US1026988A - Unloading device for mine-skips. - Google Patents

Description

c. L. LAWTON. UNLOADING DEVICE FOR MINE SKIPS.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 16I 1912.

1,026,988, 7 Patented May 21, 1912.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

Fig.1,

WITNESSES:

A ORIVEY COLUMBIA PLANOURAI'I! COWWASHINOTON. 0.1:,

II V

Patented May 21, 1912.

INVENTOR 'olwawdl ATTORNEY G. L. LAWTON. UNLOADING DEVICE FOR MINE SKIPS.

AIPLIOATION FILED MAR. 16, 1912.

COLUMBIA PLANOGRAI'II COUWASNXNGTON, B, c.

G. L. LAWTON. UNLOADING DEVICE ron MINE SKIPS.

APPLICATION FILED MAR.18,1912.

Patented May 21, 19.12.

INI/ENTOI? chm, ws\ s swi /ow.

WITNESSES:

A ORA/E) COLUMBIA I-LANOGHAPII $0.. WASHINGTON. u. u.

CHARLES L. LAWTON, OF HANCOCK, MICHIGAN.

UNLOADING DEVICE FOR MINE-SKIPS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 21, 1912.

Application filed March 16, 1912. Serial No. 684,191.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES L. LAwToN, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Hancock, in the county of I-Ioughton and State of Michigan, have invented a new and useful Unloading Device for Mine- Skips, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to means for unloading the hoisting buckets or skips of mines; and its object is to provide a construction whereby the skip will be tilted at a predetermined place in such a manner as to cause it to discharge its contents.

This invention consists, in combination with the inclined leaders or tracks upon which the wheels of the hoisting skips travel, of short, auxiliary, horizontal tracks connected to the main inclined tracks, an adjustable plate forming a portion of each of the incline tracks, and means for so operating said plates that the front wheels of the skip will move horizontally on the auxiliary track, while the rear wheels of the skip continue upward on the main track until the skip is at such an angle that its contents will be freely discharged.

In the accompanying drawings Figure 1 is a front elevation and Fig. 2 a side elevation of this improved construction. Fig. 3 is a section on the line 3-3 of Fig. 4. Fig. 4 is a front view and Fig. 5 a side view of a section of the leaders. Fig. 6 is a plan of the sliding plate forming a portion of the cont-rolling device.

Similar reference characters refer to like parts throughout the several views.

In the copper mines of northern Michigan and elsewhere, where ores are hoisted from great depths up inclined shafts, buckets of large size, called skips, often having a capacity of from eight to ten tons of ore, are employed. These skips, such as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, are provided with sides 1, bottoms 2, ends 3 and tops 4, the tops being shorter than the bottoms, and the sides being cut away at the front so that the skips will have large openings and may be easily loaded. Somewhat back of the middle of the sides 1, are attached the pins 5 for the lower ends of side-bars 6, which, together with the cross-bar 7, form the bail of the skip. To the cross-bar 7 a link 8 is attached, and to this link a hoisting cable is connected, which cable is wound on the hoisting drum. These skips are formed with rear wheels 9 and front wheels 10 which normally run on flat bars or tracks 11, secured to the leaders 12. These leaders extend from the dump-head to the bottom of the shaft, sometimes a distance of nearly a mile. It is very often desirable to discharge the skips at different levels for the purpose of dumping the ore into railway cars standing on different tracks and into bins. The present invention is designed to automatically dump the skips at whichever predetermined point desired.

Referring to Fig. 1, it will be noticed that the distance between the outer edges of the rear wheels 9 of the skip is greater than that of the front wheels 10, which is preferably accomplished by making the front wheels with narrower faces, and that there are gaps in the rails .11 of the right-hand tracks, through which gaps the wheels 10 of the skip have moved to the position shown in Fig. 2. Secured to the stringers 12 and cxtending horizontally therefrom, are the auxiliary beams 13, which carry the steel tracks 14, which are of substantially the width of the faces of the wheels 10. The outer ends of the beams 13 may be supported by metal bars 15, as shown in Fig. 2.

As stated before, the pivots 5 of the bail are nearer the rear end of the skip and will therefore be below the center of gravity of the skip as it is moving up the incline tracks.

WVhen the skip is traveling upward and the wheels 10 reach the break in the track 11, they will pass onto the tracks 14:, but the wider rear ,wheels 9 will continue up on the edges of the shiftable rail-plates 17 from one section of the track 11 to the section next above. As a result, the skip will assume the position shown in Fig. 2, and its contents will be discharged. The hoisting engine stops when the skip has reached this position.

The mechanism herein set forth may be adapted for skips of any desired dimensions so long as the outside measurement of the hind wheels is sufficiently greater than that of the front wheels. 1

The plates 17 of the left-hand tracks in Fig. 1 are shown moved inward, so that their inner edges are flush with the inner edges of the tracks 11, in which condition, the track being entire, the skip will pass up beyond these plates 17 in the usual manner.

The stringers 12 are formed with notches 19 through which the wheels 10 may pass. The mechanism for moving these plates 17 inward and outward, as desired, is as follows: Reinforcing the stringers 12 are the channels 20, as shown in Fig. 3, and in proper notches in the stringers 12 are bearing plates 21, and secured to the sides of the channels 20 are supporting angle bars 23, for the slidable plates 17. Short spacing blocks 2 1 hold the cover plates 25 proper distances from the bearing plates 21 and angle bars 23, the bolts 26 securing the parts together. The rail-plates 17 are slidable laterally on the bearing plates and angle bars 23, and are preferably provided with pins 27, which enter slots 28, in the actuating or cam-plates 29. These cam-plates are in pairs, one for each rail 11, and are longitudinally slidable between the cover plates 25 and the rail plates 17, and will move the rail-plates inward or outward as desired. The slots of the cam-plates of the track converge upward. Secured to a shaft 30, which is revolubly mounted in blocks 31 on the stringers, are levers 32, to the ends of which are attached the wireropes or other connectors 33 and 34. The former connect to the lower ends of the cam-plates 29, while the latter pass around the pulleys 35, mounted on thestringers, and then connect to the upper ends of these cam-plates. An operating or controlling lever 36 connects to this shaft and the workman may swing this lever 36 down and by means of the mechanism described, slide the cam-plates 29 of the right-hand track (Fig. 1) upward, causing the railplates 17 to move outward to the positions shown. Or he may swing a similar lever 38 on the shaft 39 in the opposite direction and cause the rail-plates 17 ofthe left-hand track to move inward. Thus the dumping of the skip at any predetermined point is controlled by a lever 36 38.

It will be readily understood that there may be any number of discharging stations along the lines of stringers; that the posi tion of the shafts 3039 may be varied as desired; and that this invention is not limited to the construction of the operating mechanism for the rail-plates 17 which is shown in the drawings.

I claim- 1. In an unloading device for wheeled hoisting skips, the combination with inclined.

rails having gaps, of rail-plates slidable laterally to open or close the gaps as desired, of auxiliary, horizontal rails connecting to the main rails at the lower ends of said gap,

and means to move the rail-plates inward to close said gap.

2. An unloading device for hoisting skips provided With front and rear Wheels, and the tread of whose rear wheels is wider than that of the front wheels, the combination of inclined stringers and rails thereon upon which the wheels of the skip normally run, said stringers and rails formed with gaps through which the front wheels may pass, rail-plates slidable laterally from an inward position closing said gaps to an outward position where the plates act as tracks for the rear wheels but open the gaps to permit the frontwheels to pass through, auxiliary rails connected to the main rails at the lower ends of said gaps to receive said front wheels, and means to shift said rail-plates.

3. In an unloading device for wheeled hoisting skips, the combination of inclined rails having gaps, of rail-plates slidable laterally to open or close said gaps as desired, auxiliary rails connecting to the main rails at the lower ends of the gaps, means to support said auxiliary rails, pins projecting upward from said rail-plates, a slidable camplate for each rail-plate and having diagonal cam-slots to receive the pins on the railplate, guiding means for the cam-plates and rail-plates, and means to move the camplates longitudinally in either direction atwill.

4. In an unloading device for wheeled hoisting skips, the combination of inclined rails having gaps, of laterally movable rail-plates to close and open the gaps, pins mounted on said rail-plates, cam-plates having diagonal slots to receive the pins, guides for the cam-plates and rail-plates; means to longitudinally slide the cam-plates comprising a shaft, levers thereon, and connectors between the levers and cam-plates; and auxil iary rails for the wheels of the skips which pass through the gaps, connecting to the R. T. MiiHLHiiUsER, W. M. BELL. v

Couies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. C.

Images