Koepe, Friedrich

SUBJECT AREA: Mining and extraction technology

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b. 1 July 1835 Bergkamen, Westphalia, Germany

d. 12 September 1922 Bochum, Germany

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German mining engineer, inventor of the friction winder for shaft hoisting.

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After attending the School of Mines at Bochum, from 1862 he worked as an overseer in the coal-mining district of Ibbenbüren until he joined a mining company in the Ruhr area. There, as head of the machine shop, he was mainly concerned with sinking new shafts. In 1873 he became the Technical Director of the Hannover mine, near Bochum, which belonged to Krupp. When the shaft hoisting was to be extended to a lower level Koepe conceived the idea of applying a friction winder to the hoist instead of a drum, in order to save weight and costs. His method involved the use of an endless rope to which the cages were fixed without a safety catch. The rope passed over pulleys instead of coiling and uncoiling on a drum, and he consequently proposed to have the motor erected on top of the shaft rather than beside it, as had been the practice until then.

Koepe's innovation turned out to be highly effective for hoisting heavy loads from deep shafts and was still popular in many countries in the 1990s, although the Krupp company did not accept it for a long time. He had severe personal problems with the company, and as Krupp refused to have his system patented he had to take it out in his own name in 1877. However, Krupp did not pay for the extension of the patent, nor did they pass the dossiers over to him, so the patent expired two years later. It was not until 1888 that a hoisting engine equipped with a friction winder was erected for the first time in a head gear, above the new Hannover II shaft. The following year Koepe left the Krupp company and settled as a freelance consulting engineer in Bochum; he was successful in having his system introduced by other mining companies. Ironi-cally, in 1948 the world's first four-rope winding, based on his system, was installed at the Hannover mine.

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Further Reading

For detailed biographical information and an assessment of his technological achievements see: H.Arnold and W.Kroker, 1977, "100 Jahre Schachtförderung nach dem System Koepe", Der Anschnitt 29:235–42.

F.Lange, 1952, Die Vierseilförderung, Essen.

WK