GB481959A - Improvements in or relating to chain mining machines - Google Patents

Abstract

481,959. Miming - machines. HOY & CO., Ltd., A., HOY, A. Y., PHILP, J. I., and BROOKS, C. June 18, 1936, Nos. 17414, 22548, and 31117. [Class 68 (i)] A gear head assembly for a chain mining-machine comprises a rotary disc or plate rotatable about its centre below the cutter-chain drive-sprocket, means for ensuring that cuttings received thereon shall be thrown off at one or more selected places around the periphery thereof, and means to receive said cuttings and remove them from the vicinity of the disc or plate. The disc 10 has a hub 13, and may be secured to the sprocket shaft 3 by a threaded ring 11 and pins 12, or be separately driven. It may have radial or curved grooves, or a raised edge. A resilient casing 58, Fig. 9, reversibly held by pins 60, 61, prevents discharge of the cuttings except adjacent a detachable rotary elevator 17 where an interchangeable yieldable deflector 67, similarly held, assists discharge. The frame of the rotary elevator 17 is built of a continuous channel member bent to form side frames 20, Fig. 5, strengthened by upright channels 22 and a base plate 18 with extensions overlapping and bolted to the bed plate 2 of the machine ; a plate 23 is secured to the frame for bolting to the rear plate of the gear head casing, and carries triangular frames 25 secured to a plate 26 in which the rotary elevator is journalled. The elevator comprises a conical rim 32 connected to a hub 33 by spokes 34 alternately carrying full radial blades 35 and partial blades 36 wholly or partly of rubber, spring steel &c. or with rubber strips 37 on their rear edges ; it is driven from the machine motor through bevel gears 7, 54, slipping clutch 53 in which the axially-movable member may be keyed by spring-pressed balls or rollers, spigot and socket coupling 47, bevel gears 46, 45, shaft 40, and sun and planet gearing 42. The elevator discharges over fixed plates 56, Fig. 4, and a shoot 56a, Fig. 1, on to a belt or chain conveyer 78 reversibly held by means of bosses 80 on a bracket 79, either boss being fitted over a boss 77 and fixed by a pin engaging registering grooves 82 ; the boss 77 is carried by a sleeve 76 rotatable in a tubular casing 52, and the conveyer is driven from shaft 40 through bevel gearing 72, 71, 73, 74, and a spigot and socket coupling 75. The conveyer frame is pivoted in the bracket 79 and vertically adjusted by means of doubled cable 96, Fig. 13 ; the conveyer belt or chain is tightened by cams 92, Fig. 12, which are then held by ratchets 92b and pawls 92a. A mesh guard 94 protects the convever from falls. The outer end of the conveyer may carry a bracket 97 pivotally supporting a discharge shoot 104 which may be vibrated and has a laterally swinging flap 99 and flaps 100, 101, pivoted on horizontal axes to permit pit props to be passed ; the flaps 99 .. 101 are replaced by reversely arranged flaps when the machine is reversed. The blades of the elevator may be omitted if the latter is run at high speed ; further the conveyer may be mounted on wheels or endless tracks and be formed of separable sections, and when cutting above floor level, the elevator may be omitted. The disc 10 may discharge on to a scraper conveyer or on to the lower stretch of a band conveyer and the cuttings deflected by oblique plates. The slipping clutch may be replaced by a ball clutch or shear pin, or a combination of safety devices may be employed. Specifications 277,857, [Class 78 (iv)], 420,813; 480,337, and 482,566, [both in Group XXX], are referred to.