Electricity: transmission to vehicles – Systems of distribution
Patent
1997-03-03
1998-09-22
Le, Mark Tuan
Electricity: transmission to vehicles
Systems of distribution
104 93, 105150, E21F 1300
Patent
active
058101349
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is the U.S. national phase of PCT application PCT/EP95/02495 filed Jun. 27, 1995 with a claim to the priority of German application P 44 31 523.6 itself filed Sep. 3, 1994.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to an underground energy-supply train. More particularly this invention concerns such a supply train with a plurality of universal transport unit frames (UTU frames) interconnected by coupling rods, usable as elements of an overhead monorail, and of which least one carries a high-capacity transformer and at least one other a compact station arranged in a pressure-tight housing and provided with circuitry for supplying underground prime movers with electrical energy and with electrical connections on the input and output sides of the pressure-tight housing.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Such underground energy-supply trains are standard in underground mining, in particular in the underground mining of soft coal, namely as a compact station, that is a pressure-tight housing containing circuits and having ends directed in the travel direction of the respective UTU frame and each provided with a connector housing for the electrical inputs and outputs, each such assembly of a compact station and two connector boxes being mounted on its own separate UTU frame.
The assembly comprised of a compact station and connector boxes--according to the known housing type used--has an overall length from 2 to 2.5 m, each connector box being about 0.5 m long. The length of the UTU frame is however 3.3 m to which in use one must add the length of the coupling rods between the UTU frames which are necessary to allow the entire energy-supply train to negotiate curves as an overhead monorail so that each compact station has in the energy-supply train a length of about 4 m. When used underground where there can be considerable machinery, for instance in a plow-type mining operation, several compact stations, which are put together with the necessary high-output transformers on their own UTU frames, are needed to supply electricity to all the equipment so as normally to create at the work site an energy-supply train with two high-output transformers and seven compact stations as well as further on another such with a high-output transformer and five compact stations. This takes up about 60 m of space in the immediate vicinity of the always critical and work-intensive area around the face for parking of the necessary energy-supply trains which takes up much of the already limited space at the face for the various mining, transport, and monitoring stations and greatly reduces access to the various pieces of equipment and feed lines that are supplied by the energy-supply train making repair very difficult. This problem is compounded in that as the trains get longer it becomes more dangerous to work in and around them, especially as they are being brought into and taken out of position.
OBJECT OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to substantially reduce the space requirements of underground energy-supply trains, that is to make them shorter without increasing their cross-sectional size while not in any way reducing their functionality or how safe they are.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This object is attained according to the invention in an underground energy-supply train that comprises a universal transport unit frame adapted to be suspended from and travel along an overhead monorail and carrying a pair of pressure-tight housings separated by a space. Respective compact stations in the pressure-tight housings hold electrical elements including a voltage supply, a circuit breaker, and a plurality of slide-in units. A rigid box fills the space between the housings and connected thereto holds conductors extending through the box between the stations and interconnecting the electrical elements. Plugs and sockets mounted directly on the housings are connected to the electrical elements.
Thus it has proven advantageous when each UTU frame has
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Dubno Herbert
Le Mark Tuan
Ruhrkohle AG
Wilford Andrew
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