GB716344A - Improvements in a method and apparatus for the winning and loading of coal - Google Patents

Abstract

716,344. Coal planers. RITCHIE, C. March 7, 1952 [March 10, 1951; June 11, 1951], No. 5975/52. Class 68(1) A coal face is undercut by a device or devices H, the cutter edges of which peel coal either in a plane rising from the floor at an acute angle thereto or over a curved surface, arched preferably upwards, and the. dislodged coal is subsequently guided into a face conveyer as the device or devices are reciprocated by a suitable chain or cable haulage system. One double-ended embodiment that can operate over the whole transverse section of the undercut comprises a vertical back panel 16 sliding along guide means 11 on the conveyer and extending to twice the height of the conveyer, a bottom panel 13 sliding along the floor and of a width equal to two-thirds of that of the conveyer, and a curved or inclined front panel 15. On each end of said panel 15 are mounted cutters 14 so as to extend in curves from the lower outermost corners to the upper junction of the back panel 16 with the transverse vertical mid-section of the device, said section being wedge-shaped or approximately a quarter of an ellipse. Guide surfaces direct the detached coal into the face conveyer. In a modified form, those portions of the front panel supporting cutters lying above the height of the conveyer are extended so that the lowest cutter of the upper group is positioned at the same or a greater distance from the vertical transverse midsection of the device as the lowest cutter of the lower group. Separate guide surfaces are formed in the extensions of the front panel to deflect into the conveyer coal dislodged by the cutters on said extension. Provided at the ends of the devices are loaders on which are adjustably mounted faceengaging shoes so that the depth of the cut can be regulated. Means are provided on the device behind and extending above the upper cuts to apply pressure to the top of the undercut to assist the disintegration of the face. The single device cutting over the whole transverse section of the undercut may be replaced by two smaller devices reciprocating in different horizontal planes in such a manner that the combined transverse vertical sections of the two devices correspond to that of the single device.