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US 3,968,995 AGranted
Continuous mining machine with a chain drive for the cutting head
AssigneeDresser Industries, Inc.
InventorEinar M. Arentzen
Life of this patent
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AssigneeDresser Industries, Inc.
InventorEinar M. Arentzen
Estimating the term…
A drive chain for transmitting power to a rotatable cutter head of a mining machine. The mining machine is of the type having a rotary cutter drum mounted at the forward end of the mining machine frame. The cutter drum has helical auger flights with cutter bits mounted on their periphery. Electric motors are provided on either side of the mining machine to provide power for rotating the cutter drum. A drive and cutter chain transmits the power from each electric motor to the rotary drum. The drive chain comprises roller chain links with offset sidebars. Each drive chain is relatively narrow having but a single row of links. Some of the links are cutter links which carry cutter bits. Selected portions of the cutter links and the sprockets are cut away to prevent entrapment and build up of foreign matter.
In a continuous mining machine having a frame mounted for movement toward a mine face, a mining head supported forward of the frame and supporting a rotatable cutter drum on an axis extending transverse to the direction of movement of the frame, rotary power means mounted on the frame, a drive sprocket connected to the power means, a driven sprocket connected to the cutter drum, and a cutter chain connecting said sprockets to transmit power from the power means to the cutter drum, the improvement wherein the chain comprises a succession of articulately connected roller chain links having a pair of spaced side bars connected to adjacent links by a pin and a roller rotatably mounted about said pin between the pair of side bars, wherein some of said links include bit support blocks which extend outwardly from said links opposite the sprocket engaging side of said links with sufficient space between the support block and adjacent rollers and under said support block to allow the teeth of the sprockets to fully engage the roller of said link and further having openings between the support and the rollers effective to allow trapped foreign material such as dirt or coal to escape therebetween as the sprocket teeth squeeze the material against the rollers and support blocks to lessen the build up of foreign matter between the sprockets and the chain;
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.