Double ended ranging drum shearer and method of controlling working height in mining face in use of the same

• US 4,822,105 A
• Filed: 09/18/1987
• Issued: 04/18/1989
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/1986
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Mitsui Miike Machinery Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Mitsui Miike Machinery Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Yamada, Ryuji, Igata, Shoji
• Primary Examiner(s): Novosad, Stephen J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bagnell, David J.
• Application Number:
  US07/098,474
• Time in Patent Office: 578 Days
• Field of Search: 299/1, 299/42, 299/43, 299/30
• US Class Current: 299/1.6
• CPC Class Codes: E21C 35/24 Remote control specially adapted for machines for slitting or completely freeing the mineral control in general G05

Abstract

A double ended ranging drum shearer is provided with a shearer body and a pair of drums disposed at front and rear end portions of the shearer body to be movable up- and down-wardly. The shearer is further equipped with detectors for respectively detecting the travelling position of the shearer body, detecting the inclination of the shearer body at the travelled position, and detecting the heights of drums at the travelled position. These detectors are operatively connected to a controlling device which is connected to a drum height adjusting device. The controlling device operates and stores the drum heights necessary for keeping constant the working height of a mining face in a pit in accordance with output signals generated from the abovementioned detectors, and the drum height adjusting device is operated in response to an output transmitted from the controlling device representing the thus operated and stored data.

Claims

1. A double ended ranging drum shearer capable of controlling a working height of a mining face in a pit, comprising:

a shearer body;

a drum disposed at each of a front and rear end portion of said shearer body, each said drum being movable upwardly and downwardly;

a respective arm member operatively connected to each of said drums for adjusting the height of said drums;

controlling means attached to said shearer body and operatively connected to control said arm members to thereby adjust the height of said drums;

a potentiometer operatively connected to a said arm member and to said controlling means for detecting the height of one of said drums;

means operatively connected to said controlling means for detecting an inclination of said shearer body; and

,

means operatively connected to said controlling means for detecting a traveling position of said shearer body;

said controlling means operating during a teaching mode in which an operator manually controls the height of said one drum to store data representing the drum heights necessary for maintaining the working height of said mining face constant in accordance with output signals generated from said drum height detecting means, said inclination detecting means, and said traveling position detecting means, at least one of said arm members being operated during a playback mode to automatically adjust the height of at least one of said drums in response to an output signal from said controlling means representing the drum height needed to maintain said working height constant.

2. A method of controlling a working height of a mining face in a pit by using a shearer which repeatedly traverses between a main gate and a tail gate and which includes a shearer body and a pair of drums disposed at front and rear end portions of the shearer body to be movable upwardly and downwardly through respective drum height adjusting means, comprising the steps of:

(a) in a first half-cycle operation in which an operator manually controls the height of one of said drums and in which the shearer body is moved in one direction between the main gate and the tail gate along the mining face,

(i) detecting and storing a number of traveling positions, spaced apart along the mining face, of the shearer body;

(ii) detecting and storing a height of said one drum at each of said detected traveling positions of the shearer body;

(iii) detecting and storing the inclination of the shearer body at each of said detected traveling positions; and

(iv) controlling mathematically a height of the other drum necessary for maintaining a working height constant in accordance with the stored data representing the detected traveling positions, the height of said one drum and the inclination of the shearer body; and

,

(b) in a second half-cycle operation in which the shearer body is moved in the other direction between the tail gate and the main gate,

(i) controlling the height of at least one of said drums in accordance with data stored in the first half-cycle operation.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein control of drum height is carried out by regulating the rotation angles of arm members disposed on said drums and said shearer body.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein coordinates of respective positions of the shearer at a time when said shearer is positioned at at least one position at the mining face during said first half-cycle operation are stored as a series of data including detected data regarding the drum height, the shearer body inclination, and the shearer body traveling position, said drum height adjusting means, for at least one of said drums, being controlled by the stored series of data during said second half-cycle operation.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein said series of data includes data obtained in accordance with mathematical trigonometrical functions.