The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 16, 1998
Filed:
Apr. 10, 1996
Kawasaki Jukogyo Kabushiki Kaisha, Kobe, JP;
Abstract
A tunnel boring machine for boring a tunnel through hard and soft grounds includes a front body, a cutter head mounted to the front body and having a cutter for boring a hard round, and a drive unit rotatably supporting the cutter head for driving the cutter head. A main beam is operatively connected to the cutter head drive unit and extends rearward therefrom. A gripper body is supported by a rear end portion of the main beam to be slidable in an axial direction thereof and is provided with a main gripper to be movable along an radial direction of the main beam. A first thrust jack is mounted to be fitted between the main gripper and the main beam for advancing the cutter head and the cutter head drive unit. A shield shell is disposed so as to surround the cutter head drive unit. A second thrust jack is disposed in the shield shell, and a front gripper is mounted to the shield shell to be movable out of and into the shield shell.