GB2114191A - Improvements in or relating to mining equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

A floor-mounted self-propelled vehicle for use in mine-workings is proposed which includes separately operable breaking and excavating means (13, 16) provided at a common end of a tracked chassis (1), the individual said means (13, 16) each being movable from the path of operation of the other such means (16, 13) to allow a full range of movement thereof. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Improvements in or relating to mining equipment The invention concerns improvements in or relating to mining equipment, and has more particular reference to a dinting machine.

During mining operations for winning coal, and other minerals, in underground workings, it is usual to provide access tunnels or roadways from the mine shaft to such workings.

The tunnels or roadways which radiate from the shaft to the workings may be supported in the vicinity of such workings by steel arches of R.S.J.

section. Because the removal of mineral by the mining operation creates an unsettled strata, which takes a considerable period to consolidate and stabilise, it is not unusual for material from the floor of the roadway to be raised under the influence of the strata surrounding the roadway itself. This phenomenon usually occurs where the floor is of shale composition, which shale may, under certain circumstances, contain ironstone modules. The floor lift may approach 2 metres in a 5 metre high roadway and results in restricted access to the workings and to the flow of ventilating air.

In cases where the floor is of shale and does not contain ironstone modules, a normal dinting machine, that is to say a track-mounted machine having an elevatable bucket at its forward end which is driven into the shale and which transfers such shale to a roadway conveyor and subsequently out of the workings, may be used.

Where the floor contains ironstone modules, or similar hard materials, the workings must necessarily be evacuated whilst explosives are used to break down the modules to a size which may be handled by the standard dinting machine.

Such procedure is time consuming and, furthermore, interferes with production from the mine faces associated with the roadways.

A further problem resulting from this lifting of the floor is that of the roadway conveyor assuming an elevated position relative to the new or "remade" floor level, thus making difficult the loading of material from the floor level being created to a conveyor resting on the old floor level, the difference in height being as much as three metres in some instances. In operating under such conditions, the machine excavates the material and then reverses away from the old roadway level to a part of the conveyor which exists at the new roadway level, the material being discharged from the machine to the conveyor at such position.This procedure is particularly time consuming in that the dinting machine may traverse the roadway for some 20 to 30 metres from a loading position to the unloading position, dependent upon the degree of floor lift and the amount of material removed from the floor, i.e. the greater the floor lift the greater the distance to be traversed.

It is therefore the object of the present invention to eliminate or minimise these problems by the provision of a suitable machine having means which will lead to safer and more effective methods of achieving this mining operation, and which will be of such dimensions as to be workable in confined spaces.

The invention therefore comprises a floormounted self-propelled vehicle for use in mineworkings, the said vehicle having breaking means and excavating means provided at a common end thereof each independently mounted on respective manoeuvrable arms in such manner as to permit both means to work at floor level and an elevated position, one of such means being displaceable from the path of movement of the other to allow access by such other to accomplish such work.

Because of the layout of the equipment in the mine roadway, which has a conveyor belt system on one side, equipment constructed in accordance with the invention must be capable of working in the area alongside the conveyor and should also be capable of breaking and excavating material from under such conveyor and of loading such material onto the 'outbye' run of the conveyor. For these reasons both the breaker and excavating means are supported on telescopic arms capable of being elevated to the height at which the conveyor is supported on the material still to be excavated. The conveyor may then be temporarily supported over a distance of some 20 metres along its length after which it will then rest on the newly exposed roadway floor.I Staking means on the chassis of the vehicle ensure stability whilst the telescopic means are fully extended and during the breaking sequence to reduce shock loadings on the vehicle and on its propulsion means.

The invention will now be described further, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings showing one embodiment thereof and in which: Figure 1 shows a side view of a dinting machine constructed in accordance with the invention; and Figure 2 shows a plan view of the machine with the breaker displaced to one side.

Referring now to the drawings, a dinting machine comprises a chassis 1 mounted on twin caterpillar tracks 2, a deck plate 3 attached to the chassis 1, and two hydraulic jacks 4 at the forward end of the deck plate, such jacks defining staking means to stabilise the machine during operation thereof. Also mounted on the deckplate 3 is a tank assembly 5 which, in turn, serves to counterbalance the forward boom assemblies hereafter to be described. A turntable 6 carries upstanding bearings 7, which pivotally support a telescopic boom 8, there being an extension means 9 and a hydraulic tilting jack 10 operatively connected therewith. Slewing jacks 11 and 12 are provided for the turntable 6.An impactor unit 13, generally as described in British Patent No. 1356022 or similar thereto, is connected to the forward end of a boom 8 via a manipulator head 14 having a luffing jack 15. The impactor unit 13 may, through a combination of hydraulic jacks, be tilted and/or rotated as required.

For the purpose of excavating the material, there is provided a universally operational bucket assembly 16, generally as described in our copending United Kingdom Patent Application No.8107250, mounted on a further telescopic boom 17, such boom 17 having its own luffing ram 18 and slewing ram means (not shown).

The whole unit is powered by an electric motor 19 which drives an hydraulic pump 20, and the operator is provided with a seat 21 having hand controls 22, 23 at each side, and foot pedals 24.

Lights are provided at 25 and a socket for a trailing electrical cable at 26.

In use, the boom 17 will be retracted and slewed to one side and, whilst the unit is staked with the jacks 14, the impact breaker 13 will be manoeuvred to break material within the sweep and extension of the boom 8 to break the material ready for collection by the bucket assembly 16.

The bucket assembly 16 will be manipulated to collect broken material and, at the same time, to create a new floor. The ram 1 8 can elevate the bucket assembly to 800 from the horizontal, the bucket assembly being capable of turning and/or tilting to discharge material onto the conveyor at the then elevated position thereof.

Claims (7)

Claims

1. A floor-mounted, self-propelled vehicle for use in mine-workings, the said vehicle having breaking means and excavating means provided at a common end thereof, each independently mounted on respective manoeuvrable arms in such manner as to permit both means to work at floor level and an elevated position, one of such means being displaceable from the path of movement of the other to allow access by such other to accomplish such work.

2. A vehicle as claimed in Claim 1, wherein both the breaker and the excavating means are provided on respective telescopic arms.

3. A vehicle as claimed in Claim 1 or 2, wherein the excavating means includes a bucket assembly mounted for rotational motion about the axis of the arm on which such assembly is supported.

4. A vehicle as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, further including tank means on the chassis at that end thereof remote from the breaking and excavating means.

5. A vehicle as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, further including ground engageable staking means at the forward end of the chassis for stabilisation of the vehicle during operation of the breaking and excavating means.

6. A vehicle as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein the vehicle propulsion means includes drive tracks at the respective sides of the chassis.

7. A flow-mounted self-propelled vehicle substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in the various figures of the accompanying drawings.