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US RE31,338 EGranted
Pump assembly driven by endless conveyor
AssigneeMefcor, Inc.
InventorFrank K. Hurt
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
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AssigneeMefcor, Inc.
InventorFrank K. Hurt
Estimating the term…
A pump assembly to be used for mining, and the like, is supported on rope-like members (32, 110, 112, 140, 181, 190) of an endless conveyer. In one type of embodiments a channel-shaped mounting member (20, 72, 138, 164, 192) of the pump assembly straddles the rope-like support members and allows the weight distribution of the pump assembly to cause a drive wheel (16, 68, 142, 146, 196) of the pump assembly to come into contact with the endless conveyer (28, 144, 198) to thereby drive a pump (18, 76, 134, 160, 182) of the pump assembly. In a particular one of these types of embodiments the pump (134) is mounted inside the rope-like support member (140) to urge the drive wheel (142) downwardly against the return portion (144) of the endless conveyer and in other particular ones of these types of embodiments the pump (18, 76, 160) is located outside the rope-like support member (32, 181 [164]) so that the drive wheel (16, 68, 146) is urged upwardly against the conveying portion (28) of the endless conveyer. In one embellishment a centrifugal pump (76) is used in combination with a speed increasing linkage system (78) to drive the centrifugal pump (76) sufficiently fast to provide adequate pumping. In another embellishment, which can be used with the above mentioned embodiments or in a separate embodiment, the pump assembly is positioned so that its drive wheel (16, 126) only contacts the endless conveyer (28) when the endless conveyer is loaded. This embellishment does not necessarily require pivoting about a single rope-like support member, rather, such a pump assembly can be mounted on rope-like support members (110, 112) on opposite sides of the conveyer. Another type of embodiments employs a pump (182) mounted on the ground being driven by a flexible linkage (186) extending from a seesaw type energy take-off system.
A liquid evacuation system comprising:
A liquid pump assembly to be mounted on a rope-like member of an endless conveyor support, said rope-like member being positioned adjacent to and extending parallel with, an endless conveyer having conveying and return portions for engaging said endless conveyer to be thereby powered, said liquid pump assembly comprising:
An energy take-off assembly to be mounted on rope-like members of an endless conveyer support, said rope-like members being positioned on opposite sides of, and extending parallel with, an endless conveyer having conveying and return portions for engaging said endless conveyer to be thereby powered, said energy take-off assembly comprising:
In a belt conveyor drive system for underground mines, the combination with a conveyor including an endless belt having vertically spaced advance and return flights, whereof the advance flight rides on a pulley assembly supported at sides on side members extending substantially the length of the conveyor, of a pump assembly comprising a drive roller drivable off the advance flight, a pump drivably connected to said drive roller, a base mounting said drive roller and pump, and connector means connected to said base for releasably mounting said pump assembly in any selected operative position longitudinally of the conveyor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.