The United States of America As Represented by the Secretary of

Other

The United States of America, As Represented by the Secretary of the Interior

Roger J Morrell

David A Larson

Peter L Ruzzi

William C Larson

Jerome A Gunn

James H Cobbs

Richard J Wilson

David P Lindroth

Robert D Schmidt

David Arthur Larson

Gerald D Gore

James R Blair

A rotary garden tool has cutting blades for generally horizontal cutting generally disposed in a closed loop configuration sharpened on both sides to cut while rotating in either a clockwise of counterclockwise direction. Flexible tines are designed to bend outwardly away from the cutting blades during rotation, thus creating a trapping space between the blades and tines. The tool also has a forked assembly generally central of the cutting blades and flexible tines to stabilize the tool while in use and can till the soil as well. There is also provided a shaft central of the blades, tines, and forked assembly to attach the remainder of the tool to a rotation system such as a hand crank or electric drill.

Rotary garden tool

A rock breaker uses shotgun cartridges or other firearm ammunition as the explosive charge at the bottom of a drilled borehole. The breaker includes a heavy steel rod or bar, a gun with a firing chamber for the ammunition which screws onto the rod, a long firing pin running through a central passage in the rod, and a firing trigger mechanism at the external end of the bar which strikes the firing pin to fire the cartridge within the borehole. A tubular sleeve surround the main body of the rod and includes slits the end to allow it to expand. The rod has a conical taper at the internal end against which the end of the sleeve expands when the sleeve is forced along the rod toward the taper by a nut threaded onto the external end of the rod. As the sleeve end expands, it pushes against the borehole and holds the explosive gasses within, and also prevents the breaker from flying out of the borehole. The trigger mechanism includes a hammer with a slot and a hole for accepting a drawbar or drawpin which, when pulled by a long cord, allows the cartridge to be fired from a remote location.

Shotgun cartridge rock breaker

A double acting bit holder that permits bits held in it to be resharpened during cutting action to increase energy efficiency by reducing the amount of small chips produced. The holder consist of: a stationary base portion capable of being fixed to a cutter head of an excavation machine and having an integral extension therefrom with a bore hole therethrough to accommodate a pin shaft; a movable portion coextensive with the base having a pin shaft integrally extending therefrom that is insertable in the bore hole of the base member to permit the moveable portion to rotate about the axis of the pin shaft; a recess in the movable portion of the holder to accommodate a shank of a bit; and a biased spring disposed in adjoining openings in the base and moveable portions of the holder to permit the moveable portion to pivot around the pin shaft during cutting action of a bit fixed in a turret to allow front, mid and back positions of the bit during cutting to lessen creation of small chip amounts and resharpen the bit during excavation use.

Double acting bit holder

An impact assisted segmented cutterhead device is provided for cutting various surfaces from coal to granite. The device comprises a plurality of cutting bit segments deployed in side by side relationship to form a continuous cutting face and a plurality of impactors individually associated with respective cutting bit segments. An impactor rod of each impactor connects that impactor to the corresponding cutting bit segment. A plurality of shock mounts dampening the vibration from the associated impactor. Mounting brackets are used in mounting the cutterhead to a base machine.

Impact assisted segmented cutterhead

A concave drag bit cutter device and cutting method using such a concave cutter bit are provided which provide substantially increased efficiencies over conventional point attack bits. A number of different cutter bit shapes employing a concave cutting face can be used. The cutter bits are intended to replace the conventional point attack cutter bits and can be used in continuous mining machines, saw blades, auger drills, longwall shearers and the like, in cutting and mining operations.

Concave drag bit cutter device and method

A universal ripper miner used to cut, collect and transfer material from an underground mine working face includes a cutter head that is vertically movable in an arcuate cutting cycle by means of drive members, such as hydraulically actuated pistons. The cutter head may support a circular cutter bit having a circular cutting edge that may be indexed to incrementally expose a fresh cutting edge. An automatic indexing system is disclosed wherein indexing occurs by means of a worm gear and indexing lever mechanism. The invention also contemplates a bi-directional bit holder enabling cutting to occur in both the upstroke and the downstroke cutting cycle. Another feature of the invention discloses multiple bits arranged in an in-line, radially staggered pattern, or a side-by-side pattern to increase the mining capacity in each cutting cycle. An on-board resharpening system is also disclosed for resharpening the cutting edge at the end of cutting stroke position. The aforementioned improvement features may be used either singly, or in any proposed combination with each other.

Universal ripper miner

An apparatus for the sequential fracturing and cutting of subsurface volume of hard rock (102) in the strata (101) of a mining environment (100) by subjecting the volume of rock to a beam (25) of microwave energy to fracture the subsurface volume of rock by differential expansion; and , then bringing the cutting edge (52) of a piece of conventional mining machinery (50) into contact with the fractured rock (102).

Microwave assisted hard rock cutting

A universal ripper miner used to cut, collect, and transfer material from an underground mine working face. The cutter head has a single large cutting bit attached to its periphery and moves in an arcuate cutting motion in a cycle less than 270.degree.. At each cutting cycle the bit's depth of material penetration is initially zero, increases to its maximum depth at about midway, and decreases to zero depth as it exits. Drive members, such as hydraulically actuated pistons, provide for this movement of the head/bit. Constructed as part of the cutting head adjacent to the bit, a hopper-type member with a partially opened upper section acts to continuously collect and transfer cut material from the mine face. A mechanically or gravity actuated door is at the end of this hopper member remote from the cutting head allows the cut material to be transferred to a lower conventional material handling system. The cutter head and its mounted frame can be moved in a direction perpendicular to the direction of the cutting head during its cutting cycle to allow a new adjacent cutting cycle to be performed. Also, after a desired number of cycles have taken place, the frame and cutting head can be advanced into the mine working face by a third power source.

An improved method of in situ mining of a mineral bearing stratum. The method comprises drilling alternating rows of vertical injection and recovery wells to the depth of an aquiferrous mineral bearing stratum. Two horizontal branches are drilled at the bottom of each injection and recovery well. The horizontal branches are substantially parallel to one another and lie within the mineral bearing stratum. Leachant fluid is pumped under pressure into the injection wells to dissolve the minerals contained in the stratum. Leachant fluid containing the dissolved minerals is pumped out through the recovery wells. The method of the present invention requires substantially less drilling and pipe for extracting minerals from a given volume of a mineral bearing stratum and results in more constant mineral extraction rates than conventional techniques.

Method of in situ mining

A method and apparatus for in-situ leach mining which utilizes multiple dhole branch wells whipstocked off a single main generally vertical well. Initially the vertical well is drilled into the earth so that it may intersect the ore zone of material to be recovered. The vertical well may be cased and cemented after drilling. Thereafter from this same well a plurality of branch wells are whipstocked or drilled which intersect the vertical well at an angle from about 2 degrees to 60 degrees. These branch wells extend into the ore zone. A submersible pump and drop pipe are placed in the main well and at some point below the intersection of the main well with the branch wells a packer is placed around the drop pipe. The drop pipe carries solutions to the surface from the pump. Leaching solutions are forced or injected in the main well in the volume between the exterior surface of the drop pipe and well hole or casing so that upon encountering the branch wells and packer their solutions are forced into the branches and out into the ore body. After exiting near the opened ends (or well screens) of the branch wells into the ore zone, the leaching solution dissolves the mineral values and the solution flow with its entrapped minerals is forced by the action of the pump through the ore zone towards the vertical well, where the solution is pumped up to the surface, via the inner drop pipe.

In-situ leach mining method using branched single well for input and

A square hole drill having a cutterhead configuration whose outline is in the form of a Reuleaux triangle and which also has a planetary gear drive. Two counter revolving motions are present in the drill at the same time. One is the pure rotary motion of the drill's cutterhead about its own shaft. The other is the circular motion of the cutterhead as a unit about a center line due to its eccentric mounting and drive. To achieve the opposite rotation of the unit as a whole compared to the rotation of the cutterhead about its own axis, a combined meshing planet gear and ring gear are used. The planet gear is directly connected to the cutterhead by a shaft rigidly attached to the gear's front side. At the rear side of the planet gear is the eccentrically mounted drive shaft. Surrounding the external teeth of the planet gear is a larger stationary ring gear with internal teeth to continuously engage the planet gear's teeth. As these teeth become engaged the planet gear rotates on its own shaft and also rotates, in a larger radius, counter to that direction around the ring gear. In the preferred embodiment the rotation about the planet gear's shaft was one third as fast as the planet gear's rotation around the ring gear. The composite effect of these two counter revolutions when considered with the shape of the cutterhead is that the cutting bits transcribe and cut out a square hole.

Square hole drill

A method and the apparatus for implementing the method to provide temporary ground support in a mine. After an auger or other type of hole has been bored in an underground mine, at least one inflatable bladder with a fluid conduit therethrough is inserted into the hole. Once the bladder is inflated it expands to fill the hole's diameter and to act as a plug. Thereafter, fluid is forced through the fluid conduit past the bladder and into the hole cavity to act in conjunction with the bladder as a ground support for the hole. Appropriate fluid valves, meters, and conduits are placed at the input to the fluid conduit to control and measure the fluid being forced into the bladder and the hole cavity. Quick connect-disconnect couplings are provided when two or more bladders are connected seriatim and placed within the hole.

Borehole aerostatic ground support system

A method of providing roof support by the use of prestressed support members. Sequentially the method calls for the drilling of a series of generally parallel holes in a mine roof such that they extend from one underground cavity to another; inserting support members like metal cables or rods into each of these holes to extend completely through the hole's entire length between the cavities; pretensioning each of said supports; forcing a liquid binder around the supports while in their holes; and releasing the forces on the supports after the binder has become cured by solidifying.

Prestressed roof support system

A drill system for drilling very large holes in the earth, of diameters up to from 10 to 20 feet, by means of a rotary bit carrying a plurality of cutters, wherein the bit assembly is pressed against the bottom of the hole, so that the unit pressure against each of the cutters will be adequate for their optimum performance. The force holding the bit in contact with the bottom of the hole is created by the weight of the drilling liquid on top of the bit. A fluid seal is maintained between the outer edge of the bit and the wall of the bore hole. Liquid flows down the annulus around the drill pipe and through a plurality of orifices in the bit, terminating at the bit cutters. Rock cuttings are washed radially inwardly to a central drill pipe, which supports the bit, and through which torque is applied to the bit. The pressure drop in the orifices serves to create a differential pressure above and below the bit. The differential pressure times the exposed surface area of the bit provides the hold down force. Cuttings are lifted out of the central drill pipe by means of a smaller diameter pipe lowered inside of the drill pipe, through which compressed air is applied.

Growing community of inventors

Bloomington, MN, United States of America

Roger J Morrell