Leveling apparatus for and method of filling an oven chamber of a coke-oven battery

An apparatus for charging coal into a coking oven having a battery of longitudinally extending and transversely spaced coking chambers each provided with a plurality of downwardly open and longitudinally spaced filling holes, the apparatus comprising:

• filling transversely traveling equipment for charging coal into the chambers through the respective filling holes;
• a respective longitudinally movable leveling rod in each of the chambers for leveling coal charged by the filling equipment into the chambers through the filling holes;
• sensors provided on the leveling rods for scanning from above points on a surface of the coal charged through the holes into the respective chambers, the points being transversely and longitudinally spaced to form a grid with the points transversely spaced such that there are at least five of the points between each of the filling holes and a transversely adjacent filling hole of an adjacent chamber and longitudinally between two adjacent filling holes of the same chamber;
• and
• control means connected to the sensors for recording a respective measurement corresponding to a vertical position of the surface at each the points of the grid and for determining from the measurements thereof a three-dimensional filling-level profile of the surface of the charged coal for controlling operation of the filling equipment and filling of the chambers with the coal.