摘要:
Vehicle constructed for being towed along undersea floor area where desired mineral aggregates, such as manganese nodules, are dispersed on ocean bottom carries apparatus utilizing power from towed motion, hydraulic suction and vehicle-borne motor for acquiring, concentrating and transmitting desired aggregates to conduit for upward transport. Vehicle has motor-powered water impeller, ducting and nozzle for directing pressurized sheet-jet of water rearwardly downward near undersea floor, enclosed ramp inclined rearwardly upward with entrance behind sheet-jet to receive solids dislodged from sea floor by jet, hopper and trough to receive solids moved up ramp by flow of water up ramp when vehicle is towed forward, and separating screens and ducting to direct desired sizes of solids into conduit for delivery to surface ship. Operationally effective path can be widened with horizontally fenestrated sweeps disposed in rearwardly diverging and converging V-patterns.
摘要:
Dredging bucket for hydraulic dredging of modules at a great depth, constituted by a main frame on skids, means for bringing the scraped up material into a current of water by the advancing of the dredging bucket and means bringing the nodules cleared of clay towards the hydraulic tubes provided with pumping systems to bring them to the surface.
摘要:
An apparatus for breaking coal or other mineral matter from a bed thereof which comprises a string filling a bore hole which can rise steeply in this bed. The string consists of alternating breaking units and connecting pipes each braking unit having a differential piston displaced solely by the action of air pressure so that breaking slots are unblocked to discharge compressed air built up in the string. The pistons are provided with check valves to permit filling of the string.
摘要:
Mineral aggregates, especially ores, that are found dispersed over a widespread remote area such as the ocean floor are gathered and at least partially separated from silt to concentrate minerals for transport to the sea surface. Mineral concentrator is adapted for movement over the deep sea floor and has means for gathering and separating dispersed mineral aggregates to provide a concentration of desired minerals for transport to the sea surface.
摘要:
An improvement to a sonic drilling system comprising a high-pressure, high-volume water pump connected to a fluid supply and a length of casing in a borehole; an elastic sonic rod string; an eductor coupling having an upwardly directed convergent nozzle; a transition rod; a sub-coupling having a laterally directed convergent nozzle; and a shoe rock bit having a downwardly directed convergent nozzle. The water pump provides fluid down the bore of the sonic rod string, the eductor, the transition rod, the sub-coupling and the rock bit whereby adjustable high-pressure, high-volume fluid is forced through the sonic rod string, the eductor, the transition rod, the sub-coupling and the rock bit to fracture, cut and agitate targeted mineral into slurry and whereby the light slurry is directed effectively upwardly through the annulus to the surface for extraction and heavy slurry gravitates into a sump trap and is recovered with a core barrel.
摘要:
A hyper-pressure water cannon, or pulse excavator, is able to discharge fluid pulses at extremely high velocities to fracture a rock face in excavation applications. A compressed water cannon can be used to generate hyper-pressure pulses by discharging the pulse into a straight nozzle section which leads to a convergent tapered nozzle. The hyper-pressure water cannon design is relatively compact, and the pulse generator can readily be maneuvered to cover the face of an excavation as part of a mobile mining system.
摘要:
A dual nozzle hydro-demolition system is mounted on a robot vehicle having a tower, with the robot vehicle and tower permitting the device to be positioned in any desired location on a vertical wall surface. The robot vehicle includes a plurality of tires and a motive power system allowing it to be moved to a desired location. Bearing pads are mounted on jacks allowing the tires of the robot vehicle to be elevated slightly off the ground to preclude undesired movements. A carriage is slidably mounted on a beam and carries dual nozzles, each of which is connected to a supply of high pressure water via a heavy duty hose. The nozzles are rotated using a hydraulic motor. A coupling is provided within the flow circuit from the source of water to the nozzle allowing a conduit adjacent the nozzle to rotate with respect to a conduit receiving water from the source thereof, so that each nozzle can be rotated without any water leakage.
摘要:
In a method and apparatus for the recovery of sediments from the sea bottom, a suction head is lowered into the sediment and continuously moved in the sediment. The suction head includes loosening means in the form of a pivot plate with blades which pivot relative to the suction head in response to continuous movement of the suction head to scrape the sediment to loosen it.
摘要:
Enhanced method for borehole mining comprising: drilling a borehole using a low-frequency pulsing sonic, hydraulic mining system including a pulsed jet assembly; inserting casing into the borehole above target deposit depth; inserting and rotating assembly into the casing with a sub-coupling and a shoe rock bit positioned below the casing; pumping fluid into the borehole; evaluating slurry at surface; fracturing and disaggregating materials at target deposit with pulsing jets from the sub-coupling and rock bit causing light slurry to flow upwardly to the annulus between the borehole casing and the downhole assembly, then upwardly through the annulus to the surface of the borehole thereby causing heavy slurry to concentrate in a sump, located below the pulse jet rock bit; continuing to form cavity at target location; removing pulsed jet assembly from borehole; running core barrel to extract heavy slurry from sump; analyzing slurry to determine whether to continue with operation.
摘要:
A borehole subsurface mining system and methods for generating sonically pulsed hydraulic jets for subsurface excavation and slurry extraction, combining modulated oscillating energy at relatively low frequencies produced from a sonic drill head of working sonic core drilling rigs in combination with energy and water flow from a pressurized pumping system, to perform pulsed jet slurry mining of underground resource deposits through at least one partially cased subterranean borehole using a sonic drill head member and rod string members in relation to which the attached inventive pulsed jetting apparatus and methods operate. The system design and methods includes an adaptably attachable, sectional, tubular combination apparatus assembly with at least one casing member in general axial alignment comprised of sonic rod, jetting educator coupling, transition rod, jetting sub-coupling and jetting shoe rock bit members. Also includes methods for sump heavy concentrate core barrel extraction and for optimizing high density slurry extraction.