Drilling tool magazine

Details Drilling tool magazine Drilling tool magazine

1999-03-26

2002-07-16

Pezzuto, Robert E. (Department: 3671)

Earth working

With drive means for tool or cleaner

Plural driven tools

C414S022620

Reexamination Certificate

active

06419029

ABSTRACT:

TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to the storage, by means of a drilling tool magazine, of elongated tools and workpieces whose cross section is at least approximately circular, particularly for horizontal boring machines. The present invention also relates to a horizontal boring machine combined with such a drilling tool magazine.
PRIOR ART
Special-purpose drilling equipment and corresponding drilling techniques are used both in deep drilling engineering and in horizontal boring engineering for laying pipelines and cables without digging trenches. In this way, articulated rotating drilling tools are forced through the earth and after reaching the target they are rotationally withdrawn again.
The drilling tool used here comprises individual drilling rods which have threads at their ends and are screwed together at these threads. During drilling, the drilling tool is produced by screwing together the individual drilling rods. During the withdrawal operation, the tool has to be broken up again, i.e. the individual drilling rods have to be successively unscrewed from one another.
During the process of screwing and unscrewing, the drilling rods have to be held between the drilling drive and the end of the drilling tool. It is also advantageous to store them close to the drilling machine until the individual drilling rods are used.
To store the individual drilling rods, magazine storage systems are known in which it was intended to be possible to successively remove the drilling rods out of the magazine and position them on a drilling mount so that the drilling tool can be screwed. During the process of unscrewing the drilling tool, it was also intended to be possible to receive the rods and guide the drilling rods back into the magazine
Pipe magazines comprising chutes or throughput magazines that can be filled from above are for example known from the prior art, whereby inside the chutes or throughput magazines, the force of gravity causes the pipes to fall downwards in a straight line or to move downwards in a meandering shape.
An example of a known device for handling drilling rods is described in WO 96/26349 (see FIG.
13
). The known magazine has three vertical chutes
110
,
120
,
130
in which the drilling rods
100
are received. The drilling rods
100
are supplied to the magazine in a filling position
140
and removed therefrom in a removal position
142
. The drilling rods
100
are removed and supplied by means of a gripping arm
144
which is pivotable around a first axis
146
and movable along a second axis
148
.
In the magazines known from the prior art, the filling or transportation from the refill position to the removal position occurs as a result of the force of gravity. In such drop chutes and throughput magazines, considerable noise is produced during the process of falling. There is also a risk of the pipes being positioned at an angle during the drop, causing them to twist and get stuck. Lastly, the order of the drilling rods to be used can only be controlled unsatisfactorily since the order of use for the drilling rods located in a chute depends on the order of filling these drilling rods.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
By taking the prior art into consideration, the present invention's object is to provide a drilling tool magazine and a horizontal boring machine comprising such a drilling tool magazine in which automatic and reliable handling and access to any of the drilling rods to be handled is ensured.
In accordance with the invention, this object is advantageously solved by a drilling tool magazine described in claim
1
. Advantageous extensions of the drilling tool magazine according to the invention are described in the dependent claims. The invention also provides a horizontal boring machine combined with a drilling tool magazine defined in claim
1
and the dependent claims.
The invention is based on the idea of providing a magazine in which the tools or workpieces to be handled are forcibly guided a slight distance apart.
In this way, the drilling tool magazine, comprises in accordance with the invention, a plurality of tool bays so as to receive tools. A tool bay is the space needed for handling a tool or workpiece to be stored in a magazine in the total extension of its longitudinal direction. The longitudinal extension of the tool bays therefore corresponds to the longitudinal extension of the tools to be received, each tool bay receiving one tool respectively. In accordance with the invention, adjacent tool bays are spaced apart by movable drive catches. The distance produced between the drive catches essentially corresponds to the transverse extension of the tools. The spacing creates discrete tool bays which due to the movability of the drive catches can be controlled in such a way as to enable the drilling rods to be successively removed from the magazine and any of the articles stored in the magazine to be systematically accessed. It is also possible for the receiving and refill position of the drilling rods to be identical so that in accordance with the invention a drilling machine's set-up time and the space needed by the drilling tool magazine are decreased. It is likewise possible to apply any control criteria as regards the order of the drilling rods to be used, e.g. first in/first out. Accordingly, different drilling rods can be systematically used such as to ensure even wear of the drilling rods. The forcible guidance in discrete tool bays also stops individual drilling rods from getting stuck and jamming the magazine. The generation of noise to be deplored in the prior art is also advantageously eliminated. At the same time, a compact design for the drilling tool magazine and a high packing density for the drilling tools within the magazine are ensured by spacing individual drilling rods only a slight distance apart.
According to an extension of the drilling tool magazine according to the invention, this magazine is designed as a chain magazine having at least one chain revolving around a magazine axis. In this way, the packing density and hence the capacity of the magazine can be adapted according to requirements as a result of a flexible sectional guidance of the at least one revolving chain.
According to an extension of the invention, the drive catches are detachably coupled to the at least one chain. This consequently makes it possible to adapt the flexibility of the inventive drilling tool magazine even more effectively to different tool diameters. The receiving space of the discrete tool bays can be varied by uncoupling the drive catches from the at least one chain and by subsequently recoupling the drive catches at another site.
To increase further the tool packing density in the drilling tool magazine according to the invention, an extension of the invention provides that the at least one chain revolves in a meandering shape around a plurality of magazine axes.
According to a further embodiment of the invention, the space needed within the drilling tool magazine according to the invention and required when feeding the tools received inside the drilling tool magazine to a downstream drilling mount is reduced in that the longitudinal extension of the tool bays is parallel to the at least one magazine axis.
To increase further the reliability of tool transportation within the drilling tool magazine according to the invention and to ensure optimum stability while simultaneously keeping a simple drive, the chain magazine comprises, in accordance with an extension of the invention, two revolving chains, each of which is disposed next to an end region of the longitudinally extended tool bays. The chains are preferably arranged at the front end directly next to the tool bays.
To be able to remove the tools from the drilling tool magazine and supply them to it, the drilling tool magazine comprises, in accordance with the invention, at least one removal site. This removal site is designed in such a way as to allow removal of the tools from any tool bay at an angle, preferably at a right angle, to the longitu

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