Mine roof support, pre-installation assembly for same, and method of installation
AssigneeBurrell Mining Products, Inc.
InventorDon C. Abel
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A mine roof support comprises two or more frusto-conical, tubular sections, the sections each flared outwardly from an upper end to a lower end thereof, a skirt portion of a section being received and secured within a neck portion of a section below in a frictional fit to define a continuous, interior volume of the mine roof support. A continuous, solid, compressible, load-bearing material is located within the interior volume. An uppermost section is closed at an upper end thereof, and a lowermost section is closed at a lower end thereof. Methods of installing a mine roof support and a pre-installation assembly for a mine roof support are also disclosed.
Claims32
A mine roof support, comprising:
- two or more frusto-conical, tubular sections, the sections each flared outwardly from an upper end to a lower end thereof, a skirt portion of a section being received and secured within a neck portion of a section below in a frictional fit providing a substantially fluid-tight seal between sections to define a continuous interior volume of the mine roof support, wherein an uppermost section of the two or more frusto-conical sections comprises a cap sealing an uppermost extent of the uppermost section, and a lowermost section of the two or more sections comprises a floor sealing a lowermost extent of the lowermost section;
- and
- a continuous, solid, compressible, load-bearing material located within the continuous interior volume.
A method of installing a mine roof support, comprising:
- placing a mine roof support comprising an assembly of at least two sections in an installation location within a room of an underground mine, each of the at least two sections of frusto-conical configuration and flared outwardly from an upper end to a lower end thereof, at least one of the at least two sections being nested within at least one other of two or more sections, an outermost section of the at least two sections having a floor sealing a bottom thereof and an innermost section of the at least two sections having a cap sealing a top thereof;
- and
- introducing a flowable filler material precursor of a solid, compressible, load-bearing material into an interior of the assembly under pressure to cause an innermost section of the at least two sections to move upwardly in a telescoping manner within a next adjacent section until an outer surface of the lower end of the innermost section contacts and frictionally engages with an inner surface of the next adjacent section to secure the innermost section to the next adjacent section.
A pre-installation assembly for a mine roof support, comprising:
- multiple, tubular, frusto-conical sections in a nested arrangement;
- a skirt portion of each section defining a larger diameter than a neck portion of a next outer adjacent section, each section being flared outwardly from an upper end to a lower end thereof at substantially the same angle a of departure to a longitudinal axis of the section;
- an innermost frusto-conical section being closed proximate an upper end thereof and an outermost frusto-conical section being closed proximate a lower end thereof.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.