Gewerkschaft Eisenhutte Westfalia, Gmbh

Klaus Beckmann

Kunibert Becker

Hans-Theodor Grisebach

Walter Weirich

Horst Linke

Heinrich Behr

A cutting (winning) machine comprises a frame which is provided with a pair of endless drive tracks. A mast is pivotally mounted on the frame for movement between an upright working position and a non-working position (in which it lies substantially flat on the frame). The frame also supports a platform, which is also pivotal relative thereto in the vertical plane. A carriage is arranged to move along the mast, the carriage supporting a cutting head such as a shearer drum. The mast can be positioned in an upright position at either end of the frame, so that the machine can carry out work in both directions of travel.

Cutting machine

A mine roof support unit has a roof bar supported on a floor sill by hydraulic props. The floor sill is constituted by a face-side floor sill part and a goaf-side floor sill part. The two floor sill parts are telescopically interconnected. Each of the floor sill parts supports a pair of hydraulic props. Hydraulic rams are provided for moving each of floor sill parts relative to the other floor sill part in the direction of roof support unit advance.

Mine roof support unit

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

A shearer-type mineral winning machine has rotatable cutting drums supported by swinging arms at the ends of its main body. High-pressure water emission nozzles are supported by adjustable carriers in positions generally adjacent the drums to effect preliminary cuts in a mineral face just in advance of the cutting drums.

Longwall mineral winning machine with adjustable cutting jet

Conveying apparatus for use in conveying mineral ore employs a curvilinear channel section or pan which joins straight groups of similar channel sections joined end-to-end together. A scraper-chain assembly circulates along the channel sections in upper and lower runs. A unit with a hollow housing is combined with the curvilinear channel section and this unit has an upstanding hollow pillar forming a hub on which two rollers are mounted for independent rotation. The rollers are shaped to engage with the scrapers of the scraper-chain assembly to guide the latter during its passage along the curvilinear channel section. To enable the roof of the mine working to be adequately supported over the zone in which the curvilinear section and unit are installed, a roof support with alternately shiftable hydraulic props is located within the hollow hub of the unit. The props are connected to a multi-part roof bar and extend through an elongate aperture in the housing top wall. The props can be shifted in successive steps independently of the housing and the conveyor channel sections.

Conveying apparatus for use in mineral mining

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.

Mineral mining installation

A mineral mining installation comprises a conveyor, a guide arranged on the face side of the conveyor, a roof support assembly arranged on the goaf side of the conveyor, and apparatus for controlling the cutting horizon of a plough movable along the guide. The control apparatus has hydraulic ram means for pivoting the guide relative to the conveyor, and guide rod means for transferring the control forces to the roof support assembly.

Apparatus for controlling the position of a mineral mining machine, such as a plough, movable along a main guide at one side of a scraper-chain conveyor employs cantilevered beams extending between the conveyor and a series of roof supports. Each beam is preferably resiliently flexible and is connected, for example via a bracket at an opposite side of the conveyor, to the main guide. A device, such as a hydraulic piston and cylinder unit, is used to adjust the inclination between the beam and the guide in generally known manner. The end portion of the beam remote from the conveyor extends alongside a side mounting surface of the floor structure of an associated one of the supports which mounting surface faces the next adjacent support. A further guide means, which may take the form of a tube containing a ball or a similar guide member or a guideway along which a guide member is displaceable, is detachably secured to the mounting surface of the support. The guide member of the further guide means is connected to the end of the beam so as to support the latter while allowing some free pivotal displacement in all directions as well as displacement axially and parallel to the support.

Apparatus for controlling the position of a mining machine

A mineral winning installation employs a longwall scraper chain conveyor at the mineral face with roof supports arranged at the goaf side of the conveyor. A winning machine, such as a shearer or plough, moves back and forth alongside the mineral face to skim or cut mineral. The machine carries its own drive means which is electrically powered and which drives a pinion, for example, meshing with a toothed rack. An independent constructional assembly arranged at the roof or floor has a multi-sectioned rail or plate carrying the toothed rack. In addition, the rail or plate supports a sealed guard housing containing an electric live track and a further sealed housing containing pressurized water. The machine has a pick-up arm which engages with a contact sliding along the electric track to supply electric power to the drive means and a conduit which has a water collector displaceable along the water housing to supply water to the machine for dust suppression.

Longwall installation with carrier for water and electric supply and

A mineral mining installation employs a scraper-chain conveyor with a guide at the mineral-face side supporting a main machine, such as a plough, driven back-and-forth along a mineral face by a chain disposed at the mineral-face side of the conveyor. A further chain drive is arranged at the opposite side of the conveyor and is drivably coupled to an arm projecting over the conveyor and connecting with a further plough body. The further plough body is either supported together with the arm on further guides so that it can be driven back and forth along the face above the main machine or else the further plough body is supported directly on the main machine with its arm guided at the opposite side of the conveyor. Releasable coupling devices enable the further plough body to be connected to the main machine.

Stacked mineral mining plows independently driven or coupled

A mineral mining installation intended for mining thick seams is composed of a series of units arranged alongside the mineral face and interconnected via a shifting system employing hydraulic rams operable to shift individual units. Each unit is a two story construction with a rigid underframe with roof and floor parts interconnected by pillars or walls to provide a winning chamber accessible to the face and an access chamber remote from the face and capable of housing vehicles and other equipment. On top of each underframe, to complete the unit, is a top frame composed of telescopic props resting on the roof part of the underframe and supporting a roof girder. At least one winning machine and conveyor is arranged within the forward regions of the frames of the units, and usually in the winning chambers; and the machine serves to hew mineral from the face.

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Lunen, Germany

Klaus Beckmann