Gewerkschaft Eisenhutte Westfalia, Gmbh

Klaus Linde

Hans Jutte

Heinz Husemann

Hans G Follert

Werner Hampel

Gunter Flocke

Winfried Klamke

Apparatus for, and a method of, driving a tunnel utilizes a drive shield to support the forward end of the tunnel where debris material is removed. At the rear end of the drive shield, a lining is created to cover the exposed tunnel wall. This lining is produced by simply spraying concrete rearwardly directly between the space between multi-part formwork and the tunnel wall itself. The formwork may overlap with the drive shield. The formwork is advanced to follow the progress of the drive shield by removing part of the formwork from the rear and re-siting this part at the front end.

Apparatus for and method of driving tunnels

Apparatus for use in driving tunnels or the like has a main shield composed of elongate drive members supported and guided on a rigid frame as known per se. Rams serve to advance the drive members and the frame in alternative to effect the driving operation. A rear shield or cover is located behind the main shield. This rear shield is composed of elongate rear extension members connected with some of the drive members over the roof and part of the side walls of the tunnel. Supports fixed to the rear of the frame of the main shield engage beneath the lowermost rear extension members to support the rear shield. The supports, disposed symmetrically at either side of the axis of the tunnel, have brackets engaging with the lowermost rear extension members and these brackets can be displaced by piston and cylinder units to raise or lower the entire rear shield.

Tunnel-driving apparatus

A tunnel drive shield is provided with a plurality of bracing units spaced around its periphery. The bracing units are expansible against the surrounding tunnel wall to control the direction of shield advance. A bracing unit is provided in each of the four shield quadrants defined by the vertical and horizontal center planes of the shield. Each of the bracing units is expansible in a non-radial direction.

Growing community of inventors

Lunen, Germany

Klaus Linde