CONTINUOUS CUTTING AND GATHERING APPARATUS FOR A CONTINUOUS MINING MACHINE

摘要

A gathering structure for use on the mining head of a mining machine. The mining head includes a rotary drum having helical auger flights with cutter bits mounted on their periphery. A back up panel is disposed on the mining head just rearward and parallel to the rotary drum. A gathering head is located beneath the mining head. The gathering head includes front, vertical dozer blades on each side of a central conveyor throat. The dozer blades have their bottom edge at the floor and their upper portion extends upwardly to overlap the lower portion of the backup panel. The backup panel and dozer blade cooperate to form a continuous vertical wall behind the helical flights of the rotary drum. The mine face forms a corresponding wall in front of the helical flights. The loading of the cut mined material is achieved by the helical auger flights working in conjuncture with the backup panel and dozer blades and the mine face. The panel and dozer blades are positioned immediately behind the outer helical auger sections so that with the mine face they form the walls of a screw conveyor which moves the coal to the center of the machine and onto a small pitch mat chain conveyor disposed in the central conveyor throat. The mat chain conveys the material rearwardly to conventional flight conveyors. During the mining operation, the backup panel is moved up and down with the rotary drum relative to the dozer blade. To prevent spillage of mined material behind the dozer blade as the rotary drum is moved, the upper portion of the dozer blade is hinged and spring loaded to continuously hold it firmly against the backup panel.