Patent ID: 9309642
Filing Date: 2016-04-12
CPC Classification: E02F

Claim Text:
1. A subsea mining tool comprising: a subsea vehicle including a suction mouth mounted on the front of the vehicle, wherein the suction mouth is operable to be pushed into sediment, and wherein the suction mouth comprises a hollow body having an entrance opening and an exit opening, wherein the body converges from the entrance opening towards the exit opening, the entrance opening has a lower lip and an upper lip, and wherein the upper lip comprises an extension projecting forwardly and upwardly relative to the lower lip to form a canopy over the entrance opening, wherein the suction mouth further comprises: a valve on the body downstream of the entrance opening which is operable to selectively provide a further entrance opening into the body; and wherein the subsea mining tool further comprises a detection system for detection of different layers of sediment to be mined, detection of obstacles and monitoring the path of the tool.