US 6,547,336 B2 · Open cast mining device and apparatus for testing the cutting minability of critical material

Abstract

A surface mining and testing apparatus and system provides for the adaptation of a surface miner to the specific geological conditions of a new area of use. The special features of the surface miner are the arrangement of the milling roller (5) in front of the chassis (1) in the direction of mining, the undershot direction of rotation of the milling roller (5), as well as the adjustability of the milling roller (5) in its height and transverse slope in relation to the level. These functional features are accomplished with the testing apparatus in order to obtain the same kinematic conditions as in the surface miner. To make it possible to extrapolate the results obtained with the testing apparatus to the surface miner, the parameters overall weight, drive output and throughput of the testing apparatus are used as constant, lower ratios in relation to the surface miner. The circumferential velocity of the cutting tools (13) and the force acting on each of the individual cutting tools (13) shall be equal in the testing apparatus and the surface miner. To achieve this, the velocity of travel of the apparatus, which is also the rate of feed, as well as the speed of rotation of the roller, which determines the circumferential velocity of the cutting tools (13), which is also the cutting speed at the same time, are variable. Since the testing apparatus is substantially smaller than the surface miner and the changing of relevant parameters of the apparatus is simpler, costs are saved during the technical adaptation of the surface miner to the specific geological conditions of the site of use.

Claims19

Dependent claims

A surface mining and testing system comprising:

a small unit with an endless track chassis, an apparatus frame, a drive unit for driving the endless tracks, a milling roller arranged in front of said chassis with respect to a direction of travel, said milling roller being supported by said frame to rotate around a horizontal axis of rotation, substantially at right angles to the direction of travel, to operate with undershot, to be raised and lowered and to extend over an entire width of the apparatus, the milling roller including cutting tools, guide plates, ejection plates and a ring chute in functional connection with said milling roller;
a large unit with a large unit endless track chassis, a large unit apparatus frame, a large unit drive for driving the a large unit endless tracks, a large unit milling roller arranged in front of said large unit chassis with respect to a direction of travel, said a large unit milling roller being supported by said a large unit frame to rotate around a horizontal axis of rotation, substantially at right angles to the direction of travel, to operate with undershot, the large unit milling roller including large unit cutting tools, an overall weight, drive output and throughput of the small unit being set relative to said large unit at a defined ratio, and a circumferential velocity of said cutting tools and a force acting on said cutting tool being substantially the same as a circumferential velocity of said large unit cutting tools and a force acting on said large unit cutting tools and a speed of rotation of said roller and a rate of feed can be varied continuously to optimize mining output.

A method for designing a full scale surface miner for a specific environment, the method comprising the steps of:

providing a test apparatus with a milling roller having a plurality of cutting tools, a test weight, a test drive with a test output power and a test capacity;
operating said test apparatus in the specific environment;
varying a feed rate and a rotational speed of said milling roller during said operating to provide an optimized mining output;
measuring an optimum circumferential velocity of said cutting tools and an optimum cutting tool force of said test apparatus operating at said optimized mining output;
providing the full scale surface miner with a milling roller having a plurality of cutting tools, a full scale weight, a full scale drive with a full scale output power and a full scale capacity;
designing said full scale weight, said full scale output power and said full scale capacity to be greater than said test weight, said test output power and said test capacity by a predetermined ratio;
designing a circumferential velocity of said cutting tools and a cutting tool force of said full scale surface miner to be substantially similar to said optimum circumferential velocity of said cutting tools and said optimum cutting tool force of said test apparatus.

4 more elements

A surface mining system for a specific environment, the system comprising:

a test apparatus with a milling roller having a plurality of cutting tools, a test weight, a test drive with a test output power and a test capacity, said test apparatus having an optimum circumferential velocity of said cutting tools and an optimum cutting tool force to create an optimized mining output;
a full scale surface miner with a milling roller having a plurality of cutting tools, said full scale miner also having a full scale weight, full scale output power and full scale capacity greater than said test weight, said test output power and said test capacity by a predetermined ratio, said full scale miner having a circumferential velocity of said cutting tools and a cutting tool force substantially similar to said optimum circumferential velocity of said cutting tools and said optimum cutting tool force of said test apparatus.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Open cast mining device and apparatus for testing the cutting minability of critical material

Life of this patent

Open cast mining device and apparatus for testing the cutting minability of critical material

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims19