US3441096A

US3441096A - Rotationally operating boring machines

Info

Publication number: US3441096A
Application number: US608026A
Authority: US
Inventors: Hermann Lautsch
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1966-01-08
Filing date: 1967-01-09
Publication date: 1969-04-29
Anticipated expiration: 1986-04-29
Also published as: DE1265088B; GB1168531A; AT286906B

Description

April 29, 1969 H. LAUTSCH ROTATIONALLY OPERATING BORING MACHINES Filed Jan. 9, 1967 lient-I' grr.-

INVENTOR f ummm. u-rscn ATTORNEY UnitedStates Patent O 9 Int. Cl. EZlb 3/I01/06; EZlc 23/00 2 U.S. Cl. 175-104 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A rotationally operating boring machine comprising an annular rotor body, an inner carrier body outside of said rotor body and concentric therewith, an electric motor having a rotor incorporated with said rotor body and a stator incorporated with said inner carrier body, an

outer carrier body outside of and concentric with said y inner carrier body, said inner and outer carrier bodies being adapted to carry cutting tools, a circular row of external gear teeth on said inner carrier body, a circular row of internal gear teeth on said outer carrier body adjacent to and spaced from said external teeth, pinions meshing with said rows of internal and external teeth, 4a planetary drive comprising a sun wheel rigid with said rotor body and planet gears meshing respectively with said sun wheel and said pinions, a mounting plate for said planet gears and pinions, connecting means secured at one end to said mounting plate and extending freely through said rotor body, land guide means connected to the other end of said connecting means for engaging in a preliminary bore hole.

This invention relates to rotationally operating boring machines.

In my co-pending patent application (Ser. No. 562,331 led July l, 1966) there are described firstly a method land secondly a rotationally operating boring machine for the advancement of horizontal to Vertical underground ltunnels, using two concentric carrier bodies for several cutting tools, which carrier bodies are driven in opposite directions of rotation by at least one motor with a stator and a rotor, in which boring machine is provided a rigid connection of the rotor with one of the carrier bodies, more particularly the concentric inner carrier body, and a planetary gearing the sun wheel of which is rigidly connected with the stator and the planet wheels of which mesh with one or more pinions which mesh with external and internal teeth provided on the respective carrier bodies.

Not only is such a machine constructively more simple than prior known mobile boring machines, but it also requires no special means in order to support heavy reaction torques of its drive; rather, it is suficent to provide means for transmitting to the walls of the underground tunnel a difference torque which is much smaller and only occurs when, or if, the opposite torques applied to the two carrier bodies do not completely compensate one another.

This type of mobile boring machine, in accordance with my said co-pending application, can, in principle, also be used for the advancement of vertical to horizontal underground tunnels, in particular of shafts. This machine then differs from the machines heretofore known for this purpose in that it has no stationary parts which, for example, have a drive for boring 'rods or winding apparatus for pulling means which create the bearing pressure of the machine. This machine is thus considerably more simple.

On the other hand, it is ldiilcult to guide such a machine because the travelling carriage provided, for this purpose, for advancement of horizontal or approximately horizon- "ice tal underground tunnels, is not suitable. It is an object of the present invention to relieve the travelling carriage of its guiding task and to provide, instead, guide means of a different kind so that the travelling carriage can be completely omitted or at least markedly simplified in its construction.

With this object in view, the first and second carrier bodies and the drive rotor and `stator are all made annular, and there is provided, extending axially therethrough, connection means to which is secured guide means for engagement in a preliminary bore hole provided, in known manner, to determine the course of the boring machine.

As such, the guide means is mobile because it is rigidly connected with the machine; on the other hand it still only acts on to a relatively short part of the preliminary bore hole immediately adjacent the machine itself, in order to translate the respective location of the faces of the preliminary bore hole into correction torques which as a result, cause the boring machine to advance the underground tunnel with its axis coincident with the axis of the preliminary bore hole. The required bearing pressure of the machine is created by its Weight or by additional weights which can be suspended from or placed on the boring machine.

According to the present invention, therefore there is provided a rotationally operating boring machine comprising rst and second carrier bodies, each adapted to carry a plurality of cutting tools, concentrically mounted for rotation about a common axis of rotation, a drive motor comprising a rotor and a lstator, the rotor being rigidly connected to the lirst carrier body for rotation therewith and the stator being mounted for rotation about the said common axis, at least one rotatably mounted pinion, external and internal gear teeth on the respective carrier bodies and in mesh with said pinion, a planetary drive comprising `a sun wheel rigidly connected with the stator for rotation therewith and at` least one planet wheel in mesh with the sun wheel and the said pinion, and mounting means having the said pinion and said planet Wheel rotatably mounted thereon for rotation about respective first and second axes fixed relative thereto, wherein the carrier bodies and the stator and rotor are all annular and there is provided, extending axially therethrough, connecting means rigidly connected at one of its ends with the said mounting means, there being also provided, connected rigidly to the connecting means at the other end thereof, guide means adapted to engage in a preliminary bore hole to be followed by said boring machine.

It is known to use preliminary bore holes in advancing horizontal `to vertical or inclined underground tunnels. However these preliminary bore holes are generally not used to guide a mobile boring machine but merely to guide a mobile part of an otherwise stationary machine either via rigid boring rods, the mobile part of the machine then being the boring tools, or via pulling means coming from a reel, the mobile part also including the drive of the boring tools.

The connecting means for the guide means, and the guide means itself, may basically take any desired form. In the most simple case, with the guide means running in the preliminary bore, the guide means is merely a sensor, of any desired design which transmits signals corresponding to deviations from the desired course, which signals are, in turn, transformed into control signals and control torques. However, the inventive idea can be realised in a particularly simple form if the guide means is also designed to transmit to the Walls of the preliminary bore hole, and thus to resist, any unbalanced rotary torque generated by the boring machine.

In the case of boring machines for travelling along vertical to inclined underground tunnels, that is in particular for shafts and closed shafts, it is then possible to completely omit any travelling carriage for transmitting such unbalanced torque, or, in mobile boring machines which are designed in accordance with the invention in my said co-pending application for advancing horizontal or substantially horizontal underground tunnels, the travelling carriage itself can be designed in a more simple manner. This makes possible a further embodiment of the invention, in accordance with the travelling carriage is supported on the faces of the preliminary bore hole and in which the said connecting means transmits unbalanced reaction torques to such travelling carriage.

Deviations of the machine from the general direction given by the preliminary bore hole make themselves evident as bending torques which act to correct the alignment of the machine in its pre-determined travelling direction.

One preferred embodiment of the present invention is described below with reference to the accompanying drawings, which are schematic inasmuch as all details not required in order to understand the invention have been left out, and in which:

FIGURE l is a general sketch in order to show an exemplary use of said preferred embodiment of a boring machine in accordance with the invention,

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged sectional view, corresponding to that shown in FIGURE 1, of the boring machine itself,

FIGURE 3 is a plan view of the boring machine as shown in FIGURE 2, and

FIGURE 4 is a sectional view of a preliminary bore hole, taken on the line A-B in FIGURE 2, showing guide and connecting means of the machine.

As shown in FIGURE l, a vertical closed shaft 1 which extends from an upper level 2 is -being advanced towards a lower level 3 along a course defined by preliminary bore hole 4, in such manner that the rubble which is released by a mobile boring machine, generally indicated at 5, falls through the preliminary bore hole 4 into the lower level 3 and into means 6 for transporting it away.

The boring machine itself is a mobile machine. As shown in FIGURES 2, 3 and 4, it has two concentric annular carrier bodies, namely an outer carrier body 7 and an inner carrier body 8. These carrier bodies are used for mounting the actual boring tools which can be designed in the known manner and are therefore not illustrated. For example, the usual roller boring tools may be used. The carrier bodies are driven by means of a drive motor which basically comprises a rotor 21 and a stator 20, to which electrical current is supplied in any suitable manner. The stator 20, is carried by a body stator 9 and rotates in the opposite direction of rotation to the rotor 21, and is rigidly connected to the concentric inner carrier body 8 and is not separately illustrated since in effect it consti-tutes a part thereof. The rotor shaft, which is annular accommodates the stator `body 9 to which is rigidly connected a sun wheel 9a which acts upon four pinions 11 via planet gears 10. The pinions 11 mesh with an internal gear 11a forming a part of the concentric outer carrier body 7 and also an external gear 11b forming part of the inner carrier body 8. When the pinions 11 are rotated via the planet gears then the concentric outer carrier body 7 also rotates. A theoretically prefect, and in practice almost complete, compensation of action and reaction torque of the rotor and the stator is produced.

The body stator 9 is also annular, which enables guide means 12, running in the preliminary bore hole 4, to be connected, by connecting means 13 extending axially through the body stator 9, to mounting means or disc 14 on which the pinions 11 and planet gears 10 are rotatably mounted. Thus any unbalanced torque applied to the disc or mounting means 14 is transmitted by the connecting means 13 to the guide means 12.

In the illustarted embodiment, the connecting means-13 is in the form of a rigid shaft or axis secured at its lower end to the guide means 12 and at its upper end to the centre of a disc which constitutes the mounting means 14 and which carries the pinions 11 at its periphery.

Preferably the guide means 12 has suiiicient friction on the faces of the preliminary bore hole to resist a dierence torque which might possibly occur and endeavour to rotate the boring machine. In this connection it is, however, allowable for the boring machine as a whole to undergo a slow rotation.

In any case, the friction of the guide means 12 on the faces of the preliminary bore hole 4 is not so great that it prevents the guide means from travelling axially down the preliminary bore hole 4, as the shaft 1 is advanced. Thus the boring machine descends under its own weight, on the course defined by the preliminary bore hole 4, as the boring of the shaft 1 proceeds.

If it should prove that the weight of the boring machine is not of itself suliicient for this, then additional weights can be either placed on top of or suspended from the boring machine.

If the machine endeavours to deviate from its predetermined direction corresponding to the axis of the preliminary bore hole, torques are produced in the axis 13 which return the machine to its pre-determined direction. Thus the machine follows the course defined by the preliminary bore hole without the need for rods or pulling means.

As can be seen, the machine is inordinately simple in construction and can thus attain relatively great driving performances at slight mechanical cost.

On the first approach, the surface which is to be machined by the tools seated on the concentric inner carrier will be at the same level as the surface which is machined by the boring tools on the concentric outer carrier body. The individual boring tools can be provided with drives which are mounted on the carriers.

What I claim is:

1. A rotationally operating boring machine comprising an annular rotor body, an inner carrier body outside of said rotor body and concentric therewith, an electric motor having a rotor incorporated with said rotor body and a stator incorporated with said inner carrier body, an outer carrier body outside of and concentric with said inner carrier body, said inner and outer carrier bodies being adapted to carry cutting tools, a circular row of external gear teeth on said inner carrier body, a circular row of internal gear teeth on said outer carrier body adjacent to and spaced from said external teeth, pinions meshing with said rows of internal and external teeth, a planetary drive comprising a sun wheel rigid with said rotor body and planet gears meshing respectively with said sun wheel and said pinions, a mounting plate for said planet gears and pinions, connecting means secured at one end to said mounting plate and extending freely through said rotor body, and guide means connected to the other end of said connecting means for engaging in a preliminary bore hole.

2. A boring machine as claimed in claim 1 in which said mounting plate comprises a disc to which said connecting means is centrally secured, said pinions Ibeing mounted on said disc adjacent the periphery thereof.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,511,957 10/1924 Freda 299-60 X 2,384,397 9/1945 Ramsey 175-319 X 2,766,978 10/1956 Robbins 299 60 2,823,900 2/1958 Kanole 175-58 X 2,937,008 5/1960 Whittle 175-106 X ERNEST R. PURSER, Primary Examiner.

U.S. Cl. X.R. l-53, 106; 299-60