The present invention relates to a material loading assembly used in mining equipment, and particularly a loading arm assembly that has a specially configured spacer connector to improve the manner in which the loading arm assembly is attached to the equipment using the loading arms.
In the mining industry, mining equipment, particularly coal mining equipment, includes a cutting head, a conveyor, and coal loading arms for directing the coal removed by the cutting head to the conveyor.
Typically, the loading arms are mounted on a gear box that rotates the loading arms to direct the mined coal to the conveyor. A spacer (not shown) is used to separate the loading arms from the pan in the interest of clearing the conveyor chain. The loading arms attach to the gear box with long bolts passing through the spacer in a passive manner. There is no attachment other than the spacer being located by keys and encapsulated between the loading arms and the gear box under pressure of the long bolts.
Over time, these bolts will stretch due to the operation of the loading arms and the loading arms can become separated from the gear box and cause severe damage to the mining equipment.
To lessen the possibility of failure due to the bolts stretching, the spacer is removed and the loading arms are bolted directly to the gearbox allowing the use of shorter bolts. A new problem is created when the spacer is removed. In this configuration, the loading arms are positioned much closer to the conveyor. As the conveyor chain wears and slack is generated in the same, the conveyor chain can come into contact with the ends of the loading arms. This damages both components and creates possible source of an explosion hazard. The contact between the conveyor chain and the loading arms can create sparks in an area that is prone to methane concentration, if any is present, in the course of that particular mine's operations.
As such, there is a need to provide an improved loading arm designed to avoid these complications during mining equipment operation.
The invention is an improved loading arm assembly for a coal mining machine. The improved loading arm assembly includes a loading arm and a spacer connector that replaces the conventional loading arms and spacers of the prior art.
The loading arm is configured to removably attach to the spacer connector and the spacer connector, in turn is configured to removably attach to the driving mechanism of a mining machine.
The invention also includes a method of removing coal from a mining site using the inventive loading arm assembly on a mining machine. The mining machine can be one that uses a cutting head or one that does not.
The loading arm is also unique in comparison to the prior art loading arms as it contains one or more features like the ability to attach to spacer connector without the need for the long bolts used in prior art attachments and additional and peripheral key way slots that improve the positioning of the loading arm in the assembly.
The spacer connector is also unique in comparison to the prior art spacers in its dual ability to removably attach to both a loading arm and the driving mechanism, e.g., a gear box, again without the long bolts that are typically found in the prior art loading arm assemblies.
The invention provides an improved loading arm assembly that is more securely attached to the gear box of the mining equipment and has less tendency to separate therefrom and damage the mining equipment using the loading arms.
One embodiment of the inventive loading arm assembly is shown in
The loading arm 21 is similar to the arm disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,506,017 to Southern, which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. This loading arm has improved wear features at the ends of the arms. It should be understood that the inventive assembly could use other types of loading arms as well.
The spacer connector 23 has two functions. One is that the spacer connector is made with a thickness to provide a spacing function between the loading arm and a gear box or driving mechanism for the loading arm assembly that is part of the mining equipment using the loading arms. Although an actual gear box is not shown, it is represented by the structure designated by reference 26 in
The other function of the spacer connector is actually a dual function in that the spacer provides a mounting place for the loading arm such that the spacer connector and loading arm are connected together and the spacer connector is also attachable to the gear box.
The spacer connector 23 is shown by itself in
The top surface also includes a first set of threaded openings 31, which are designed to receive a threaded bolt to connect the spacer connector to the loading arm as described below. A second set of openings 33 are included in the spacer connector 23. This second set of openings 33 are through openings that allow a bolt 36 to pass through the openings 33 and threadably attach to the gear box of the mining equipment.
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Typically, the gear box will have a riser that is sized to enter a portion of the opening 28 in the spacer connector. As a result of this configuration, the bolts 57 for the cap assembly 23, which extend below the loading arm 21 as shown in
Because the loading arm 21 is removably attachable to the spacer connector 23 and the spacer connector 23 is removably attachable to the gear box, shorter bolts can be used for both attachments. Typically, the bolt length is up to about 8 inches when a loading arm is attached to a gear box with a conventional spacer positioned between the two. This length is necessary as the prior art spacers are usually in the range of 70 to 80 mm. The inventive assembly allows much shorter bolt lengths, e.g., 3.5 inches, and the problem of stretching of the long bolts is avoided. The fasteners connecting the spacer to the gearbox are captured by the offset nature of the bolt holes. The loading arm covers the first set of mounting holes in the spacer connector once the two are attached. This prevents the lower mounting fasteners from coming completely out of the gearbox.
Referring to
The bottom surface 59 of the spacer connector can also have keyway slots 63 and metal machine keys 64, see
When the cap assembly 25 is used, the loading arm 21 top surface 34, see
The underside surface 69 also has keyway slots 73 and 75, with slots 73 along an inner portion of the center portion of the loading arm and slots 75 positioned along the outer periphery of the center portion of the loading arm. As described above, the metal machine keys 49 engage both the keyway slots in the top surface 27 of the spacer connector 23 and the keyway slots in the underside surface 69 of the loading arm 21 for alignment of these two components.
In use, a pair of inventive loading arm assemblies would be secured to a driving mechanism of a mining machine and rotated by a driving mechanism to direct mined coal that is dropped into the pan below the loading arms to the conveyor of the mining machine for removal from the mining site.
While it is typical for a mining machine to use a pair of loading arms, the inventive loading arm assembly could be used singularly if the mining equipment dictated such use.
As such, an invention has been disclosed in terms of preferred embodiments thereof which fulfills each and every one of the objects of the present invention as set forth above and provides a new and improved loading arm assembly design for mining equipment and its method of use.
Of course, various changes, modifications and alterations from the teachings of the present invention may be contemplated by those skilled in the art without departing from the intended spirit and scope thereof. It is intended that the present invention only be limited by the terms of the appended claims.
This application claims priority under 35 USC 119(e) based on application No. 62/687,842 filed on Jun. 21, 2018, and which is incorporated in its entirety in this application.
Number | Date | Country | |
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62687842 | Jun 2018 | US |