US3770217A

US3770217A - Coaling installation for power plants

Info

Publication number: US3770217A
Application number: US00180859A
Authority: US
Inventors: E Maier; W Endler; P Haack
Original assignee: Siemens AG
Current assignee: Siemens AG
Priority date: 1968-06-19
Filing date: 1971-09-15
Publication date: 1973-11-06
Anticipated expiration: 1990-11-06
Also published as: GB1244567A; FR2011226A1; DE1757836B2; DE1757836A1

Abstract

Coaling installation for power plants includes a single coal supply bin, a plurality of coal crushers, coal feeding means for the crushers, respective chutes sealingly connected at one end to the coal feeding means, endless conveyor means for conveying from supply bin to distribute coal in excess of the capacity of the crushers, the conveyor means being formed with discharge openings and overlying the other end of the chutes so that the openings are alignable with the chutes for discharging therethrough into the crushers a quantity of coal substantially equal to crusher capacity, and additional means for conveying excess coal remaining on the endless conveyor means to a coal dump.

Description

United States Patent [1 1 Maier et al.

COALING INSTALLATION FOR POWER PLANTS inventors: Eberhard Maier; Walter Endler,

both of Erlangen; Paul Haack, Erlangen-Buchenbach, all of Germany Assigneez Siemens Aktiengesellschaft,

Berlin/ Munich, Germany Filed: Sept. 15, 1971 Appl. No.: 180,859

Related US. Application Data Continuation of Ser. No. 834,619, June 18, 1969, abandoned.

Foreign Application Priority Data References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Davis 198/66 X [4 1 Nov. 6, 1973 Primary Examiner-Granville Y. Custer, Jr. Att0rneyArthur E. Wilfond et al.

[57] ABSTRACT Coaling installation for power plants includes a single coal supply bin, a plurality of coal crushers, coal feeding means for the crushers, respective chutes sealingly connected at one end to the coal feeding means, endless: conveyor means for conveying from supply bin to distribute coal in excess of the capacity of the crushers, the conveyor means being formed with discharge openings and overlying the other end of the chutes so that the openings are alignable with, the chutes for discharging therethrough into the Crushers a quantity of coal substantially equal to crusher capacity, and additional means for conveying excess coal remaining on the endless conveyor means to a coal dump.

PATENTEB NUY 6l975 COALING INSTALLATION FOR POWER PLANTS This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 834,619, filed June 18, 1969, now abandoned.

Our invention relates to coaling installation for power plants.

It has been conventional heretofore, in the case of steam power plants, for.example, that are heated by coal, to provide for the required coal crushers a separate coal bin or bunker of heavy construction which generally determines the size of the boiler house. This heavy-constructed bunker has proven to be very costly however, in terms of money, construction time and materials, since a specific quantity of coal must always be kept available for the individual coal crushers.

It is accordingly an object of our invention to provide coaling installation for power plants which avoids the foregoing shortcomings of the heretofore known coaling installations of this general type.

More particularly, it is an object of our invention to provide such coaling installation which entirely dispenses with a heavy-constructed bunker or steel bin in the boiler house and in which the'coal crushers are supplied only with a given required quantity of coal respectively.

Moreover, it is another object of our invention to provide such coaling installation with a supply bin generally constructed as an underground bunker so as to avoid any necessity for serially interconnecting a pair of working tanks.

With the foregoing and other objects in view, we provide in accordance with our invention, coaling installation for power plants comprising a single coal supply bin, a plurality of coal crushers, crusher feeding means connected at one end to the coal crushers respectively, chute means sealingly connected at one end thereof to the other end of the crusher feeding means, endless conveyor means extending from the coal supply bin to the crusher feeding means for conveying thereto coal in excess of the capacity of the plurality of coal crushers, the conveyor means being formed with discharge openings and overlying the other end of the chute means so that the discharge openings are alignable with the chute means for discharging therethrough and through the crusher feeding means to the coal crushers a quantity of coal substantially equal to the capacity of the coal crushers, and additional conveyor means for conveying excess coal remaining on the endless conveyor means to a coal dump. Accordingly, only so much coal is supplied by the endless conveyor means, such as bucket chain conveyors, to each coal crusher that the chutes are substantially evenly filled.

In accordance with another feature of our invention, and in order to provide an uninterrupted supply of coal to the coal crushers, the endless conveyor means is made up of two bucket chain conveyors extending parallel to one another.

In accordance with additional features of our invention, the supply bin is constructed as an underground supply bunker, and the endless conveyor means comprises a first length thereof extending at an upward slope from the underground supply bunker to a level overlying the coal chutes, and a second length substantially intersecting the first length and extending substantislly horizontally above the coal chutes.

In accordance with a further feature of our invention, the additional conveyor means for conveying excess coal from the endless conveyor means to a coal dump comprises a single endless conveyor that is at least partly pivotable.

Other features which are considered as characteristic for the invention are set forth in the appended claims.

Although the invention is illustrated and described herein as embodied in coaling installation for power plants, it is nevertheless not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention and with the scope and range of equivalents of the claims.

The construction and method of operation of the invention, however, together with additional objects and advantages thereof will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying single FIG- URE of the drawing in which there is presented in perspective and diagrammatic view an embodiment of a coaling installation constructed in accordance with our invention. I

Referring now to the drawing, there is shown a supply bin 1, in the form of an underground discharge bunker, to which coal is delivered by conventional transporting means such as the illustrated rail cars. The underground bunker 1 has a volumetric capacity that is ade-, quate for supplying a full load of coal to the coal crushers 7 for a given number of hours. The coal is conveyed from the underground bin 1 by bin-discharge carriages 2 and clodcrushers 3 to a pair of parallel-extending, inclined conveyors 4, preferably in the form of bucket chain conveyors. The inclined conveyors 4 transport the coal initially to a level above the upper end of thecoal distributors 8, which are connected at the other ends thereof, respectively, to the coal crushers 7. The

coal is dropped from the upper end of the inclined conveyors 4 onto a pair of parallel substantially horizontally extending bucket chain conveyors 6. The individual coal crushers 7, as can be seen in the FIGURE, are connected through respective crusher feeders 8, such as conventional conveyor belts, and chutes 9 with the horizontal bucket chain conveyors 6. In the vicinity of each of the chutes 9, the bucket chain conveyors 6 are formed on the underside thereof with discharge openings 15 through which the chutes 9 are supplied with coal. The quantity of coal that is not dropped into the first chutes 9 passed by the bucket chain conveyors 6 i.e. those chutes 9 connected through the respective feeders 8 to the coal crushers 7 shown at the most lefthand location in the FIGURE, is further conveyed by the conveyors 6 to the chutes 9 of the respective coal crushers 7 located farther downstream from the first chutes. The coal excess necessarily remaining on the conveyors 6 is transferred at a transfer station 10located downstream of the chutes 9 to another conveyor 11 which conveys the coal excess back to a coal dump or storage space 14. Advantageously, at least the most downstream conveyor portion 12 is pivotable about a substantially vertical axis at a transfer station 13, so that the excessive quantity of coal can be suitably distributed at the coal dump 14 in the closest possible proximity to the underground supply bunker 1. As shown in the FIGURE, the transfer station 13 is located in a tower similar to those in which the

transfer stations

5 and 10 are located, and being substantially at the intersection of a fixed conveyor portion 11 and the pivotable conveyor portion.

For the purpose of providing an uninterrupted supply of coal to the coal crushers 7, the bucket chain conveyors 4 and 6 are respectively provided in parallel pairs leading to respective pairs of chutes 9 for the individual coal crushers 7, each of the conveyors of the pairs of conveyors 4 and 6, being designed respectively to convey 100 percent of the load to the crushers 7. Thus, if one conveyor of each of the pairs of conveyors 4 and 6 were to break down, then the other conveyor of that pair would still be able to convey an adequate 100 percent supply of coal to the coal crushers 7. The return or recovery conveyor 1 1, for conveying the excess coal back to the coal dump 14, on the other hand, can be of simpler construction than the double conveyors 4 and 6, since a breakdown of the recovery conveyor 11, an emergency release can be provided at or just downstream of the transfer station 10, which can be serviced for example, by a motor truck i.e., a dump truck can be backed up to the rear side of the tower at transfer station 10, as viewed in the FIGURE, so that any excess coal being advanced on the conveyors 6 will then drop from that tower directly onto the dump truck.

Since the coal crushers 7, which are of conventional construction, generally operate under excess pressure, the necessary sealing thereof against the outer atmosphere is provided by the chutes 7 which are constantly filled with coal.

The coaling installation of our invention permits the costly bunker of heavy construction or steel in the boiler house to be dispensed with, without endangering the uninterrupted supply of the required quantity of coal to the coal crushers. Even when the bucket chain conveyors 6 are switched on and off, the content of the chutes 9 ensure uninterrupted supply of the coal crushers 7.

Due to the fact that the conveyors 4 and 6 are in duplicate, one of the duplicates of each pair of conveyors can be employed witut any additional measures for spot-coaling.

The coaling installation of our invention can not only be employed for steam power plants but also for other plants which require uniform distribution of solid fuels.

We claim:

1. Coaling installation for power plants comprising an underground supply bunker defining a single coal supply bin, a plurality of coal crushers, crusher feeding means connected at one end to said coal crushers respectively, chute means connected at one end thereof to the other end of said crusher feeding means, endless conveyor means comprising a first portion thereof extending at an upward slope from said underground supply bunker to a level overlying said coal chutes, and a second portion thereof substantially intersecting said first portion and extending substantially horizontally above said coal chutes, said endless conveyor means conveying coal directly to said crusher feeding means from said underground bunker in excess of the capacity of said plurality of coal crushers, said second portion of said conveyor means being formed with discharge openings overlying the other end of said chute means so that said discharge openings are alignable with said chute means for discharging therethrough and through i said crusher feeding means to said coal crusher a quantity of coal substantially equal to the capacity of said coal crushers and for filling said chutes with coal so as to seal said coal crushers against the outer atmosphere, and additional conveyor means for conveying excess coal remaining on said second portion of said endless conveyor means to a coal stockpile downstream of said coal crushers in said direction of feed of the coal and at the very end of said conveyor system in said feed direction.

2. Coaling installation according to claim 1 wherein said additional conveyor means comprises a single endless conveyor having at least one part pivotable relative to the other part thereof.

l l l 4'

Claims

1. Coaling installation for power plants comprising an underground supply bunker defining a single coal supply bin, a plurality of coal crushers, crusher feeding means connected at one end to said coal crushers respectively, chute means connected at one end thereof to the other end of said crusher feeding means, endless conveyor means comprising a first portion thereof extending at an upward slope from said underground supply bunker to a level overlying said coal chutes, and a second portion thereof substantially intersecting said first portion and extending substantially horizontally above said coal chutes, said endless conveyor means conveying coal directly to said crusher feeding means from said underground bunker in excess of the capacity of said plurality of coal crushers, said second portion of said conveyor means being formed with discharge openings overlying the other end of said chute means so that said discharge openings are alignable with said chute means for discharging therethrough and through said crusher feeding means to said coal crusher a quantity of coal substantially equal to the capacity of said coal crushers and for filling said chutes with coal so as to seal said coal crushers against the outer atmosphere, and additional conveyor means for conveying excess coal remaining on said second portion of said endless conveyor means to a coal stockpile downstream of said coal crushers in said direction of feed of the coal and at the very end of said conveyoR system in said feed direction.