Patent ID: 8348044

Claim:
A method of providing a conveying system for stacking material comprising: providing a mobile bridge conveyor having a tripper conveyor device, the tripper conveyor device having an upper end and a lower end opposite the upper end; providing a conveyor apparatus comprising: a frame and a cross conveyor, the frame having a base and a plurality of rotatable members attached to the base, the rotatable members configured to rotate to move the frame on ground such that the conveyor apparatus is moveable relative to the mobile bridge conveyor, the cross conveyor having a moveable belt sized and configured to receive and move material, the cross conveyor supported by the frame, the frame sized and configured to be positionable adjacent to the mobile bridge conveyor independent of the mobile bridge conveyor such that a portion of the cross conveyor is positionable under the upper end of the tripper conveyor device to receive material from the tripper conveyor device; and providing a controller communicatively connectable to at least one of the mobile bridge conveyor and the conveyor apparatus, the controller actuating movement of one of the mobile bridge conveyor and the frame of the conveyor apparatus to adjust a position of the one of the mobile bridge conveyor and the frame of the conveyor apparatus when the controller determines at least one of: (i) that the conveyor apparatus is positioned more than a first predetermined distance away from the mobile bridge conveyor, and (ii) that the conveyor apparatus is positioned less than a second predetermined distance away from the mobile bridge conveyor, the controller actuated movement of the one of the mobile bridge conveyor and the frame of the conveyor apparatus being performed such that the conveyor apparatus is within the first distance of the mobile bridge conveyor and is more than the second distance away from the mobile bridge conveyor; and the mobile bridge conveyor and conveyor apparatus configured to move material to a stacking area or a storage area to stack the material when positioned adjacent to each other such that the portion of the cross conveyor is positioned under the upper end of the tripper conveyor device to receive material from the tripper conveyor device.