US 6,056,481 AGranted

Method and device for monitoring the load on hydraulic powered shield supports for underground mining

AssigneeDBT Automation GmbH

InventorsWilly Watermann, Walter von der Linden, Wilfried Weigel

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Abstract

According to the invention, monitoring the load on hydraulic powered shield supports in underground use is performed by using the controller (13) serving for extraction control, which is equipped with microelectronics for load monitoring and load control, the components of the powered shield support being assigned sensors (14 to 18) whose electric measured values are used by the controller (13) for evaluating the measured signals and for driving the hydraulic rams (6, 7) and/or the angle cylinder (11) assigned to the powered shield support. The load control is preferably designed here in such a way that the critical load situations "one-sided loading" and/or "tip-toeing" are detected as early as during the setting operation, with the aid of appropriate sensors, and are rendered non-damaging in their effect by appropriately driving the hydraulic rams and/or the angle cylinder.

Claims23

Dependent claims

A hydraulic powered shield support for an underground mine having a floor and a roof, the support comprising:

a) a floor skid for resting on the floor of the mine;
b) at least one lemniscate linkage attached to said floor skid;
c) a canopy attached to said at least one lemniscate linkage for supporting the roof of the mine;
d) at least one pair of main hydraulic cylinders being left-side and right-side rams and arranged between said floor skid and said canopy;
each main hydraulic cylinder having an extended length and an hydraulic setting pressure;
e) a pressure sensor assigned to each main hydraulic cylinder and measuring said hydraulic setting pressure therein and generating pressure signals in response thereto;
and
f) an electronic controller receiving said pressure signals from said pressure sensors, and in response thereto, if necessary, driving an appropriate main hydraulic cylinder accordingly to do one of eliminate and suppress potentially critical load situations from occurring and damaging said support.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.