Method and apparatus for controlling a mining machine, specifically a longwall mining machine, of the type in which the mining machine is advanced into a mineral seam by an advancing motor and a rotating mineral-cutting element on the machine is driven by a cutter drive motor. The invention resides in the realization that the specific cutting work of the machine, which is the work required to mine and remove a given unit of mined material, can be minimized by minimizing the differential quotient...

This disclosure relates to a mining machine of the type having a driven winch which has its drive output sprocket engaging a displaced portion of a chain which normally extends along the entire length of the mine face. The displacement portion of the chain occurs between guide rollers on the mining machine. The chain is secured by a plurality of holding devices such as catches clamps or locking devices which are distributed at closely, spaced-apart locations along the length of the chain. As the...

Water is discharged from spray nozzles toward cutting tools of a drum-cutting mining machine only during the actual time when material is released from the face of a mine. A pulse generator is driven by the traversing drive of the mining machine. The pulse output is fed to a controller which may include a computer that also receives an enabling signal produced by the secondary winding of a transformer in the power supply lines for the drive motor which is used to rotate the cutting drums of the ...

The winning tool carried for universal movement by the frame of a tunneling machine is controlled by a system and method to limit tool movement in a manner to form a tunnel with a desired cross section. Positioning of the winning tool is determined in relation to a laser beam projecting along the length of the tunnel while the range of universal movement by the winning tool is limited by a set of tool coordinate values determined by scanning a pattern, template or the like defining an outline th...

The displacement of a cutting tool carried by a pivot arm for universal movement on a tunneling machine is controlled to produce a tunnel having a desired profile by producing position signals representing a measured set of perpendicularly-related pivot angles corresponding to the relative position of the cutting tool with respect to the central axis of the tunneling machine when located at a set-point position at the heading face of the tunnel. Second position signals are generated after anchor...

The range of movement by a winning tool of a tunneling machine is controlled to release material from a heading wall to form a tunnel having a desired profile. The tunneling machine carries gyroscope detectors and a detector for a laser beam which is projected along a desired tunnel heading. Such detectors provide electrical signals corresponding to a position change of the tunneling machine. Position transducers, coupled with counters, provide electrical signals corresponding to perpendicular p...

A spill-plate housing extends along one side of the course of travel by a mining machine. A flexible cutter cable and water conduit are carried from the mining machine by a carrier arm for extending into the spill-plate housing by projecting through a longitudinal slot formed in a faceplate of the housing. Upper and lower resilient apron strips are secured to the faceplate so that their longitudinal edges abut along the longitudinal center of the slot. Vertical support pipes are secured to the f...

A mining machine having a cutting roller supported by a pivotable supporting arm and rotatable about a horizontal axis, in which said cutting roller is equipped with a conveying shield pivotable about the axis of said roller while a ramp is connected to the machine carriage and ascends from the floor of the seam of the rock being mined to the upper edge of the long wall conveying means, both ends of said ramp carrying confining walls curved in conformity with the curvature of the conveying shiel...

A coal mining machine movable between the coal seam and a conveyor, which by means of mining tools cuts the coal seam in front of the machine and which by means of a driving sprocket wheel engages a chain substantially parallel to the conveyor while a guiding rail is provided adjacent the mining machine which guiding rail has an inner substantially cylindrical surface with a longitudinal slot having a width at least wide enough to permit insertion of a chain into the guiding rail, said chain bei...

A mining machine having a frame with a roller cutter projecting laterally therefrom and with a shield member on the frame in front of and behind the roller cutter. Each shield member is swingable from a retracted position parallel to the frame to a shielding position parallel to the axis of the roller cutter. Short links pivotally connect one side edge of each shield member to the frame and longer struts are connected between each shield member and the frame and a fluid motor is connected betwee...