A rod handling apparatus and a method for handling drill rods
AssigneeEpiroc Rock Drills Aktiebolag
InventorAnders HELLMAN
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A rod handling apparatus configured to automatically transfer a drill rod between a first position within a drill rod storage and a second position outside of the drill rod storage the drill rod storage being configured to hold a plurality of horizontally oriented drill rods, the rod handling apparatus including a frame arrangement configured to hold the drill rod storage, a rod gripper assembly movably mounted to the frame arrangement, configured to releasably grip a drill rod, the rod gripper assembly being movable relative to the frame arrangement along three directions (X, Y, Z) and being rotatable relative to the frame arrangement about a first and second rotational axis.
Claims19
A rod handling apparatus configured to automatically transfer a drill rod between a first position within a drill rod storage and a second position outside of the drill rod storage, the drill rod storage being configured to hold a plurality of drill rods, the rod handling apparatus comprising:
- a frame arrangement configured to hold the drill rod storage with the drill rods oriented in parallel or essentially in parallel with a bottom plane of the drill rod storage,
- a rod gripper assembly movably mounted to the frame arrangement the rod gripper assembly being configured to releasably grip a drill rod, the rod gripper assembly being movable relative to the frame arrangement along three directions comprising a first direction, a second direction and a third direction,
- wherein the rod gripper assembly is further rotatable relative to the frame arrangement about a first rotational axis and a second rotational axis.
A method for transferring a drill rod between a first position within a drill rod storage and a second position outside of the drill rod storage using a rod handling apparatus, the method comprising:
- gripping the drill rod by a rod gripper assembly,
- translating the rod gripper assembly holding the drill rod in at least two directions of first, second and third directions, the drill rod being held in an orientation parallel with or essentially in parallel with a bottom plane,
- releasing the grip of the rod gripper assembly.
(canceled)
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.