industry, the company underwent a major restructuring in 2000, which led to the current configuration of the Eickhoff Group. Eickhoff Group consists offive major business units- mining machinery, gear transmissions, castproducts, locomotives and coke oven machinery.

Today, Eickhoff Group has more than 1,000 employees throughout the world including 50 apprentices in six branches. While world headquarters has always remained in Bochum, Germany, the company is representedon five continents having offices and subsidiaries in the United States, South Africa, Australia, Great Britain, Poland, Belorussia, Russia and China.

As one of the oldest working in the world, the in-house foundry at Bochum allows us to maintain very close controls on the high metallurgical quality steels used in our products. As a result, Eickhoff produces gearing and shafting that is unequalled. Our manufacturing facility is ISO certified.

Today, the many uses of high quality Eickhoff gearing, well known in the mining and material handling industries, extend well beyond the coal industry where it all started. In addition to continued success in the coal industry, these products are also used in hard and soft rock mining, power plants, quarries, tunneling projects, and the wind turbine industry.

The increasing demand for high quality gearing has caused Eickhoff to expand and build a state-of-the-art gear grinding facility near Dresden located in Eastern Germany.

The mining machinery division is the largest division and generates half of the Group revenue. With a worldwide population of over 200 shearers, and countless gearcases of different types in various industries, Eickhoff has also expanded into the traditional room and pillar mining market with its own continuous miner South Africa.

Given the typical higher mining heights and generally more challenging conditions in the western U.S., our new SL 900 shearer model would be an excellent machine for these coal operations. The SL 900 shearer is an intermediate size machine between our SL 750 and our largest model, the SL 1000 shearer. It optimally combines many of the advantages of the two other machines for its mining range flexibility (6.8 -18 ft), power (3138 HP) and proven world-class gearing. this machine has already generated much interest in the the global marketplace. In fact, the first four SL 900 shearers are scheduled for delivery to the Shenhua Energy and Yushen coal companies in China in the 4th quarter of 2010.

Eickhoff currently sells over thirty-five shearer loaders annually. The SL 1000 machine is our largest machine weighing 150 tons. Installed power is 3,000 hp and the machine is suitable for coal seams up to 6.80 meters (21 ft.) high. This increasing requirement in China was met by Eickhoff through further upgrading of the local service infrastructure and establishing a new service center in Tianjin.

The new EiControl Plus automation system is currnetly in development and is being tested in an SL 750 shearer at a mine in Germany.

Aside from the development of high seam shearers, other focal points within Eickhoff R&D are improved shearer diagnostics and system automation.

A new shearer control system engineered in the USA focuses on the demands of the American longwall market for simplicity and improved serviceability. The new electronic control system greatly reduces wiring, connections and associated components within the shearer’s energy distribution box. Additionally, the improved machine diagnostics and simplified modular design make maintenance of the shearer easiest ever.

The major innovation activities involve shearer automation and the development of the innovative EiControl and EiControl SB software packages. At this time,the software can facilitate different cutting cycles, face end automation as well as cowl automation.The new EiControl Plus automation system is currnetly in development and is being tested in an SL 750 shearer at a mine in Germany. It is equipped core sensor elements for boundary layer detection, collision detection and video monitoring are currently being explored and evaluated in a field trial at a mine underground. This development project is in cooperation with the University of Aachen.

In 2010, Eickhoff won the prestigious Innovation Award for this advanced technology for longwall shearing machines.

At our U.S. facility located in Pittsburgh, PA, we pride ourselves on timely customer service and our ability to offer quality equipment rebuilds that are on time and done at reasonable cost.

After more than 145 years since its founding, Eickhoff continues a course of recognized leadership in engineering and manufacturing innovation and programmed expansion. To learn more about the Eickhoff Group and its subsidiaries, visit us at www.eickhoff-bochum.de