Improvements in Machinery for Cutting Coal or other Minerals Driven by Electricity.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 13th Feb., 1891
Complete Specification Left, 12th Nov., 1891-Accepted, 12th Dec., 1891.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Machinery for Cutting Coal or other Minerals
Driven by Electricity.
We, LLEWELYN BIRCHALL ATKINSON and CLAUDE WILLIAM ATKINSON,
Civil Engineers, both of Woodfield Works, Harrow Road, W., in the County of
Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows
-
Our invention relates to machinery for cutting coal or other minerals driven by
electricity and especially to that class in which a disc cutter is employed.
Our invention consists first, in the relative arrangement of the cutting mechanism
to the motor which drives it and in the driving connecting gear and secondly, in
an improved construction of, disc cutter whereby greater efficiency may be attained
by the provision of means for maintaining the gearing driving the said cutter in a
properly lubricated condition also by preventing the clogging of the said gearing
by any dirt, coal, or other matter which would tend to interfere with the working
of the same.
We carry out our invention in the following ways:-
1st. The electro-motor to driving the cutter may be mounted upon a bed-plate
carried upon a suitable trolley and the cutting mechanism may be connected to the
said motor through one or more sets of gearing in order to obtain a sufficiently
slow peripheral speed of the cutter in relation to the high speed of the motor.
The gearing employed may be either of the ordinary straight, bevel, or helical
type.
The cutting disc or cutter may be suitably mounted either upon a bracket which
is fixed to, or is part of the side of the main bed-plate of the machine or the said
cutter may be mounted upon a swivelling arm which is capable of rotation about
the axis of one of the shafts of the intermediate gearing between the cutter and
the motor in or nearly in a horizontal plane.
As part of this arrangement of the relative position of the cutter to its motor
the cutter may be adjusted to cut at any height from the floor. In cases where it
is necessary or expedient to reduce the weights of individual parts of machinery,
we find it advisable to mount the motor and coal cutter upon separate trolleys and
connect them together by flexible connection. The mode of forming the connection
is as follows:
-
One or more universal or Hooke's joints connect the motor shaft to the shaft
driving the coal cutter, a suitable device being provided so as to permit the distance
between the two machines being varied to a certain extent. This may be effected
by allowing one of the connecting shafts provided with a feather on its surface of
considerable length to engage with a sleeve having a feather way the said sleeve
being attached to the part of the machine to which power is to be communicated
or vice versa. It is obvious that by this arrangement any unevenness of ground
which prevent the perfect alignment of the machines one to the other will not in
any way interfere with the smooth and efficient working of the said machines, such
unevenness being provided for by the universal joint or joints and sliding sleeves.
Another feature of this relative arrangement of motor to the cutter that the
wheel base of the cutting machine may be very short and thus follow more
accurately the inequalities of the floor.
We will now describe our improved form of cutter which is constructed to obviate
the difficulties before described:-
Instead of mounting the disc carrying the cutting tools upon a central shaft we
form the support for the said tools in the shape of a ring having recessed shoulders
upon the internal periphery and on each face. These said recesses fit over suitable

page_text: bearing plates to form the journal upon which the ring revolves, which may be
supplemented by antifriction rollers if desired.
We drive this said ring by means of teeth arranged upon the ring within the
space enclosed by the bearing plates so that the gearing is entirely enclosed and
the rubbing faces and the spaces between the said gearing and the ring and the
framework in which it works are so constructed as to retain to a reasonable extent
any lubricant that may be placed therein. The ring carrying the tools may be
made if desired in sections and separate from that part of the ring upon which the
teeth of the gearing are situated. A great advantage of this arrangement is that
when the cutters are worn out or blunt, the machine can be stopped, and the outer
ring supporting the cutter may be removed in two or three pieces, and replaced by
other sections having fresh cutters, thus considerably reducing the time entailed in
equipping the machines with a fresh set of cutting tools.
Another advantage is that by protecting the larger amount of the rotating
surface of the cutter at the top and bottom by the bearing plates supporting the
same any risk of jamming by the falling of the material during the cutting of the
same is obviated and the cutter therefore absorbs considerably less power than
where the whole surface is exposed.
Dated this 12th dox of Fahru 1901
FELL & WILDING,
1, Queen Victoria Street, London, E.C., Agents for the Applicants.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Machinery for Cutting Coal or other Minerals
Driven by Electricity.
We, LLEWELYN BIRCHALL ATKINSON and CLAUDE WILLIAM ATKINSON,
Civil Engineers, both of Woodfield Works, Harrow Road, W., in the County of
Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement :―
Our invention relates to machinery for cutting coal or other mineral, driven by
electricity and especially to that class in which a disc cutter is employed.
Our invention consists in the relative arrangement of the cutting mechanism to
the motor which drives it and in the driving connecting gear and secondly in an
improved construction of disc cutter whereby greater efficiency may be attained by
the provision of means for maintaining the gear driving the said cutter in a properly
lubricated condition also by preventing the clogging of the said gearing by any
dirt, coal or other matter which would tend to interfere with the working of the
same.
In order that our invention may be the better understood we will now proceed
to describe our invention in relation to the drawings hereunto annexed reference
being had to the letters and figures marked thereon.
Like letters refer to like parts in the various figures.
Figure 1 is an end sectional elevation of our machine, the section being on the
line X X.
Figure 2 is a side elevation.
Figure 3 is a plan.
Figure 4 is a view showing the entting machine and dynamo flexibly connected
to one another.
Figure 5 is a detail of the tool carrying ring.
Figure 6 is a plan of the same.
Figure 7 is a side view showing the method of attachment of the segments of
the tool carrying ring to one another.
We carry out our invention as follows :-
The electro motor A for driving the cutter is mounted upon a framework B

page_text: carried upon wheels C which are adapted to be regulated in relation to the frame-
work B by means of screws c having square heads, so as to be turned by a handle
or spanner.
The screws engage with nuts situated within the wheel bracket c' each nut
carrying an axle upon which a wheel C is supported.
It is obvious that by this means the machine can be raised or lowered in relation
to the ground as may be desired.
The field magnets of the dynamo A form part of the framework B.
Upon the dynamo shaft a bevel cogged wheel D is fixed and gears with a large
wheel E, which through wheels F, G, H drives the ring I which carries the tools.
The whole of the gearing from the dynamo is mounted upon an arm or bracket L
adapted to rotate about the axis of the wheel E to permit the cutter being turned
into or out from the face of the coal.
This is effected by means of a shaft b carried in bearings on the framework B,
having a thread or worm which gears with suitable teeth arranged around the
turntable which is supported on the framework B and carries the arm L.
The gearing from the dynamo to the cutter is so proportioned as to give a
sufficiently slow peripheral speed of the latter in relation to the high speed of the
former.
The gearing employed may be either of the ordinary straight, bevel, or helical
type.
In cases where it is necessary or expedient to reduce the weights of individual
parts of machinery we find it advisable to divide the framework B and mount the
motor or dynamo on one part and the coal cutting mechanism on the other, in
Figure 4 we show the machine thus arranged.
The shaft of the motor A is connected by a flexible connection a formed of one
or more universal or Hooke's joints to the shaft d of the cutting machine.
The shaft d is adapted to freely slide within the boss of the wheel D and is
provided with a feather way into which a feather on the wheel D
through which the driving effect is produced.
engages, and
An adjustable coupling rod K is arranged on each side of the machine attached
to an axle on each divided part of the machine by which the distance between the
two parts may be adjusted as desired.
It is obvious that by these means any unevenness of the ground which may
prevent the perfect alignment of the machines one to the other will not in any way
interfere with the smooth and efficient working of the machine.
Another feature of this relative arrangement of the motor to the cutter is that
the wheel base of the cutting machine may be very short and thus follow more
accurately the inequalities of the floor.
We will now describe our improved form of cutting device.
Instead of mounting the disc or ring I upon a central shaft we form it as an
annulus having recessed shoulders i upon the internal periphery and on each face.
These said recesses fit over the bearing plates N N' which form a journal upon
which the ring revolves.
These bearing plates which are rigidly attached to or form part of the arm L
are maintained and supported at the proper distance apart by a central piece n
which is preferably formed integral with the plate N, and is of such a size and
nature that should a large body of coal fall upon it when under the face it will
resist flexure and thus prevent the cutting disc being jammed in its bearing.
It is also obvious that the amount of rotating surface exposed to the weight of
superincumbent material is much reduced in comparison to a complete disc only
the projecting surfaces of the ring I being exposed to friction which latter is
much reduced as the weight of the material is taken mainly by the bearing
plate N N¹.
Antifriction rollers n¹ may be provided between the ring I and the periphery of
the distance piece n to further reduce the iournal friction.

page_text: Around that part of the ring I situated between the bearing plates N N¹ we
arrange teeth O which gear with the wheel H and are driven thereby.
By this arrangement the gearing is entirely enclosed and the rubbing surfaces
are kept continually lubricated by grease or other lubricant situated in the spaces
between the gearing and the ring I and the framework in which it works.
The surfaces may be provided with a groove or grooves to better retain the
lubricant as shewn in Figure 5 at i'.
The cutting tools R may be carried direct by the ring I or preferably by a
ring S divided into two or more segments and supported on and driven by the
ring I.
In Figure 5 we show the ring I with a groove and the ring S lying therein,
projections & and recesses s¹ being arranged on the former and latter respectively
through which the driving of the ring S is effected as shown in Figure 6.
The segments of the ring S are connected together by cutters T engaging with
lugs or earst on the segments which are interposed between one another as shown
in Figure 7.
A great advantage of this arrangement is that when the cutters are worn out
or blunt the machine can be stopped and the ring S with its cutters removed,
being replaced by another segmental ring with sharp cutters thus considerably
reducing the time entailed in equipping the machine with a fresh set of cutting
tools.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what we
claim is :-
1st. A machine for cutting coal or other mineral consisting of an electro motor
mounted upon a framework supported on wheels and connected by a shaft through
one or more sets of gearing to an annular disc or ring carrying the cutting tools,
adapted to revolve on bearing plates attached to or forming a part of an arm
supported on the said framework and adapted to rotate in or about in a horizontal
plane about the axis of one of the sets of gearing.
2nd. In a machine for cutting coal or other minerals the ring carrying the.
cutting tools in combination with two rigid bearing plates, between and upon the
edge of which the said tool ring is journalled with or without antifriction rollers,
substantially as described.
3rd. In a machine for cutting coal or other mineral a revolving disc or ring for
carrying the tools in combination with a ring in segments detachably attached to
one another supporting the cutting tools and adapted to be driven by the said
carrying ring or disc, substantially as described.
4th. In a machine for cutting coal or other mineral the electro motor on one part
of the divided framework in combination with the cutting machine on the other part
of the divided framework, the two parts being flexibly and adjustably connected
together by adjustable coupling rods and a universal sliding jointed shaft con-
necting the gearing between the motor and the cutting machine, substantially as
and for the purpose specified.
5th. The construction and arrangement of a machine for cutting coal or other
mineral substantially as described and illustrated by the accompanying drawings.
Dated this 12th day of November 1891.
FELL & WILDING,
1, Queen Victoria Street, London, E.C., Agents for the Applicants.