HK1052379B - Self-propelled carriage capable of moving in a cylindrical tunnel - Google Patents

Description

The present invention concerns a self-propelled carriage capable of moving in a gallery of a substantially cylindrical shape.

More specifically, the invention concerns a carriage which can move within the tunnel which is made by a tunnel worker in the ground, this carriage serving as a service vehicle for the tunnel worker.

The state of the art is known for the wagons suitable for moving in a gallery according to documents WO 99/43529 and US 3 872 940.

In some known solutions, rails are arranged at the bottom of the track on which the wagon (s) move, these rails serving in particular to guide the wagon when the track is not straight.

This generally accepted solution has, of course, the disadvantage of requiring the installation of rails inside the gallery equipped with these sewers or more specifically its internal cladding.

Another solution would be to provide a user-controlled steering system on the cart to guide the cart when the gallery is curved.

One object of the present invention is to provide a self-propelled trolley which can be moved in such a tunnel without the need for rails and without providing special direction controls on this trolley to take account of the possible non-linear nature of at least some portions of the tunnel.

To achieve this purpose according to the invention, the trailer capable of moving in a gallery of a substantially cylindrical shape includes: . a chassis consisting of two tracks of wheels, front and rear respectively, a bucket; and. a longitudinal horizontal support axle on which the bucket is pivoted along its length, each train of wheels being connected to one end of the support axle.

Each wheel train shall comprise: * two arms, one end of each arm being pivoted on one end of the support axis, the arms being arranged in the same plane orthogonal to the support axis;* means of maintaining an angular spacing between the two arms;* two rotating drive shafts, each shaft being pivoted on the second end of one of the arms, the shafts being orthogonal to the support axis;* means of rotating the shafts;* and two wheels, each wheel having a solid hub around a rotating drive shaft, at least one solid circular disk, the axis of which is equipped with a full rotation of the wheel, each wheel being freely rotated by a wheel in the cylinder, the axis of which is equipped with a rotating wheel in the periphery of the wheel, the wheel being mounted on a cylindrical wheel, the wheel being rotated in a gallery of rotating wheels.

Err1:Expecting ',' delimiter: line 1 column 110 (char 109)

In a preferred way of construction, the centre of gravity of the bin is placed below the axis of support of the bin and preferably also the centre of gravity of each wheel train is placed below the centre of gravity of the bin. These preferred characteristics allow the return to a vertical position of the midplane of the bin even in the event of curvature and favour the return of each wheel train to its equilibrium position, i.e. one in which the midplane of the wheel train coincides substantially with the vertical.

Preferably, each wheel has three discs parallel to each other, each disc being fitted with pebbles at the periphery, to increase the contact area between the wheels and the wall of the gallery and thus to avoid the alteration of the gallery by a too high point load.

Err1:Expecting ',' delimiter: line 1 column 248 (char 247)

Other features and advantages of the invention will be better seen by reading the following description of several embodiments of the invention given as non-limiting examples. Figure 1 is a side view of the carriage; Figure 2 is a front view of the carriage with the wheel arrangement in the resting position; Figure 3 is a front view of a carriage wheel; Figure 4 is a diagonal view of a carriage wheel; Figure 5 is a perspective view of a carriage wheel; and Figure 6 is a front view of the carriage as it is crossing a curve in the gallery in which it is moving.

Firstly, by reference to Figures 1 and 2, a preferred method of making the self-propelled hoist will be described. This consists essentially of a bin 10 and a chassis 11 comprising a front wheel train 12 and a rear wheel train 14.

The trolley 10 which may be of a substantially half-cylindrical shape is connected to the chassis 11 by a horizontal longitudinal axis 16 and the trolley 10 is pivoted by means of bearings not represented around the axis 16. At each end of the axis 16, respectively referred to as 16a and 16b, are mounted swinging trains 12 and 14. As will be explained below, the trains 12 and 14 are preferably connected by longitudinal trolley 20 and 22 which of course extend out of the trolley 10 and parallel to the longitudinal axis.

Referring now to Figure 2, we will describe the rear wheel arrangement 14. It consists of two substantially identical arms 24 and 26. One end of each arm 24a, 26a is pivoted by means of bearings at the end 16b of the horizontal support axis 16. Preferably, each arm consists of a substantially straight first portion 28 and a second portion 30 forming an angle with the first portion 28.The two sets of wheels are thus joined together to form the chassis of the carriage. The angle between the two arms 24 and 26 of the same set of wheels is kept at a constant value by a cleat piece 34, the ends of which 34a and 34b are connected to these arms. The cleat 34 is fitted with different fixing holes 36 which allow the angle to be adjusted as well as the two arms and thus to adapt the wheel train to the diameter of the carriage in which the carriage is to be moved.Each arm 24, 26 is also equipped with an engine 38 which cooperates with the shaft 32 by suitable means of transmission to control the rotation of each of the wheels 40 and 42 of the wheel arrangement 14.

As is best shown in Figures 3 and 4, each wheel, e.g. 40, is preferably made up of three discs 44, 46, 48 parallel to each other, each made up of two flasks 50 and 52 which are fixed on a hub 54 itself connected to the rotation shaft 32.The 56 pebbles are spaced regularly at the periphery of the 44 to 48 discs and are pivotingly mounted on the 58 axes by bearings 60. Preferably, the 56 pebbles are made of a material with a low coefficient of friction and their outer face is shaped like a surface of revolution whose axis is confused with that of the 58 axes and which is defined by a portion of a circle 62 in such a way that each pebble has the general shape of a barrel.

As can be seen in Figure 4, the diameter of the circle on which the 58 axes of the 56 pebbles of the median disc 46 are arranged is preferably larger than the diameter of the corresponding circle for the lateral discs 44 and 48.

In addition, preferably the axes of the 56a pebbles of disc 44, 56b of disc 46 and 56c of disc 48 are angularly offset from the axis of the wheel, so that the tread of each wheel consisting of the three sets of 56a, 56b and 56c pebbles is continuous when viewed from the wheel in the direction of its axis of rotation x, x. In other words, the median planes Q, Q' of the 56 pebbles orthogonal to their axis 58 are offset for each disc.

As shown in Figure 5, thanks to the presence of pebbles 56, the possible free movements of each wheel 40, 42 in relation to the wall on which they move result from the composition of two possible movements, on the one hand a displacement D1 resulting from the overall rotation of the wheel around its axis x, x' and on the other hand a displacement D2 resulting from the possibility of free rotation of the pebble or pebbles in contact with the wall around their axis 58.

It is understood that, thanks to these two possible directions of movement, the whole trolley can move even if the tunnel does not have a straight axis without the need to provide means of steering the trolley by means of the transverse movement component D2.

In Figure 2 the carriage is represented in a section of a straight-line gallery, the two arms 24 and 26 of the wheel arrangement being symmetrical with respect to a vertical median plane P, P' of the gallery H.

In Figure 2 the funnel is represented in a rectilinear portion of the H-gallery. In this situation, the two arms 24 and 26 of each wheel train are symmetrical with respect to a vertical plane P, P' of the gallery.

In Figure 6 the cart is represented in a portion of a non-rectangular H-gallery. To compensate for the fact that this portion of the gallery is not rectilinear, the main longitudinal displacement of the trains of wheels along the axis of the gallery is combined as explained above with a rotational motion of the 56 pebbles making up these wheels. This composition of movements results in an overall rotation of the trains of wheels 12 and 14 relative to the vertical plane P, P' of the gallery, around the longitudinal axis of support.

It is important to note that, because the centre of gravity G1 is located below the support axis 16 of the bin 12, the bin tends to return to a vertical position as soon as the H-gallery returns to a straight line profile. Similarly, preferably, all wheeled trains have a centre of gravity G2 which is of course located below the support axis 16 but also below the centre of gravity G1 of the bin. The moments resulting from these relative positions of the centres of gravity also tend to bring the wheeled trains 12 and 14 back to their vertical resting position (arms 24 and 26 symmetrical with respect to the vertical plane P, P'), this position being represented in Figure 2.

In the previously described embodiment, it was stated that each wheel on the wheeled trains consists of three discs 44 to 48 each bearing the pebbles 56 It is clear that, for some applications, each wheel may have only one disc equipped with the pebbles previously removed or only two discs.

Claims (10)

1. A self-propelled carriage suitable for moving in a gallery of substantially cylindrical shape, the carriage comprising:

   · a chassis (11) constituted by two wheel sets, respectively a front set (12) and a rear set (14);

   · a skip (10); and

   · a horizontal longitudinal support axis (16) on which said skip (10) is pivotally mounted in its length direction, each wheel set being connected to a respective end of said support axis;

      each wheel set comprising:

   · two arms (24, 26), a first end of each arm (24a, 26a) being pivotally mounted on one end of said support axis (16), said arms lying in a common plane orthogonal to said support axis;

   · means (34) for maintaining both arms at a constant angular separation;

   · two rotary drive shafts (32), each shaft being pivotally mounted at the second end of a respective arm, said shafts (32) being orthogonal to said support axis (16);

   · means (38) for rotating said drive shafts (32) ; and

   · two wheels (40, 42), each wheel comprising a hub (54) secured to a corresponding rotary drive shaft (32), at least one circular disk (50) secured to the hub (54), and at its periphery a plurality of rollers (56) for co-operating with the cylindrical wall of said gallery, each roller (56) being mounted to rotate freely about an axis that is orthogonal to the rotary drive shaft of the wheel.
2. A carriage according to claim 1, characterised in that the centre of gravity of said skip lies beneath said skip support axis.
3. A carriage according to claim 1 or claim 2, characterised in that the centre of gravity of each wheel set lies beneath the centre of gravity of the skip.
4. A carriage according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterised in that each wheel comprises three mutually parallel disks secured to the wheel hub, the periphery of each disk being provided with said rollers.
5. A carriage according to claim 4, characterised in that the rollers on each disk are regularly spaced apart angularly.
6. A carriage according to claim 5, characterised in that the mid-planes of the rollers orthogonal to the axes of rotation of the rollers on one disk are angularly offset relative to the corresponding mid-planes of the rollers on the other two disks.
7. A carriage according to any one of claims 4 to 6, characterised in that all of the rollers are substantially identical, and in that the circle to which the axis of rotation of the rollers of the central disk are tangential is of diameter greater than the corresponding diameters of the two side disks.
8. A carriage according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterised in that the means for maintaining the two arms of a wheel set at a constant spacing are adjustable, thereby enabling said spacing to be adapted to match the diameter of said gallery.
9. A carriage according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterised in that the rolling surface of each roller is a surface of revolution about the axis of rotation of the roller and having a generator line constituted by a circular arc.
10. A carriage according to any one of claims 1 to 9, characterised in that it further comprises two longitudinally extending members parallel to said support axis, each longitudinally extending member securing one arm of one of the wheel sets to the corresponding arm of the other wheel set.