US1524371A - Method and apparatus for excavating shale and the like - Google Patents

Description

H. R. STRAIGHT METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR EXCAVATING SHALE AND THE LIKE Filed Feb. 13. 1923 3 Sheets-Shet l IIIIIBI Jan, 27, 1925 I H. R. STRAIGHT METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR EXCAVATING SHALE AND THE LIKE Filed Feb. 13- 9 1i? 3 Sheets-Sheet 2- Jan, 27, H. R. STRAIGHT METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR EXCAVATING SHALE AND THE LIKE Filed Feb. 13. 3 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 Federated Jan 27, 1925.

UNITED STATES HALVER R. STRAIGHT, F ABEL, IOWA.

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR EXCAVATING SHALE AND THE LIKE.

Application filed February 13, 1923. Serial No. 618,779.

1 '0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HALvnn R. STRAIGHT, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Adel, in the county of Dallas, State of Iowa, have invented a certain new and that form of excavators which are commonly known in the clay industry as planer-s, which are designed to work in open clay banks of a considerable depth, say from fifty to one hundred feet, and provided with an endless conveyor arranged to have one of its runs move in substantially a vertical plane, the said conveyor being provided with an alternate series of buckets and cutters, such as is illustrated in my patent issued April 15, 1919, Number 1,301,017, the present invention being an improved method of operating the said machine together with the necessary apparatus for carrying out. the method. I find in operating machincs of this character in banks of con siderable height, as above mentioned, when the machine has entered into the bank a considcrable distance, that the upper edges of the bank has a tendency to crumble off and slide down into the cut made by the machine. The height of the bank is often greater than the width of the cut, and after the machine has passed into the bank for a considerable time, say six months or a year, the floor of the cut becomes covered with the loosened shale from above,.and in actual practice 1 have been compelled to place the track, on which the carrier cars are mounted for moving the shale from the pit, on a trestle work so the truck will be above this loose deposit of shale so it is not necessary tobe continually cleaning the tracks, The expense of building a trestle work and maintaining the same amounts to considerable, and furthermore it is impos sible to get the excavator outofthe out without having to remove a large. part of the loose deposited material. It is with the view of overcoming these difliculties that I have perfected the present invention.

My invention consists in the construction,

arrangement and combination of the various parts of the device, whereby the objects contemplated are attained, and the method of operating the same, as hereinafter more fully set forth, pointed out in my claims, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which;

Figure 1 illustrates a side elevation of one form of the apparatus which is designed to carry out my invention.

Figure 2 is a top view of the same showing the shape of the bank produced by my improved method. while the machine is bein operated.

*igure 3 is a diagrannnatical view showing in plane a out formed by improved method.

Figure 4 is a diagrammatical view showing in solid lines a newly formed out or pit produced by the old method and also the track and scaffold work for supporting the same. The dotted lines show substantially the position which the bank will take after a considerable period of time.

Figure 5 is a diagrammatical, sectional view of a portion of a cut produced by my improved method with the same excavator that produced the cut illustrated in Figure 4; and

Figure 6 is a detail, sectional view taken on the line 66 of Figure 1.

The numeral 10 indicates the main frame of the excavator which is described in my patent above referred to, the said frame being mounted on radial rollers 11. The rollers 11 aredesigned to operate on a circular track 12 which is formed of a single rail having ties 13.

The frame 10 is a provided with an, excavating member 14: which is designed to operate substantially in a vertical plane. The frame 10 is also provided with a base member 15 which extends horizontally from the back side of the frame and has its in nor end supported on a pivoted truck 16.,

10. The upper side of the balancing Weight the belt 47.

19 is provided with a vertical post 20 which is secured against lateral movement by a brace '21 fastened to the frame 10. The post 20 is substantially over the pivot truck 16. The upper end of the post'20 is provided with a frame 22 which is slightly inclined from the, horizontal. The said frame is designed to receive on its upper face a hopper 23 which is for the purpose of receiving the excavated material from the delivery chute 24: of. the excavator.

Shdably mounted in the frame 22 l ha-ve'provided one end of an inclined conveyor member 25. The opposite end of the conveyor 25 is provided with a bracket 26 which is pivotally supported byjmeansof a cable 27 carried by a pulley 28. The pulley 28 is secured to'a bea n29 supported by a" vertically arranged frame 30. The frame 30 is supported ona track31 haying h s 2 epre i'v ly mount d o v at ack fT able 21 asf lower end sup ported' on a winding drum 34designed to be actuated by a. crank 3 5, theo ,d rumbeing heldagain'st backwardjrotation by a pawl 36 a v a The frame 30 is provided with a hopper 37 which is designed to receive material discharged from the conveyor 25,, Beneath the hopper-" 37 is a track 38 onwhich the conveyor cars 39 are operatively mounted. The track 38 may beelevated any desired height above the track or in some cases, the track 38 may be mounted on the floor level between thetrack members 33.

The upper end of, the conveyor frame 25 is pro'vide d with an electric motor 40 which is designed to operate a worm 41 in mesh with a worm gear 42 This rotates the shaft 43 and operates the belt carrying rollers 44. The opposite end of the conveyor frame 25 is provided with a roller 15 and intermediate rollers 46; the said rollers being designed to carry a belt 47 designed to extend beneath the lower'end of, the hopper 23, as clearly illustrated in Figure 6, so that material discharged into the hopper 23 may be elevatedhnd discharged over the upper end of the saidbelt into'the hopper37'. 3

By this arrangement itv will be seenthat material may be discharged from the chute 24: of the excavator into the hopper 23 and then be carried to the hopper 317 a e m t r l "mythen be deliveredto the car 39' i mill room. a

The practical. operation of my improved apparatus is as followed In. my issued patent,- abo ve referred to, the truck 16' is mounted on a straight track, which i s l ocja ted on the fioor of the cut made'by the'excavator and in line with; the

cut made thereby,- while my present ar-- ma s-se t Canasta a e evates the r k:

beneath the truck 31.

c onveyed to the 31 on a track 33 taking the position of the track previously used for the truck 16. The truck 16 is mounted on a track which is laid in a circular form and has its center The radius of the track is slightly less than the length of the conveyor 25 so that the truck 16 may travel about the truck 31 as a center. The excavator frame 10 is carried about the truck 16 as a center in the manner as previously emplo ed.

Figure 2 lllustratcs the manner in which these tracks are laid in actual o eration. Referring to the said figure, it wil be seen that while the machine is in actual operation, the excavator may be swung about the truck 1621s a center to form a circular embanlnnent 48, and tllfltl'llck 16 to swing about the truck 01 as a center to form the circular embankment 50. Thus in actual operation the excavator will swing in alternate directions between the pomt where the embankments 48 and 49lintersect, and the point 5 0; the radius of the path of. travel being changed by sliding. the frame 15 relative to the truck 16, as, described in my issued patent. This is continued until the frame has reached its outer limit of movement. The truck 16 is then drawn forwardly on the track 18 in the direction of the arrow a distance equalto the depth of the cut made.

This operation isrepeated until the conveyor=25 is operating at substantially right angles to the, track 33, at which time the excavator will be inline with the embankment 51, illustrated in Figure 3 The distance between the embankments 51 and 52 is equal to twice the. combined length of the conveyor 25 and the frame 15.

By this arrangement it will be seen that a comparatively large cut or pit may be formed, and the track 33 laid midway between the en'il -iankn'ients, the track being such distance from the embankments as any dirt or shale that would become loosened and fall to the bottom will never reach the said track, and thcrebv insure the said track from becoming broken.

Any time it is desired to remove the excavator from the pit, it may be easily and quickly accomplished without having to first remove the material, which has been fed in the pit by the action of the frost and rains In Figure 3 the dotted lines indieateabout the position the said material would take. The width of the path of loose n aterial thusforn ed, would be covered largely by-the depth and width of the cut, and also the position of the, material itself,

After the excavator has beenedvanced adesired aniountinto the bank, and it is desired to form a new cut, the track 33'cou1d be iders-rally unt l it ear-nes e an o loose material, and a narrow cut would be formed in the bank and the machine worked outwardly to the open end of the cut. The embankment of'the new cut would assume the position indicated by the dotted line 53. By this method, the loose material would all be gathered up and a new embankment 53 formed as the machine is moved outwardly. This has the advantage that the clay delivering cars may be kept in operation a sufficient amount so that the mill would not need to be closed down while the excavator is being set for a new cut.

By making the conveyor 25 slidably mounted in the frame 22, it will be seen that the radius of the track 16 may be varied slightly without effecting the operation of the device.

It will also be seen that by moving the truck 16 toward or from the truck 31, the

radius of the finished embankment of theend of the pit could be varied, or a portion of the embankment could be formed in one radius and another portion in another radius, so that the pit could be made to as sume other shapes than the one illustrated in the drawings. This is advantageous due to the fact that the vein of the better shale or clay is sometimes crooked and uneven. In fact, by proper manipulation of the apparatus, a cut of almost any desired shape may be formed. It is not thought necessary to describe the methodsof producing the various shapes of cuts, as any one familiar with the operation of the machine could readily understand how to accomplish the desired result.

A number of advantages are obtained by this method over the previous methods of excavating, one of which consists in forming the embankments in a circular shape. The cmbankments when viewed from above would have a circular form at all times. This greatly assists in supporting the outer surface of the embankment and'prevents, to a large extent the sliding and crumbling,

which would result if the embankment was formed of a straight or fiat face.

By this method, it will be seen that the embankment which is being worked on is of a comparatively small radius and at a time when it is most desired that the said cmbankn'ient should be supported.

In, actual operation, I find thatthe emliiankment will stand for a period of several weeks without any indication of sliding or crumbling away. The embankments of the main pit have to stand for a period of several years before a new cut is take-n, and the main embankments are usually substan tially flat or straight and do not have the curved feature for supporting them. The result is a large amount of loose material will fill the bottom of the pit, as before described.

Another advantage of my method consists in the fact that the embankment which is actually being operated on is of comparatively small area, and that the machine works over the surface several times during a single day. In freezing weather, the shale from the surface of the bank is cut away faster than it freezes, while if the machine operated over the surface only once in every few months, the embankments would be frozen three or four feet thick, and it would be almost impossible to cut it in the cold weather.

I claim as my invention:

1. An excavator frame, an excavating mechanism on one end of the frame having a discharge chute, a pivoted truck for the opposite end of the frame, a hopper substantially above and carried by the said pivoted truck designed to receivematerial from said discharge chute, a second hopper spaced from the first said hopper, a conveyor for receiving material from the first said hopper, and delivering it to the said second hopper, said conveyor being so mounted that the first hopper and the pivoted truck supporting the same may be swung about the second hopper as a center, the said conveyor being in operative relation with both of said hoppers when the first hopper is in any of'its swinging positions of movement, the said excavator being mounted to swing about said pivoted truck when the said truck is in any of its swinging posi tions of movement.

2. An excavator frame, an excavating mechansim on one end of the frame having a discharge chute, a pivoted truck for the opposite end of the frame, a hopper substantially above and carried by the said pivoted truck designed to receive material from said discharge chute, a second hopper spaced from the first said hopper, a conveyor for receiving material from the first said hopper and to deliver it to the said second hopper, said conveyor being so mounted that the first hopper and the pivoted truck supporting the same may be swung about the second hopper as a center, the said conveyor being in operative relation with both of said hoppers when the first hopper is in any of its swinging positions of movement, the said excavator being mounted to swing about said pivoted truck when the said truck is in any of itsv swinging positions of movement, and conveying means for delivering material from the second hopper.

3. An excavator frame, an excavating mechanism on one end of the frame having a discharge chute, a pivoted truck for the opposite end of the frame, a hopper substantially above and carried by the said pivoted truck designed to receive material fromsaid discharge chute, a second hopper spaced from the first said hopper, a co11- Hit) ' V ter, the said conveyor being in operative veyor for receiving" material from the first said hopper and delivering it tothe said SGCOntl hopper, said conveyor being' so mounted that the first hopper and the piv- -oted truck supporting the same may be swung about the second hopper as a cenrelation with both of said hoppers when the first hopper is in any of its swinging positions of movement, the said excavator being mounted to swing about said pivoted truck when the said truck is in any of its swinging positions of movement, conveymetrically with the first said track, a; truck forthe said second trackglocated'substan tia'll y above the center of said" circular track, a hopper carried? by the last said truck, a hopper carried by the first said truck, a conveyor arranged telescopically beneath the said second hopper to receivem'ateri'a l therefrom and deliver it to the first said hopper, said conveyorhaving itsdischarge end 'p'ivo'tally mounted above the first said hopper, an excavator frame having one end carried by said pivotedtruck,

a an excavator on the opposite end of said frame having a discharge chute for delivering material from the excavator to said second hopper, said excavator ha vingmeans for carrying it ina circularpa-th about the pivoted truck; as a center.

5; An excavating mechanism comprising a circular track, a pivoted truck for said circular track, a second'track arranged diametrically with the fi'rst said track, a truck for the said second track located substantiallyabove the center of said circular track, a hopper carried by the last said truck, a hopper carried by the first said truck, a conveyor arrangedtelescopically beneath the said second hopper to receive material therefrom and deliver itto the first said hopper, said conveyor having its discharge-end pivotally mounted above the first said hopper, means for elevating and lowering said discharge end, means; for driving said conveyor, an excavator framehaving one end? carried by' said" pivoted track, an excavator on the 'oppositeend of said frame having a discharge chute for dehvering material from the excavator to said second hopper, said excavator having means for carrying it in a circular path about the pivoted truck as a center.

6. An excavating mechanism comprising an excavator frame havin an excavator at one end, means for carrymg the excavator end' of said frame in a circular path with the opposite end of the frame above the pivot'ed center of said circular ath, means for carrying the pivoted end 0 said excavator frame in a circular path, means located at the pivoted center of the last said means for receiving'and delivering the ex cavated material, and means foiydeliverin material from the excavator to the last sai receiving means when the excavator mechanism isin any" of its circular positions of movement.

71 The method of excavating shale and the like consisting in operating an excavator in a circular path about a pivot center and in either direction, advancing the excavator radially at the end of either movement, repeating the above movements with a fixed pivot center until a predetermined number of radial advancements have beenmade, then moving the pivot center'of the excavator about a second pivot center to form a new cut, and continuously: delivering material from the excavator to a-point near the second pivot center as' the excavator is being operated.

8. A111 excavating mechanism comprising a circular track, a truck for said circular track, a second track arranged diametricallywith the first said track, a hopper locatedsubstantially above the center of said circular trackand above said second track, a hopper carried by said truck, a conveyor arrangedtelescopically beneath the said second hopper to receive material therefrom and deliver it to the first said hopper, said conveyor having a discharge end pivotally mounted above/the first said hopper, means for driving said conveyor, an excavator frame having one end carried by said truck, an excavator on the opposite end of said frame having a discharge chute for delivering material from the excavator to said secondhopper, said'excavator having means for carrying it in a circular path about said truck" asa; center.

HALVER R. STRAIGHT.

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