AU640458B2 - Shaft conveyance system - Google Patents

Description

AUSTRALIA

PATENTS ACT 1952 64045 Form COMPLETE SPECIFICATION FOR OFFICE USE Short Tatle: Int. Cl: Application Number: Lodged: Complete Specification Lodged: Accepted: Lapsed: Published: Priority: Related Art: 6* 0 *0 S

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S S 00 *9 0 0 00 Name of Applicant: Address of Applicant: Actuall! to ir Address for Service: TO BE COMPLETED BY API 'AtP -TRD 8.tc 48-Rtie-Gt-Pierre- I -Fribetrg+7e~0- Co, S-Wff-ERbkNE)- Bruce Alexander Sobey 1 Van Courtland Park Devonshire Hill Road Rondebosch, Cape, SOUTH AFRICA Malcolm Ernest Greenway 61 Churchill Road Wendywood Transvaal SOUTH AFRICA Griffith Hack Co.

Patent Trade Marks Atto 256 Adelaide Terrace PERTH W.A. 6000

PUCANT

Iq 0A'? t, Vo.o !2 0a p0 06 3 40 z 8601 Complete Specification for the invention entitled: SHAFT CONVEYANCE SYSTEM The following is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me:- -2- "SHAFT CONVEYANCE SYSTEM" THIS invention relates to a shaft conveyance system.

C-arr'1 c In a traditional mine shaft, mine conveyance such as personnel cages and rock and material skips move vertcally up and down the shaft on ropes. The shaft is effectively divided into pairs of compartments, one for accommodating a rising conveyance, and the other for accommodating a descending conveyance. The rope winding equipment is operated in such a way that as one conveyance rises, the other descends, the one conveyance thereby assisting the ascent or descent of its S counterpart. The resultant counterbalancing of the loads reduces the nett power which needs to be delivered by the rope winding equipment.

sees e" The traditional mine shaft has vertical steelwork incorporating guide rails for the conveyances, and horizontal steelwork which spans across the shaft. The horizontal g steelwork includes buntons which span diametrically across the shaft, effectively dividing it into separate sections in which the respective rising and descending conveyances move.

egos*: One of the problems associated with traditional mine shafts of the kind described is the fact that the efficiency and speed with which men, materials and rock can be transported into and out of the mine is dependent on the capacities of the conveyances. For instance, large machines may have to be taken underground in pieces and assembled in the mine, because the conveyances are not large enough S to accommodate the assembled machine. Naturally, the disassembly of a machine at the surface and its subsequent assembly underground is highly k.bour intensive and inconvenient.

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3 A first aspect of the invention provides a shaft conveyance system comprising a vertical shaft, shaft conveyance carriages and means for moving the conveyance carriages up and down the shaft, pairs or groups of the conveyance carriages being connectable together in side-by-side relationship so as to move up or down the shaft together. The shaft is typically, but not necessarily, a mine shaft.

The shaft may include supportwork defining a conveyance space in which the sideby-side, connected conveyance carriages can move up or down the shaft together.

Varioas drive means for the conveyances are envisaged. For instance, such drive means could comprise a linear motor system, a rack and pinion system or a rope drive system.

A second aspect of the invention provides a method of moving an article up or down a vertical shaft equipped with shaft conveyance carriages and means for moving the conveyance carriages up and down the shaft, the method comprising the steps of connecting together, in side-by-side relationship, two or more of the conveyance 15 carriages, placing the conveyance carriages in communication with one another so as to form a combined load space greater than the load space of a single one of the conveyance carriages, loading the article into the combined load space, and moving the connected conveyance carriages up or down the shaft.

o A third aspect of the invention provides a mine shaft comprising a vertical shaft and 20 supportwork in the shaft defining a vertically extending conveyance space having lateral dimensions large enough to accommodate at least two side-by-side mine conveyance carriages moving up or down the shaft along spaced apart vertical paths, the supportwork being arranged in the shaft in such a manner that no part of the supportwork spans across the conveyance space, thereby allowing at least two conveyance carriages to be connected side-by-side to one another for movement up or down N^ F* fs 3 I t -4the shaft together.

The invention will now be described in more detail, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawing which diagrammatically shows a typical horizontal cross-section through a mine shaft of the invention.

In the drawing the numeral 10 indicates a circular section mine shaft excavated in the surrounding rock 12 by conventional shaft sinking techniques. Inside the shaft is steel supportwork consisting of members 14 and members 16 connected to one another and to the wall of the shaft. The members 16 define between them a conveyance space 18 which, in the present case, is large enough to accommodate two mine coRveyance, typically rock or material skips or personnel cages 20, in side-by-side relationship.

S° It will be noted that there is no part of the shaft supportwork which actually spans across the conveyance space 18 between the members 16.

In the illustrated embodiment, the conveyances 20 are driven electromagnetically by linear motor configurations indicated generally with the numeral 22. A suitable linear motor drive arrangement is described in PCT/GB90/00335 to which reference may be made for the details. Thus the conveyances are effectively individually powered and the movement of one is not affected in any way by the Sother. This is in contrast to traditional mine shaft conveyance systems in which conveyances are suspended on steel ropes and moved up and down the shaft as i'equired by winder apparatus located at the surface, and in which the forces imposed by the conveyances are balanced by causing one conveyance to move up the shaft while another conveyance is moving down the shaft. In the present case, there may be many conveyances at different elevations on each side of the conveyance space 18, the conveyances being at different elevations in the shaft .4^ A further distinction offered by the illustrated configuration results from the fact that the conveyances are not only driven vertically up and down the shaft by the linear motor configurations 22, but are also guided, both by the electromagnetic forces themselves and by associated, vertically extending rail and guide arrangements, indicated generally at 24.

In alternative embodiments of the invention, the conveyances 20 may be driven by rack and pinion arrangements, or by rope winding equipment. In the latter case, counterweights 27 may be provided for each conveyance 20. Naturally in this particular embodiment, the necessary buntons can not span diametrically across the shaft 10, i.e. across the conveyance space 18, but are constituted by one or more of the members 16.

The conveyances are not guided at their side walls 25 and 26 by bunton-mounted guides as would be the case in a traditional winder-operated conveyance system.

It is this fact which permits the shaft 10 to have no component of supportwork spanning across the conveyance space 18.

With the illustrated configuration it is possible for the mine conveyances 20 on either side of the space 18 to be connected side-by-side to one another so as to be .moved up or down the shaft together. Connectors for this purpose are indicated schematically at, 28. It is preferably possible for the sidewalls 25 of the conveyances 20 to be removed. The sidewalls may be in the form of doors which are able to open fully, such as roller doors. The doors are opened, or rolled back so that the side-by-side conveyances define a load volume which is effectively twice that afforded by a single conveyance 20. This in turn means that it would be possible to transport, into and out of the mine served by the shaft 10, large objects and items of machinery such as that indicated by diagrammatically by the numeral 30.

of machinery such as that indicated by diagrammatically by the numeral

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-6- It is an essential aspect of the invention that no supportwork occupies the conveyance space 18, so that there is no hindrance to the side-by-side connection of the conveyances 20 to one another.

Depending on the design of the shaft 10 and the arrangement of the supportwork, it may even be possible for the space 18 to be large enough to accommodate three or even more conveyances side-by-side. This would be advantageous for transporting extra-large objects and items of machinery into and out of the mine served by the shaft.

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Claims (9)

1. A shaft conveyance system comprising a vertical shaft, shaft conveyance carriages and means for moving the conveyance carriages up and down the shaft, pairs or groups of the conveyance carriages being connectable together in side-by-side relationship so as to move up or down the shaft together.

2. A shaft conveyance system according to claim 1 wherein the shaft is a mine shaft.

3. A shaft conveyance system according to either one of the preceding claims wherein the shaft includes supportwork defining a conveyance space in which the side-by-side, connected conveyance carriages can move up or down the shaft together.

4. A shaft conveyance system according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the means for moving a conveyance cayriage up and down the shaft comprises a linear motor. .i 15 5. A shaft conveyance system according to any one of claims 1 to 3 wherein the means for moving a conveyance carriage up and down the shaft ?nzmprises a rack and pinion drive.

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6. A shaft conveyance system according to any one of claims 1 to 3 S wherein the means for moving a conveyance carriage up and down the shaft 20 comprises a rope drive having a rope on which the conveyance carriage is suspended and a rope winding drive. o

7. A method of moving an article up or down a vertical shaft equipped with shaft conveyance carriages and means for moving the conveyance carriages up and down the shaft, the method comprising the steps of connecting together, in side- S by-side relationship, two or more of the conveyance carriages, placing the f"

8- conveyance carriages in communication with one another so as to form a combined load space greater than the load space of a single one of the conveyance carriages, loading the article into the combined load space, and moving the connected conveyance carriages up or down the shaft. 8. A mine shaft comprising a vertical shaft and supportwork in the shaft defining a vertically extending conveyance space having lateral dimensions large enough to accommodate at least two side-by-side mine conveyance carriages moving up or down the shaft along spaced apart vertical paths, the supportwork being arranged in the shaft in such a manner that no part of the suportwork spans across the conveyance space, thereby allowing at least two conveyance carriages to be connected side-by-side to one another for movement up or down the shaft together.

9. A mine shaft conveyance system substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings. A mine shaft substantially as herein described with reference to the Sp 15 accompanying drawings. Dated this 15th day of June 1993. EDA COMPANY LIMITED By Their Patent Attorneys GRIFFITH HACK CO. 20 Fellows Institute of Patent Attorneys of Australia. fo 0 o•