U.S. patent number 3,774,547 [Application Number 05/091,004] was granted by the patent office on 1973-11-27 for transport system for underground mining.
Invention is credited to Dieter Hoffmann, Hans Widiger.
United States Patent |
3,774,547 |
Widiger , et al. |
November 27, 1973 |
TRANSPORT SYSTEM FOR UNDERGROUND MINING
Abstract
A transport system for underground mining in which the cars,
including the tractor and the trailer cars, have a plurality of
supporting wheels in the form of flanged rollers provided with
concavely curved surfaces which engage a track consisting of a pair
of longitudinally extending convexly curved rails, the flanged
rollers being inclined downwardly and outwardly so that only a
portion of the roller bears against the cylindrical rail. The rails
are carried by eccentric brackets which are secured to ties in the
form of upright U-beams. The axles for the rollers are mounted for
convenient removal for replacement purposes. The car is made up of
a pair of horizontal plates, one of which rotates relative to the
other about a central pivot. A cylindrical arm is carried on each
side of the swingable plate as support elements. The cars, except
for the tractor, are equipped with safety brakes for clamping
engagement with the rails, and these are spring urged to braking
position, but are retained away from braking position by fluid
pressure. A cable traction drive is provided for the tractor, the
cable of which is guided between flange rollers mounted on the
track between the rails. Also arranged on the track between the
rails are idler cable guide rollers.
Inventors: |
Widiger; Hans
(Oberhausen-Sterkrade, DT), Hoffmann; Dieter
(Hattingen, DT) |
Family
ID: |
22225302 |
Appl.
No.: |
05/091,004 |
Filed: |
November 19, 1970 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
104/244; 295/34;
238/134 |
Current CPC
Class: |
B61D
11/00 (20130101); B61B 9/00 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
B61B
9/00 (20060101); B61D 11/00 (20060101); B61b
013/00 () |
Field of
Search: |
;238/62,134,135
;295/1,44,34,7 ;104/106,107,109,112,118,119,244,138,139
;105/141,144 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Forlenza; Gerald M.
Assistant Examiner: Saifer; Robert
Claims
We claim:
1. Transport system for underground mining comprising
a car,
wheels on opposite sides of said car for supporting same,
said wheels constituting flanged rollers of the cable guiding
type,
an axle for each roller inclining downwardly and inwardly so that
the axles on opposite sides incline toward each other,
a track comprising a pair of longitudinally extending laterally
spaced convexly curved rotatably adjustable rails along which said
rollers travel,
said rails considering them as quadrants of circular pipes
constitute the upper right and left quadrants of such circular
pipes, respectively, against which the roller portions adjacent the
inner side flanges bear only, and
the spacing of the inner side flanges of said rollers being less
than the gauge of said track,
whereby the inner side flanges of said rollers enclose the bearing
contact with the inner side of said track so that the latter is
gripped to effect stability and forced guidance of the rollers
therewith, and when the rails wear they may be rotatably adjusted
to present other bearing surfaces for further use.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to equipment for a railway for underground
mining, whose rolling stock is guided laterally for passing through
horizontal and vertical curves on a track composed of horizontal
bars.
Such rails replace to an increasing degree the monorail, overhead
chain and trolley conveyors developed for the handling of
underground material and passenger transportation, because they are
left suspended on the floor level instead of in cooperation with
the superstructure timbering or walling. These rails differ from
the track of miners' trams or narrow gauge field railroads using
the profile of the mine. Furthermore, through their forced guidance
it is possible for them to pass without difficulty through
depressions, in addition to sharp horizontal curves.
It is already known that for decreasing the width or gauge of such
a railway, the rail is constructed out of angle sections on which
the car wheels travel and guide rolls are provided for forcefully
guiding the cars in a longitudinal plane. The large number of
wheels required in this connection is disadvantageous. These wheels
also strain the track to an appreciable degree, and the wear
occasioned thereby may be overcome through the replacement of the
worn rails. On the whole, the investment and operational costs of
these rails are too high.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention provides a rail track, which in spite of forced
guidance employs relatively few rollers and the rails constituting
the track can be used again after they are worn.
In accordance with the invention, the wheels for the track consist
of rollers whose planes are inclined slantingly to the center of
the track and have concavely formed bearing surfaces. The rails on
which such rollers travel have convexly curved bearing surfaces,
whereby for the forced guidance of the car in each case one of the
two of the roller flange portions engages the rail.
The slanting inclination of the planes of the rollers to the center
of the track imparts to the track on the one hand, the necessary
stability, and on the other hand, it permits an engagement with the
inner side of the rails so that forced guidance of the car results
in the vertical curves. As a consequence the guide rolls previously
required are not necessary.
Furthermore, such a track enables the rails of the track to be
constructed so that their curved bearing surfaces lie on the inner
and on the outer side of the rail, so that when wear of the rails
occurs, they may be reversed and can then be used again. These
rails are suitably formed of cylindrical steel profiles or section
shapes. Especially hollow profiles can be used to advantage, such
as pipes or tubes.
The change of the bearing surfaces of the rails when wear occurs
requires a special mounting enabling simple rotation of the rails.
The steel profiles or tubes forming the rails are fixed on brackets
offset eccentrically to their longitudinal central plane and these
brackets are secured by holders which are fixed to the cross ties
for the rails. These ties may consist of U-beams which have their
legs extending upwardly. The steel profiles or pipes forming the
track are disposed on the ends of the horizontal bars, and can be
aligned free from gaps. With the ordinary lengths of horizontal
bars, which is about 3 m., a sufficient swivel or swinging
capability of the track exists to cover without difficulty
depressions and ridges.
On a track composed of such horizontal bars, the cars travel on
wheels, which may be formed of rope guide rollers provided with
concave bearing or rolling surfaces. These rollers may consist
entirely or at least on the bearing surfaces of synthetic material,
in order to reduce the noise. It is advisable to provide the
bearing for the roller axles with access slots which extend
parallel to the rails to enable the ready replacing of rollers.
The rolling stock for the road comprises a car constructed as
tractor, whereby the other railroad cars are coupled to the tractor
and each is equipped with safety brakes. This has the advantage
that the driving energy needs to be imparted only to one car, and
the danger of the other cars becoming cableless is avoided.
The tractor may have relatively small dimensions and in this case
is provided with additional ballast. For this purpose a reserve
cable drum is mounted thereon and an oil tank with pressure
generating pump is also carried by the tractor.
The cars may have a relatively great load capacity, if they are
sufficiently long. This requires a special arrangement of the
wheels. For this purpose the cars are provided with trucks having
pivot mountings supported cardanically on their substructure. The
pivot mountings may assume a roller coefficient sufficient for the
transfer of the static and dynamic forces, and the support of the
pivot mountings or trucks makes possible the traveling free from
difficulty of narrow curves in the horizontal or the vertical.
The cardanic support of the pivot mounting is achieved by having
the pivot mounting connected through a vertical central pivot or
king pin with a transverse carrier, which has two horizontal
bearings for two arms arranged on oppositely disposed longitudinal
sides of the vehicle chassis. This transverse carrier may be
constructed as a plate which rotates on a corresponding plate of
the pivot mounting and carries on its sides parallel with the
longitudinal sides of the vehicle, brackets for the horizontal
bearing. The longitudinal arms for the transverse bearing are
suitably formed of pipes.
The safety buffers or brakes for the cars necessary upon
utilization of a tractor are suitably constructed as rail brakes
through the use of brake clips or grippers which are resiliently
tensioned in applied direction and released hydraulically. To this
end a regulator regulates the pressure in the brake cylinder which
acts against a spring and is supplied with pressure from a brake
oil tank on the tractor. On each pivot mounting or truck a safety
buffer or brake of this type is arranged.
The tractor may be equipped with a built in drive, but it may
employ a cable drive and in this case only the tractor would have a
cable carrier. The forced guidance of the traction cable is secured
by rollers whose axles are mounted on leaf springs, which are
secured to a fishplate fastened to rail ties. The forced guidance
of the traction cable may lie in the middle or center of the
roadway, and this is particularly desirable because they offer no
obstruction to the operation of the railroad.
The forced guidance of the traction cable along curves takes place
by means of having the roller planes inclined slantingly. In
vertical curves, in any case at least two rollers are required. The
planes of the guide rollers are arranged in the direction of travel
of the road consecutively to one another, and the rollers adjacent
to one another are inclined oppositely to one another, so that the
upper roller flanges overlap mutually and project beyond the center
of the traction cable passage. The traction cable carrier moves the
rollers consecutively against the force of their leaf springs, so
that as a result, the roller window formed by the two rollers
remains closed.
It is in any case advisable also to provide a roller guidance for
the empty or idler cable. The idler cable roller guide may consist
at least partially of two roller windows. Both rollers forming a
two roller window lie in a common plane, which forms an angle with
the plane of the rails.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a side view of a track section;
FIG. 2 is a plan view of the track section shown in FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is an end view of the track section shown in FIG. 1;
FIG. 4 is a side view of a tractor car with housing removed;
FIG. 5 is a front view of the tractor shown in FIG. 4;
FIG. 6 is a front view of the trailer car showing particularly the
safety brakes;
FIG. 7 is a side view partly broken away of a freight car;
FIG. 8 is a front view of the car shown in FIG. 7; and
FIG. 9 is a front view showing the traction cable guide means and
idler cable guide means.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
FIG. 8 shows that the wheels of the cars constitute rollers 1 of
the cable guiding type. These rollers have a concave cable bearing
or rolling surface 2 and two roller flanges 3 and 4 which enclose
between them the cable bearing or rolling surface 2. The rollers
are mounted on axles or shafts 5, which are mounted in bearing
brackets 6 and 7.
The center plane for the rollers is indicated in FIG. 8 by broken
lines 9 and 10, respectively. The rollers are inclined inwardly on
one side of the roadway from the outside with the roller planes 9
forming with the horizontal an angle of 45.degree. on the other
side of the track with the center planes 10 from the outside
inwardly, whereby the inclinations are equal to each other.
As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the track sections consist of two rails,
which in this instance consist of pipes 11 or 12. Each pipe has at
its ends fastening plates 15 and carrier plates 16, which are also
arranged in the middle of the pipe. The fastening plates 15 have
bores 17 for screws, which extend through corresponding bores in
brackets 14, which are fixed to ties 18. These ties consist of
U-beams which are arranged so that the webs 19 are utilized as
support or bearing, while the flanges 20 are upstanding and secured
to the brackets 14.
Several track sections of the type illustrated in FIGS. 1 to 3 may
be combined, whereby the ends 21 or 22 of the pipes 11 or 12,
respectively, forming the track may project flush in front of one
another.
As shown in FIG. 7, at the connecting point 25 between two rail
bars connected with one another, there exists a possibility of
distortion by the angle .alpha., which in the embodiment by way of
example amounts to about 4.degree.. In spite of the jointless
connection of the horizontal rail bars, therefore, the road may
overcome curves in both the vertical and horizontal planes.
As apparent from FIG. 8, the two rails of the track formed by the
pipes 11 or 12, respectively, have rollers 1 engaging their
convexly curved bearing or rolling surfaces 26. These bearing or
rolling surfaces lie in the right or left quadrants 27 or 28 of the
respective pipes. When the bearing or rolling surfaces 26 are worn,
the pipes 11 and 12 may be rotated, so that now the quadrant 29 of
the pipe attached to the upper quadrants 27 or 28, respectively,
may form the bearing or rolling surface. In view of this, the pipes
may be used repeatedly.
The forced guidance along the track takes place so that in each
case one of the two roller flange portions 3 or 4 which enclose the
roller bearing surface (in the embodiment by way of example of FIG.
8 this is the flange 3) grips the track. The spacing of the roller
flange 3 of two oppositely disposed rollers is less than the gauge
of the track consisting of the rails 11 and 12.
In order to be be able to exchange rollers, there are access slots
in the bearing brackets 6 and 7 for the axles 5 and these extend
parallel to the rails. This enables a roller to be removed readily
and replaced by another.
The gripping of the rails formed by the pipes 11 and 12 is achieved
by shifting the brackets 14 together with the fastening plates 15
or 16 mounted thereon, on the ties 18 to a position eccentrically
to the longitudinal center planes of the pipes.
The guidance rollers 1 forming the wheels of the railroad may be
entirely of synthetic material or have a bearing or rolling surface
covered with synthetic material, thereby to reduce the noise caused
by the wheels rolling along the tracks.
The rolling stock of the road consists first of a tractor, which is
illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5. The tractor has a chassis which is
formed by a platform or base plate 32, on which is mounted a brake
oil tank 33 with a pump 34 by which the required pressure of the
brake fluid may be secured in the tank 33. On the platform 32 is
seated a support 35 for a cable drum 36, which is actuated as
reserve drum. The purpose of this arrangement is to provide the
tractor 38 with sufficient ballast. Over the parts 33 to 36 of the
tractor 38 on the platform 32, a housing (not shown) may be
placed.
Under the platform 32 is a cable guide 39 for the traction cable 40
arranged in the middle of the track. In addition, there are
disposed on the under side of the platform 32 brackets 42 for the
axles of the four rollers 43 in all, which form the wheels of the
car.
The other cars of the road are coupled with the tractor, and
although the road may haul in addition to freight cars, also
passenger cars, only one of the freight cars is illustrated in the
drawings. Such a freight car possesses a chassis which is formed by
two parallel arms 45 and 46 (FIG. 8) on each side of the car. Cross
bars 47 and 48 (FIG. 7) connect the two longitudinal arms 45 and 46
into a frame-like understructure on which two upright bearing
supports 49 are secured, which pertain to a tilting arrangement for
a trough 50. The arms 45 and 46 fit into bearing boxes 51 and 52,
respectively, carried by horizontal supporting tubes 53, which
project outwardly from brackets 54. The brackets 54 are mounted on
the upper side of a platform 56.
The platform 56 rotates about a central pivot or king pin (not
shown) lying on a plate 60 in the longitudinal center plane 59 of
the car. Each of these rotary understructures 61 (FIG. 7) is
provided with four wheels, which, as above described, are fastened
to the plate 60.
The rotary understructure 61 is mounted accordingly through the
vertical central pivot or king pin and through the two horizontal
bearings 52, 53 connected with the chassis of the car, so that even
with relatively great car lengths, each curve in the track may be
traversed in horizontal or vertical planes.
Except for the tractor car 38, the other cars 62 of the train are
suitably coupled together, but are not connected with the traction
cable 40 which is used as a drive. The cars 62 are equipped with
safety brakes which prevent a car from leaving the track in the
event a coupling breaks. The safety brakes are illustrated in FIG.
6. Identical brake clamps 64 or 65 are used on each rotary
understructure. Each clamp has two bell crank arms 66 or 67,
respectively, which may grasp by their curved short arms 68, 69 the
pipes 11 or 12, respectively. These short arms are maintained apart
by means of hydraulic pressure transmitted from the tank 33 and
pump 34 to a brake cylinder 70 containing piston rods 71 and 72. A
brake spring (not shown) applies the brake when the hydraulic
pressure in the cylinder 70 is released. As soon as a car 62 breaks
its connection with the tractor 38, the line between the brake
cylinder 70 and the tank 33 is broken and the delivery of hydraulic
pressure to the cylinders 70 is shut off, so that the brakes are
automatically applied by the springs. The brake 65 is illustrated
in FIG. 6 in applied condition.
The traction cable 40 is disposed normally in the center 63 of the
roadway and passes through a traction cable roller window 58 (FIG.
9). This traction cable roller window is formed by several cable
rollers arranged in the center of the roadway. The forced guidance
of the cable in vertical planes requires that two rollers 57, 57'
be utilized. These rollers are arranged consecutively in the track
and adjacent one another. Each roller has an axle 73, which is
mounted on a leaf spring 74. The leaf spring 74 is arranged on a
bracket plate 76 which is secured to the tie 18 of the track. The
two rollers 57 and 57' have roller planes 77 or 78, respectively,
which are inclined oppositely to each other. In addition, the upper
roller flanges 79 overlap the longitudinal center plane 63 of the
track and therefore also themselves.
Where a forced guidance of the cable in vertical direction is not
desired, horizontal cable rollers 80 are used. These rollers are
supported in brackets 81 which are secured to the ties 18. In
addition, these rollers have flanges 83, which prevent the traction
cable from running off.
The roadway has an idler cable roller guide which consists
partially of closed roller windows 85. Each window 85 is formed by
two cable rollers 86 and 87, whose planes 88 or 89 are flush with
one another. The common planes of both rollers form an angle with
the plane of the track. Both rollers are carried by a bracket 90,
which is secured to a tie of the track.
* * * * *