Product Description

Joy Manufacturing Company, historically headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was the dominant American manufacturer of underground coal-mining equipment through the twentieth century. Joy invented and commercialized the continuous miner — the room-and-pillar machine that cut and loaded coal in a single pass — and supplied battery- and trolley-powered shuttle cars, loading machines, roof bolters, and mine locomotives to virtually every major underground coal-mining region in the United States, including the Appalachian coalfields, Illinois Basin, and Western coal country.

Plaintiffs alleged in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation that Joy underground mining equipment relied on asbestos-composition brake pads and woven asbestos brake band linings across its continuous miners, shuttle cars, loading machines, and mine locomotives during the decades when asbestos was the standard heavy-duty industrial friction material. Underground mining machines cycled their brakes constantly on grades and in tight quarters, and plaintiffs allegedly encountered the linings during scheduled brake service performed underground and in above-ground shop overhauls.

Asbestos Content

Plaintiffs alleged that Joy Manufacturing underground mining equipment contained asbestos in the following roles:

  • Molded asbestos brake pads — on continuous miner tram drives, shuttle car wheel and drive brakes, and loading machine brakes.
  • Woven asbestos brake bands — used on band-type brakes on older Joy loaders, locomotives, and shuttle cars.
  • Asbestos friction segments — on multi-shoe disc brake designs used on later Joy equipment.
  • Brake dust residue — accumulated inside brake housings and on machine decks, dispersed by ventilation air in underground mining sections.
  • Replacement parts and service instructions — plaintiffs alleged that Joy service manuals specified asbestos-bearing brake friction parts for routine underground maintenance into the 1970s.

Workers Exposed

  • Underground mine mechanics — brake service on continuous miners, shuttle cars, and loading machines at the face and in section shops.
  • Continuous miner operators and shuttle car operators — daily proximity to brake dust generated by their own machines.
  • Shop repairmen — heavy overhaul of Joy equipment in above-ground mine shops.
  • Millwrights — rebuild and installation of Joy machinery.
  • Mine electricians — servicing brake controls and solenoids on trolley- and battery-powered Joy equipment.

Take-home exposure was alleged where mine mechanics and operators carried asbestos fibers home on work clothing.