Mining system with a flexible conveyor system
AssigneeUnderground Extraction Technologies Pty LTD
InventorBrian MacDonald
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention relates to a mining system including a continuous miner. The continuous miner mines material and includes a miner navigation system. The mining system further includes a flexible conveyor system for receiving the mined material from the continuous miner. The flexible conveyor system includes a conveyor navigation system. The mining system further includes control means for controlling the miner navigation system and the conveyor navigation system so that the flexible conveyor system receives the mined material from the continuous miner. Preferably, the flexible conveyor system need not be coupled to the continuous miner, and can be extracted separately in the event of a cave-in on the miner.
Claims20
A mining system including:
- a continuous miner for mining material;
- a flexible conveyor system for receiving the mined material from the continuous miner and including a conveyor navigation system, the flexible conveyor system including a chain of like conveyor modules directly serially interconnected together, each like conveyor module elevating the mined material for dropping to the adjacent conveyor module in the chain, each conveyor module including one or more lateral proximity sensors for sensing the proximity of a tunnel wall;
- and
- control means for controlling the flexible conveyor system using the conveyor navigation system so that the flexible conveyor system receives the mined material from the continuous miner;
- wherein a front-end conveyor module of the flexible conveyor system includes a front proximity sensor for sensing the proximity of the continuous miner, and the control means uses the sensed proximity to control the flexible conveyor system to follow the continuous miner whilst maintaining a desired distance to receive the mined material.
A mining system including:
- a flexible conveyor system including a conveyor navigation system, the flexible conveyor system including a chain of like conveyor modules directly serially interconnected together, each like conveyor module elevating the mined material for dropping to the adjacent conveyor module in the chain, each conveyor module including one or more lateral proximity sensors for sensing the proximity of a tunnel wall;
- and
- control means for controlling the flexible conveyor system using the conveyor navigation system;
- wherein a front-end conveyor module of the flexible conveyor system includes a front proximity sensor for sensing the proximity of a continuous miner, and the control means uses the sensed proximity to control the flexible conveyor system to follow the continuous miner whilst maintaining a desired distance to receive the mined material.
A mining method for a mining system, the mining system including a continuous miner for mining material;
- the mining system further including a flexible conveyor system for receiving the mined material from the continuous miner and including a conveyor navigation system, the flexible conveyor system including a chain of like conveyor modules directly serially interconnected together, each like conveyor module elevating the mined material for dropping to the adjacent conveyor module in the chain, each conveyor module including one or more lateral proximity sensors for sensing the proximity of a tunnel wall, a front-end conveyor module of the flexible conveyor system including a front proximity sensor for sensing the proximity of the continuous miner, the method involving:
- controlling the flexible conveyor system using the conveyor navigation system so that the flexible conveyor system receives the mined material from the continuous miner, the controlling involving using the sensed proximity to control the flexible conveyor system to follow the continuous miner whilst maintaining a desired distance to receive the mined material.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.