CN111576516A - Submarine mineral sediment lifting mechanism and mining device - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to the technical field of ocean mining equipment, in particular to a submarine mineral sediment lifting mechanism and a mining device, wherein a second pipeline is arranged in a first pipeline, a blade wheel assembly is also arranged in the first pipeline and comprises a first-stage blade and a second-stage blade with opposite rotation directions, a driving mechanism conveys seawater to drive the blade wheel assembly to rotate through the first-stage blade, so that the second-stage blade can lift a mixture of submarine mineral sediment and seawater to lift the submarine mineral sediment, the driving mechanism can also drive a stirring assembly at the end part to rotate, the lifting and stirring of the submarine mineral sediment can be realized by only adopting one driving mechanism, the lifting of the submarine mineral sediment can be conveniently extracted, and the mixture of the submarine mineral sediment and the seawater flows in a region between the first pipeline and the second pipeline or in the second pipeline in the lifting process, avoid polluting the surrounding marine environment.

Description

Submarine mineral sediment lifting mechanism and mining device

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of ocean mining equipment, in particular to a submarine mineral sediment lifting mechanism and a mining device.

Background

At present, with the deep exploration of the ocean, people recognize that the ocean is a treasure house of resources and energy, and the development of the international submarine area is a hot spot. The existing scientific findings show that the international seabed region contains rich strategic metals, energy and other resources, and the seabed in a certain water depth contains a large amount of mineral silt rich in polymetallic nodules such as copper, nickel, cobalt, manganese and the like. At present, methods such as a trawl type mining ship method, a continuous cable bucket mining ship method, a submarine type remote control car mining method and the like are generally adopted for lifting the sediment of the submarine mineral. The equipment required by the method for lifting the submarine mineral silt is heavy and complex, and the mixture of the silt and the seawater overflows to cause serious pollution to the ocean in the process of lifting the silt to a mining ship.

Disclosure of Invention

The present invention is directed to solving at least one of the problems of the prior art. Therefore, the invention provides a submarine mineral sediment lifting mechanism which is simple in structure, can adapt to environments with different submarine depths, does not leak in the process of lifting mineral sediment, and avoids polluting the sea.

The invention also provides a mining device adopting the submarine mineral sediment lifting mechanism.

A seafloor mineral sediment lift mechanism according to an embodiment of the first aspect of the invention, comprising: a first conduit; the second pipeline is arranged in the first pipeline in a penetrating mode; the impeller assembly comprises a plurality of first-stage blades and second-stage blades, the rotation directions of the first-stage blades are opposite to that of the second-stage blades, the first-stage blades are located in the area between the first pipeline and the second pipeline, and the second-stage blades are located in the second pipeline; the driving mechanism is connected with the first pipeline or the second pipeline and can convey seawater into the first pipeline or the second pipeline to drive the impeller assembly to rotate; and the stirring assembly is arranged at the end part of the first pipeline or the second pipeline, is driven by the driving mechanism through seawater and is used for stirring the seabed mineral sediment.

The submarine mineral sediment lifting mechanism provided by the embodiment of the invention at least has the following beneficial effects: the second pipeline is arranged in the first pipeline, the impeller assembly is further arranged in the first pipeline and comprises two stages of blades with opposite rotation directions, the driving mechanism conveys seawater to drive the impeller assembly to rotate through the first stage of blades, so that the second stage of blades can lift the mixture of the sediment of the seabed mineral and the seawater to lift the sediment of the seabed mineral, the driving mechanism can also drive the stirring assembly at the end part to rotate, the sediment of the seabed mineral can be lifted and stirred by only adopting one driving mechanism to conveniently extract and lift the sediment of the seabed mineral, and the mixture of the sediment of the seabed mineral and the seawater flows in an area between the first pipeline and the second pipeline or the second pipeline in the lifting process, so that the pollution to the surrounding marine environment is avoided.

According to some embodiments of the invention, the first and/or second pipeline may be formed from multiple segments spliced together and may each extend from the sea level to the seafloor.

According to some embodiments of the invention, the impeller assembly is disposed between adjacent sections of the second conduit and is rotatable relative to the second conduit.

According to some embodiments of the invention, an impeller fixing cover is arranged between two adjacent sections of the second pipeline, and the impeller assembly is arranged in the impeller fixing cover and connected with the impeller fixing cover through a bearing.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, a portion of the impeller fixing cover located between the first duct and the second duct and a portion located in the second duct are respectively disposed to penetrate therethrough.

According to some embodiments of the invention, one of the impeller assemblies is disposed at an end of the second pipe near the seafloor and is connected to the agitator assembly.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the stirring assembly includes a main body fixedly connected to the first pipe or the second pipe, and stirring bits respectively provided on the main body, the stirring bits being connected to the impeller assembly and rotating with the impeller assembly.

A mining apparatus according to an embodiment of the second aspect of the invention, including a seafloor mineral sediment lifting mechanism as described in the embodiment of the first aspect, further comprising: the submarine mineral sediment lifting mechanism is arranged on the ship body; a sedimentation tank connected to the first pipeline or the second pipeline for storing a mixture of the lifted seawater and the seafloor mineral sediment; a filtering unit is arranged between the seawater pool and the sedimentation tank, and seawater in the mixture can be stored in the seawater pool through the filtering unit; and the input end of the driving mechanism is connected with the seawater pool, and the driving mechanism is used for conveying seawater into the first pipeline or the second pipeline.

According to some embodiments of the second aspect of the invention, a plurality of said seafloor mineral sediment lifts are provided on said hull.

According to some embodiments of the second aspect of the present invention, a delivery pipe is connected to an upper end of the first pipe or the second pipe, and a port of the delivery pipe is disposed above the settling tank.

Drawings

The above and/or additional aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent and readily appreciated from the following description of the embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which:

fig. 1 is a schematic structural view of a mining apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a cut-out portion of a seafloor mineral sediment lifting mechanism of an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of the subsea mineral sediment lift mechanism of an embodiment of the present invention after blanking the first pipe;

FIG. 4 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a seafloor mineral sediment lifting mechanism of an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged schematic view at A in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is an enlarged schematic view at B of FIG. 4;

FIG. 7 is a schematic structural view of an impeller assembly according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 8 is a schematic structural view of another embodiment of a mining apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Wherein: a hull 100; a sedimentation tank 300; a sea water pool 400; a delivery pipe 500; a first pipe 210; a second conduit 220; an impeller assembly 230; a drive mechanism 240; an agitation assembly 250; an impeller fixing cover 260; a main body 251; a stirring bit 252; a screen 253; a circular ring 231; a primary blade 232; the secondary blades 233; an upper fixing cover 261; a lower stationary cover 262; a bearing 263; and a seal 264.

Detailed Description

Reference will now be made in detail to embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like or similar reference numerals refer to the same or similar elements or elements having the same or similar function throughout. The embodiments described below with reference to the accompanying drawings are illustrative only for the purpose of explaining the present invention, and are not to be construed as limiting the present invention.

In the description of the present invention, it should be understood that the orientation or positional relationship referred to in the description of the orientation, such as the upper, lower, front, rear, left, right, etc., is based on the orientation or positional relationship shown in the drawings, and is only for convenience of description and simplification of description, and does not indicate or imply that the device or element referred to must have a specific orientation, be constructed and operated in a specific orientation, and thus, should not be construed as limiting the present invention.

In the description of the present invention, the meaning of a plurality of means is one or more, the meaning of a plurality of means is two or more, and larger, smaller, larger, etc. are understood as excluding the number, and larger, smaller, inner, etc. are understood as including the number. If the first and second are described for the purpose of distinguishing technical features, they are not to be understood as indicating or implying relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of technical features indicated or implicitly indicating the precedence of the technical features indicated.

In the description of the present invention, unless otherwise explicitly limited, terms such as arrangement, installation, connection and the like should be understood in a broad sense, and those skilled in the art can reasonably determine the specific meanings of the above terms in the present invention in combination with the specific contents of the technical solutions.

Referring to fig. 1 to 6, the seafloor mineral sediment lifting mechanism can be installed on a mining ship, and includes a first pipeline 210, a second pipeline 220 penetrates through the first pipeline 210, a plurality of impeller assemblies 230 are arranged in the first pipeline 210 at intervals, each impeller assembly 230 includes a first-stage blade 232 and a second-stage blade 233 with opposite rotation directions, wherein the first-stage blade 232 is located in a region between the first pipeline 210 and the second pipeline 220, the second-stage blade 233 is located in the second pipeline 220, the first pipeline 210 or the second pipeline 220 is connected with a driving mechanism 240, in this embodiment, the end of the first pipeline 210 located on the mining ship is connected with the driving mechanism 240, actually, the second pipeline 220 is connected with the driving mechanism 240, and the driving mechanism 240 drives the impeller assemblies 230 to rotate through the first-stage blade 232, so that the second-stage blades 233 can lift a mixture of sediment and seawater of seafloor mineral sediment, it should be noted that, in this embodiment, the impeller assembly 230 is designed as a whole, the first-stage blades 232 can drive the second-stage blades 233 to rotate simultaneously when rotating, and since the rotation directions of the first-stage blades 232 and the second-stage blades 233 are opposite, the seawater pumped by the driving mechanism 240 flows downwards from the first pipeline 210 to impact the first-stage blades 232 and drive the impeller assembly 230 to rotate, and the second-stage blades 233 generate suction in the second pipeline 220, so that the mixture of the sediment with minerals on the seabed and the seawater can be pumped from the second pipeline 220 to the mining ship; in this embodiment, the driving mechanism 240 may be a conventional marine water pump, which can pump seawater into the first pipe 210 and drive the impeller assembly 230 to rotate by the flow of the seawater in the first pipe 210, specifically, the seawater pumped by the driving mechanism 240 impacts the first stage blade 232 of the impeller assembly 230 between the first pipe 210 and the second pipe 220 to drive the whole impeller assembly 230 to rotate, and the rotation of the second stage blade 232 can pump and lift the mixture of the mineral-bearing sediment on the seabed and the seawater, where it is to be noted that the mixture of the mineral-bearing sediment on the seabed and the seawater is pumped from the first pipe 210 and drives each impeller assembly 230 in the first pipe 210 to rotate; the end of the first pipe 210 or the second pipe 220 close to the seabed is further provided with a stirring assembly 250, the stirring assembly 250 is used for stirring the seabed mineral sediment, so that the secondary blade 232 can extract the mixture of the seabed mineral sediment and the seawater, the bottom ends of the first pipe 210 and the second pipe 220 are connected to the stirring assembly 250, a communication port is arranged between the bottom ends of the first pipe 210 and the second pipe 220, the bottom end of the first pipe 210 is provided with a guide surface for guiding the communication port, because the second pipe 220 is an inner pipe arranged outside the first pipe 210, the seawater flushed from the first pipe 210 is converged into the second pipe 220 through the communication port under the action of the guide surface and mixed with the sediment to form a mixture, and the mixture is pumped to a mining ship under the action of the secondary blade 232, in particular, the stirring assembly 250 is also driven by the driving mechanism 240 through the seawater, in particular, the stirring assembly 250 is fixedly connected with the impeller assembly 230, and seawater pumped by the driving mechanism 240 impacts the impeller assembly to rotate, so that the stirring assembly 250 is driven to rotate.

As shown in fig. 7, the impeller assembly 230, which may be an integrally formed arrangement, includes two circular rings 231 concentrically arranged, a first-stage blade 232 is arranged in an area between the two circular rings 231, and a second-stage blade 233 is arranged in the inner circular ring 231, and the rotation directions of the first-stage blade 232 and the second-stage blade 233 are opposite, specifically, the first-stage blade 232 and the second-stage blade 233 are both provided with a plurality of blades and are uniformly distributed along the circumferential direction of the circle center, and in this embodiment, the first-stage blade 232 and the second-stage blade 233 are both provided with four blades uniformly distributed along the circumferential direction of the circle center.

In some embodiments, referring to fig. 1 and 2, the first pipe 210 and/or the second pipe 220 may be formed by splicing multiple segments and may extend from the sea level to the seabed, it should be noted that the specific number and spacing distance of the impeller assemblies 230 may be determined according to the seabed depth and the power of the driving mechanism 240, and the impeller assemblies 230 are disposed between two adjacent segments of the second pipe 220, so as to design the length of the first pipe 210 and the second pipe 220 and the number of the impeller assemblies 230 according to actual needs, and thus may be applied to the working requirements of different seabed depths, and the adaptability of the seabed mineral sediment lifting mechanism is wide.

In some embodiments, as shown in fig. 3 to 5, an impeller fixing cover 260 is disposed between two adjacent sections of the second pipeline 220, and the impeller assembly 230 is disposed in the impeller fixing cover 260 and connected to the impeller fixing cover 260 through a bearing 263, that is, the first pipeline 210 is fixed relative to the second pipeline 220, and the impeller assembly 230 also rotates relative to the first pipeline 210 and the second pipeline 220, so that the impeller assembly 230 can be driven by the driving mechanism 240 to rotate, and the impeller assembly 230 further extracts a mixture of the sediment of the mineral in the sea bottom and the seawater. In this embodiment, the driving mechanism 240 is a water pump that pumps the mixture into the collection device.

In some embodiments, referring to fig. 3 to 5, a portion of the impeller fixing cover 260 between the first pipeline 210 and the second pipeline 220 and a portion of the impeller fixing cover 260 inside the second pipeline 220 are respectively disposed to penetrate, that is, sea water pumped by the driving mechanism 240 and sediment pumped by the impeller assembly 230 can pass through the impeller fixing cover 260 to circulate in the first pipeline 210 and the second pipeline 220, the specific structure of the impeller fixing cover 260 includes an upper fixing cover 261 and a lower fixing cover 262, both the upper fixing cover 261 and the lower fixing cover 262 are cooperatively connected with the second pipeline 220, that is, an outer wall or an inner wall of a pipe portion of the upper fixing cover 261 and the lower fixing cover 262 for connecting the second pipeline 220 is tapered, an outer wall or an inner wall of an end portion of the second pipeline 220 connected with the upper fixing cover 261 or the lower fixing cover 262 is tapered, and portions of the upper fixing cover 261 and the lower fixing cover 262 between the first pipeline 210 and the second pipeline 220 are connected by a screw thread, therefore, the fixed connection of two adjacent sections of second pipelines 220 can be realized, meanwhile, a bearing 263 is arranged on the end face of the impeller assembly 230, which is in contact with the impeller fixing cover 260, the bearing 263 can be a diamond end face radial integrated bearing, the service life of the mechanism is prolonged, the impeller assembly 230 can work for a long time and is not easy to wear and corrode, a sealing ring 264 is further arranged on the connecting end face of the upper fixing cover 261 and the lower fixing cover 262 and/or the connecting end face of the two adjacent sections of first pipelines 210, the sealing ring 264 can ensure the sealing performance between the first pipelines 210 and the second pipelines 220, seawater is prevented from directly rushing out of the first pipelines 210 to the seabed, the seawater sealing performance is realized, and the operation stability of the mechanism and the efficiency of extracting mineral sediment in the seabed are ensured.

In some embodiments, referring to fig. 3 and 6, one of the impeller assemblies 230 is disposed at an end of the second pipe 220 near the seabed and is connected with an agitation assembly 250, the agitation assembly 250 includes a main body 251 and agitation bits 252 respectively disposed on the main body 251, the main body 251 may be connected with the impeller assembly 230 by a screw structure such that the agitation bits 252 rotate with the impeller assembly 230; in other embodiments, the body 251 is provided with a screen 253, and the screen 253 is used for preventing the oversized seabed sediment from flowing into the first pipeline 210 or the second pipeline 220 to damage the impeller assembly 230, so that the service life of the impeller assembly 230 is ensured.

Referring to fig. 1, a mining apparatus for offshore mining operation includes a hull 100, a sedimentation tank 300 and a sea water tank 400 respectively disposed on the hull 100, a lifting mechanism for mineral sediment on the sea floor of the first embodiment is disposed on the hull 100, the sedimentation tank 300 is connected with a first pipe 210 or a second pipe 220 for storing the lifted mixture of sea water and sediment on the sea floor, the connection mode can be direct connection or indirect connection, in this embodiment, the sedimentation tank 300 is indirectly connected with the first pipe 210 or the second pipe 220 through a conveying pipe, a filtering unit is disposed between the sea water tank 400 and the sedimentation tank 300, the filtering unit can be a conventional filter screen, the purpose of the filtering out the mixture of the sea floor sediment and sea water, the filtered sea water flows into the sea water tank 400 for use by a driving mechanism 240, and it is noted that a water pump can be disposed on the hull 100, in the embodiment, the sedimentation tank 300 is connected with the second pipeline 220 through a pipeline, the first pipeline 210 is connected with the driving mechanism 240, the driving mechanism 240 pumps seawater into the first pipeline 210 and pushes the impeller assembly 230 to rotate, the stirring assembly 250 can be driven to rotate, the impeller assembly 230 can rotate to pump a mixture of seabed sediment and seawater, and the mixture of the seabed sediment and the seawater is lifted into the sedimentation tank 300 through the second pipeline 220 by the rotation of the impeller assembly 230, so that the function of lifting the seabed mineral sediment is realized.

In some embodiments, referring to fig. 8, several seafloor mineral silt lifting mechanisms may be disposed on the hull 100, and the seafloor mineral silt lifting mechanisms may be symmetrically distributed on the hull 100, so as to ensure the stability of the hull 100.

In some embodiments, referring to fig. 1 and 8, a pipe 500 is connected to an upper end of the first pipe 210 or the second pipe 220, and a port of the pipe 500 is disposed above the settling tank 300, and particularly, a pipe for transporting the seafloor mineral sediment is connected to the pipe 500, so that the mixture of the seafloor sediment and the seawater can be transported into the settling tank 300 in a uplifting or spraying manner, and the seafloor mineral sediment is prevented from settling or adhering to the pipe.

The embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, but the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and various changes can be made within the knowledge of those skilled in the art without departing from the gist of the present invention.

Claims (10)

1. Submarine mineral sediment hoist mechanism, its characterized in that includes:

a first conduit (210);

the second pipeline (220) is arranged in the first pipeline (210) in a penetrating way;

the impeller assembly (230) comprises a plurality of first-stage blades (232) and second-stage blades (233) which are arranged at intervals, the first-stage blades (232) are positioned in the region between the first pipeline (210) and the second pipeline (220), and the second-stage blades (233) are positioned in the second pipeline (220);

a driving mechanism (240) connected to the first pipeline (210) or the second pipeline (220) and capable of delivering seawater into the first pipeline (210) or the second pipeline (220) to drive the impeller assembly (230) to rotate;

an agitation assembly (250) disposed at an end of said first pipe (210) or said second pipe (220), driven by said drive mechanism (240) through seawater, for agitating the seafloor mineral silt.

2. A seafloor mineral sediment lifting mechanism as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first pipe (210) and/or the second pipe (220) are formed from a plurality of sections which are spliced together and each of which extends from sea level to the seafloor.

3. A seafloor mineral sediment lifting mechanism as claimed in claim 2, wherein the impeller assembly (230) is disposed between adjacent sections of the second pipe (220) and the impeller assembly (230) is rotatable relative to the second pipe (220).

4. The seafloor mineral sediment lifting mechanism of claim 3, wherein an impeller fixing cover (260) is arranged between two adjacent sections of the second pipeline (220), and the impeller assembly (230) is arranged in the impeller fixing cover (260) and is connected with the impeller fixing cover (260) through a bearing (263).

5. The seafloor mineral sediment lifting mechanism of claim 4, wherein the part of the impeller fixing cover (260) between the first pipeline (210) and the second pipeline (220) and the part of the impeller fixing cover in the second pipeline (220) are respectively arranged in a penetrating way.

6. A seafloor mineral sediment lifting mechanism as claimed in claim 1, wherein one of the impeller assemblies (230) is provided at the end of the second pipe (220) near the seafloor and is connected to the agitation assembly (250).

7. The seafloor mineral sediment lifting mechanism of claim 1, wherein the stirring assembly (250) comprises a main body (251) and stirring bits (252) respectively arranged on the main body (251), the main body (251) is fixedly connected with the first pipeline (210) or the second pipeline (220), and the stirring bits (252) are connected with the impeller assembly (230) and rotate with the impeller assembly (230).

8. Mining apparatus, comprising a seafloor mineral sediment lift mechanism as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 7, further comprising:

the submarine mineral sediment lifting mechanism is arranged on the ship body (100);

a sedimentation tank (300) connected to the first pipe (210) or the second pipe (220) for storing a mixture of the lifted seawater and the seafloor mineral sediment;

a filtering unit is arranged between the seawater pool (400) and the sedimentation tank (300), and seawater in the mixture can be stored in the seawater pool (400) through the filtering unit;

and the input end of the driving mechanism (240) is connected with the seawater pool (400), and the driving mechanism (240) is used for conveying seawater into the first pipeline (210) or the second pipeline (220).

9. Mining apparatus according to claim 8, characterized in that several of the seafloor mineral silt lifting mechanisms are provided on the hull (100).

10. The mining apparatus as claimed in claim 8, characterized in that a duct (500) is connected to the upper end of the first duct (210) or the second duct (220), and the port of the duct (500) is arranged above the sedimentation basin (300).

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