Apparatus for advancing a low-height drift through a subterranean structure

摘要

An apparatus for cutting a flat elongated channel, chamber or passage in subterranean strata, e.g. a crosscut between two mine galleries or shafts, which comprises upper and lower shoes or shields which can be spread apart by a fluid-cylinder system and to which a frame is connected by further fluid cylinders, this frame carrying an excavating worm whose flights are formed with picks for removing the face of the channel to be advanced. A conveyor extends past the frame or through the latter to carry rearwardly the detritus excavated by the worm.