Gewerkschaft Eisenhutte Westfalia, Gmbh

Hans-Theodor Grisebach

Klaus Beckmann

Walter Weirich

Helmut Langenberg

Heinz Weinhold

A mine roof support unit has a floor sill, a roof cap supported above the floor sill by a pair of inclined hydraulic props, and control apparatus for controlling load-bearing capacity of the props. The inclination of the props relative to the vertical increases as the props are retracted. The control apparatus comprises a pressure-relief valve for limiting the pressure of the hydraulic fluid supplied to the hydraulic props. The pressure-relief valve has a closure member which is biased towards its closed position by a spring. The spring is backed by an abutment member which constitutes a setting device for adjusting the biasing force of the spring, thereby controlling the operating pressure of the pressure-relief valve, and hence the load-bearing capacity of the props. The setting device is operatively associated with a movable part of the roof support unit in such a manner that the operating pressure of the pressure-relief valve is reduced in response to movement of said movable part of the roof support unit which results from extension of the hydraulic props.

Control apparatus

The specification discloses a method of, and apparatus for, winning mineral material from the pillars left by the bord-and-pillar mining process. An arcuate longwall face, which may be convex or concave, is formed along a row of pillars. The mineral material in the pillars is won by mechanical winning means such as a plough, the pillars in each row being won in a non-uniform manner. Some of the mineral material won from the longwall face may be used to fill the stalls left between the pillars behind the longwall face.

Method of, and apparatus for, winning mineral material

A hydraulic coupling device is provided for connection to a multi-line hose constituted by a plurality of hydraulic conduits bunched together. The coupling device comprises a casing, a plurality of plug pins housed within the casing, and a holder for holding the plug pins. The plug pins are each connectible to a respective conduit of the multi-line hose. The holder is constituted by at least two retaining discs, and each plug pin is provided with two circumferential grooves. The retaining discs are each provided with a respective aperture through which one of the plug pins passes. Portions of the retaining discs adjacent to the apertures can be tightly engaged within the grooves in the plug pins, by being radially displaced and/or rotated relative to one another. In this way, the plug pins are axially fixed relative to the retaining discs.

Hydraulic coupling device

A hydraulic coupling device is provided for connection to a multi-line hose constituted by a plurality of hydraulic conduits bunched together. The coupling device comprises a casing, a plurality of plug pins housed within the casing, and a retaining disc for holding the plug pins. The plug pins are each connectible to a respective conduit of the multi-line hose. Each of the plug pins has a circumferential groove, and the plug pins are held against axial movement in radial slots in the retaining disc. Each of the radial slots has a first portion whose width is greater than the maximum external diameter of the associated plug pin, and a second portion whose width is less than that of the maximum external diameter of the associated plug pin, but which is greater than the diameter of the circumferential groove in that plug pin.

A mineral winning machine is moved back and forth along a mineral, e.g., coal, face to win mineral by a combination of cutting and wedging actions. To effect this winning mode, the machine has at least one cutting device with a cutting disk rotating in front of a frusto-conical wedging body which revolves in an eccentric manner to detach the mineral previously backcut by the disk. The wedging body and the cutting disk are driven by separate concentric drive shafts, preferably with variable speed regulation with the disk rotating faster than the wedging body. In an alternative construction, a cutting chain equipped with both cutting and wedging tools in differential relationship is circulated and engages the mineral face.

Mineral winning machines

A mineral mining installation comprises a mechanical mining machine (such as a plough or a shearer) and a hydraulic winning machine. The hydraulic winning machine has a plurality of high-pressure nozzles and a high-pressure pump for supplying the nozzles with high-pressure water (or other hydraulic fluid). Means are provided for driving each of the two winning machines independently of the other along a mineral face. This permits the mechanical winning machine to operate at its optimum, high speed rate without interference from the slower moving hydraulic winning machine. The pump is preferably a multiple radial-piston pump powered by an electric motor. Both electric power and water may be supplied to the hydraulic winning machine via pick-up arms on the machine and supply channels extending along the face.

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Unna, Germany

Hans-Theodor Grisebach