AU1471602A

AU1471602A - A mine support

Info

Publication number: AU1471602A
Application number: AU14716/02A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Christopher Anning
Original assignee: Neumann Steel Pty Ltd
Current assignee: Neumann Steel Pty Ltd
Priority date: 2001-02-19
Filing date: 2002-01-30
Publication date: 2002-08-22

Description

1

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION FOR A STANDARD PATENT Name of Applicant Name of Inventors Invention Title: Neumann Steel Pty Ltd Christopher Anning A Mine Support Details of Associated Provisional Applications PR3206 filed 19 February 2001 The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it, known to us: This invention relates to a mine support. In particular, the invention relates to a mesh mine support for the roof of a mine.

A variety of mine supports have been proposed and traditionally those supports include a web of material held in position by plurality of struts.

Other proposals which exist consist of a plurality of cross members or sheets held in position adjacent the roof of a mine by vertical posts or struts. Mine roof supports of the abovementioned type are particularly complex and time consuming to position in situ in a mine.

"It is an object of the present invention to provide a mine roof 10 support which at least minimises the disadvantages referred to above.

According to one aspect, the invention provides a mine roof support consisting of mesh material made from wire arranged extending along and across the material and having a plurality of valleys formed at spaced locations across the material such that the valleys extend along the S" 15 length of the material and the material having at least one attachment zone between adjacent valleys.

Preferably there are two attachment zones.

It is preferred that the material be made in sheet form and although the sheet may be of any desirable size it is preferred that the sheet have a size of 5 metres in length by 1.2 metres in width. The wires used to make the sheet preferably have a diameter or size of approximately 4 millimetres although other sizes are not excluded.

The mesh formed by the wires which extend along and across the sheet is preferably configured so that the mesh openings are approximately 100 times 100 millimetres although other sizes are not excluded.

The material may have any number of valleys extending along its length. It is preferred that the material have four such valleys extending in the direction of its length. The valleys may be spaced equally from one another although this need not be the case. It is preferred that two attachment zones be provided between adjacent valleys so that fasteners may extend through these attachment zones to secure the material to the roof of a mine with the valleys extending outwardly from and away from the roof of the mine.

A particular preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to figure 1 of the drawings which shows a perspective view of a sheet of material made in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

The sheet 10 consists of longitudinally extending metal wires 11 between which are arranged transversely extending metal wires 12. The **wires 11 and 12 are secured to each other such as by welding.

A plurality of longitudinally extending valleys or ribs 13, 14, and 16 are formed in the sheet 10 and extend along the length of the sheet.

These valleys or ribs ensure that the resultant sheet is relatively rigid and self supporting.

In the sheet 10 shown in the drawing, attachment zone 17 is provided between two adjacent ribs or valleys 13 and 14 whilst attachment 18 is provided between adjacent ribs or valleys 15 and 16. On that side of the valley 13 opposite zone 17 an extension 19 is provided which is in the same plane as the zone 17. Likewise, an extension 20 is located on one side of the valley 16 and the extension 20 is in the same plane as the zone 18. In order to position the material like that shown in figure 1 against the roof of a mine, the material is lifted in position and held against the roof with the zones 17 and 18 and the extensions 19 and 20 against the mine roof with the valleys 13, 14, 15 and 16 directed away from the roof and the material may readily be supported and remains rigid because of the presence of the valleys and fasteners may be located to extend through the material in the region of the attachment zones to secure the material to the mine roof. During this process, the material is self supporting and does not sag.

Where the material is made from 4 millimetre wire and has the longitudinal and transverse wires arranged to provide 100 millimetre by 100 millimetre mesh openings, the resultant sheet has a weight of approximately 12 kilograms and can easily be supported during its attachment to the roof of a mine. Where the width of the mine roof is greater than 1.2 metres, adjacent transversely spaced sheets may be positioned against the roof of the mine with at least the extensions 19 and 20 of the adjacent sheets overlapping one another. Likewise, in order to have the sheets extend along the mine roof longitudinally spaced sheets may be placed along the mine roof with some overlap between adjacent sheets.

In this way, the mine support material may easily be secured to the roof of a mine and prevent material greater than the mesh size from falling through the mine support material.

The mine support material of the invention is easily installed and 1rsoti S• 10 does not require the use of mine struts to hold the material in position.

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Claims

1. A mine roof support consisting of mesh material made from wire arranged extending along and across the material and having a plurality of valleys formed at spaced locations across the material such that the valleys extend along the length of the material and the material having at least one attachment zone between adjacent valleys.

2. The mine roof support of claim 1 wherein there are two said attachment zones.

3. The mine roof support of claim 1 or claim 2 wherein the material .:lt1i S 10 consists of a sheet having a size of about 5m in length and 1.2m in width.

4. The mine roof support of claim 3 wherein the mesh is formed from wires extending across and along the sheet with a mesh opening the size of about 100mm by 100mm.

The mine roof support of any one of claims 2 to 4 having four said 15 valleys extending in a direction along the length of the material.

6. The mine roof support of claim 5 wherein the valleys are equally spaced from one another.

7. The mine roof support of claim 6 wherein the attachment zones are present between adjacent valleys.

8. A mine roof support substantially as herein described with reference to the drawing. DATED 30 January 2002 Neumann Steel Pty Ltd By their Patent Attorneys Cullen Co.