National Mine Service Company

Gerald L Baum

Donald L Freed, Jr

Maurice K LeBegue

A continuous mining machine includes a mobile body portion with a cutter drum member rotatably mounted on the front of a boom member which extends forwardly of the body portion. The cutter drum member has an intermediate drum section and a pair of canted end drum sections. Driven input shafts extend through openings between the intermediate section and the end drum sections. Each input shaft is drivingly connected to a first stage of a two stage planetary gear assembly which surrounds an end drum drive shaft that extends the length of each end drum section. A second stage of the planetary gear assembly is drivingly connected to and is axially aligned with the first stage to transmit rotation outwardly to the end of the end drum section. A shearable driving coupling is axially positioned on the end drum drive shaft at the end of the end drum section. An external portion of the drive coupling is connected to the second stage and an internal portion is connected to the end drum drive shaft. The drive coupling transmits rotation from the second stage to the end drum drive shaft and therefrom to a drive shaft for rotating the intermediate drum section. In the event the load on the end drum section during the mining operation exceeds a predetermined magnitude, the drive coupling shears to prevent damage to the other drive components under overload conditions.

Drive assembly for mining machine cutter drum

A continuous mining machine includes a body portion mounted on endless tracks and a boom member extending forwardly from the body portion with a cutter drum member rotatably mounted on the front end of the boom member. The cutter drum member has an intermediate drum section and a pair of end drum sections. A pair of driven input shafts are drivingly connected to the pair of end drum sections respectively. Intermediate drive shafts extend from the end drum sections into the ends of the intermediate drum section. The intermediate drum section is formed by a pair of releasably connected housing sections. A connecting plate is positioned within and nonrotatably secured to each housing section. Each connecting plate includes planar faces that engage corresponding planar faces provided on the end of the respective intermediate drive shaft. With the intermediate drum sections assembled on the drive shafts, the connecting plates are nonrotatably connected to the drive shafts to transmit rotation from the drive shafts to the housing sections to rotate the intermediate drum section. Pairs of connecting plates are releasably connected to one another surrounding the drive shafts to facilitate efficient assembly and disassembly of the intermediate drum section.

Cutter drum assembly for a continuous mining machine

A continuous mining machine includes a body portion having a longitudinal axis and mounted on endless tracks. A boom member extends forwardly from the body portion with a cutter drum member rotatably mounted on the front of the boom member. The cutter drum member has an intermediate drum section and a pair of canted end drum section. The intermediate drum section is spaced from the end drum sections to provide openings therebetween. The boom member has front end portions extending through the openings to rotatably support the cutter drum member. Input drive shafts extend from drive motors on the body portion forwardly from the boom member at an acute angle with respect to the longitudinal axis of the body portion through the openings. In each end drum section meshing spiral bevel gears connect the input drive shaft through a planetary gear train to the end drum drive shaft. Rotation is transmitted from each end drum drive shaft to a drive shaft for rotating the intermediate drum section. Positioning the input drive shafts at an angle with respect to the longitudinal axis of the machine body portion facilitates positioning planetary gear trains in the end drum section to locate the cutter drum assembly for efficient feeding of dislodged material onto the machine and reduce the diameter of the intermediate drum section.

Cutter drum drive assembly for canted end sections

A mining machine having a body portion mounted on propelling tracks includes an endless conveyor mechanism positioned on a conveyor support frame that extends longitudinally on the body portion. The conveyor support frame includes a main conveyor section connected by a link member to a conveyor boom section arranged for lateral swinging movement relative to the main conveyor section. The main conveyor section and the conveyor boom section each include an integral gear member. The gear members of the respective sections are maintained in meshing relation by pivot pins interconnecting the link member with the respective sections. A hydraulic cylinder having an extensible piston rod preferably connects the conveyor boom section to the link member. Actuation of the hydraulic cylinder extends or retracts the piston rod to laterally swing the pivot connection of the conveyor boom section in a preselected direction relative to the pivot pin connection on the main conveyor section. Movement of the pivot pin connection on the conveyor boom section contemporaneously rotates the boom section gear member in the same preselected direction relative to the main conveyor section gear member, such that the conveyor boom section moves through twice the angle of rotation of the pivot pin connection of the conveyor boom section. Thus, the pivotal movement of the link member and the rotation of the conveyor boom section gear member laterally swings the conveyor boom section relative to the main conveyor section through an expanded arc.

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Belleville, IL, United States of America

Gerald L Baum