Drilling apparatus

Abstract

 Drilling apparatus (l) to be mounted as a replacement for the bucket of a self-propelled hydraulic shovel (30) comprises a drill (42) carried in a guide cell (9) mounted at the end of a boom (32a) of the self-propelled chassis, the guide cell being attached to the boom by a pivotable joint (7) and an actuator (ll) operatively connected between the guide cell and the boom to pivot the boom about an axis transverse to the general longitudinal axis of the boom; the pivot (8) of the pivotable joint is preferably offset from said general longitudinal axis and a rotatable joint (5) is attached between the pivotable joint and the boom, turning means (3) being operatively connected between the pivotable joint and the boom to rotate the guide cell about said general longitudinal axis.

Description

[0001] This invention relates to drilling apparatus used to drill bedrock and the like.

[0002] A known crawler drill has a guide cell, carrying a rock drill, mounted on the boom of a self-propelled chassis and is used to drill a primary hole in bedrock for blasting and like civil engineering applications. Conventional drilling apparatus of this type can only tilt the guide cell longitudinally and laterally and this limits the drilling direction. For example, in the case of drilling laterally such apparatus cannot drill a hole parallel to the ground when in relative proximity thereto.

[0003] It is an object of the present invention to provide drilling apparatus that can drill holes over a wider area of a given rock face.

[0004] According to the present invention, drilling apparatus comprises a drill carried in a guide cell mounted at the end of the boom of a self-propelled chassis, wherein the guide cell is attached to the boom by a pivotable joint and an actuator is operatively connected between the guide cell and the boom to pivot the boom about an axis transverse to the general longitudinal axis of the boom; whereby parallel holes can be drilled by the apparatus.

[0005] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the pivot of the pivotable joint is offset from the general longitudinal axis of the boom and a rotatable joint is attached between the pivotable joint and the boom, turning means being operatively connected between the pivotable joint and the boom to rotate the guide cell about said general longitudinal axis. By this means holes can be drilled in, for example the vertical face of a tunnel, even closer to the tunnel walls.

[0006] According to a further embodiment of the present invention, the self-propelled chassis is a self-­propelled hydraulic shovel or the like, the body of which can swing about a vertical axis with respect to the crawler and the boom of which can tilt about a horizontal axis with respect to the body; the guide cell having an elongate support member to one side of which the drill is axially movably mounted and to the other side of which the pivotable joint is attached.

[0007] The above and other features of the present invention are illustrated, by way of example, in the Drawings, wherein:-

Fig. l is a plan view of one embodiment of drilling apparatus in accordance with the invention;

Fig. 2 is a side view of the drilling apparatus of Fig. l;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged cross-section taken along the line X-X of Fig. l;

Fig. 4 is a side view of a self-propelled chassis mounted with the drilling apparatus of Fig. l; and,

Fig. 5 is a plan view of the chassis and drilling apparatus of Fig. 4.

[0008] Drilling apparatus l is mounted on the boom 32 of a self-propelled hydraulic shovel or back-hoe 30 by a bracket 2.

[0009] As shown in more detail by Figs. l to 3, a hydraulic slewing motor 3 is interposed between the bracket and the boom. A pivoted joint 7 has one arm 7a mounted on the rotational shaft 5 of slewing motor 3 whilst the other joint arm 7b is attached to the back of an elongate support member l0 for a guide cell 9. A telescopic hydraulic ram ll is attached by pivots between support member l0 and joint arm 7a. By this means the guide cell can be pivoted through 95 degrees, about the pivot pin 8 of joint 7 and with respect to the longitudinal axis of boom 32, under the action of ram ll.

[0010] The guide cell 9 is shown to consist of two channel members mounted back-to-back with a gap therebetween and supported by a pair of U-shaped units l3 that are attached to support member l0 and can slide longitudinally along the back flanges of the guide cell channel members. A foot pad l5 and drill centralizer l6 are provided at the fore end of the guide cell 9; whilst the rear end of the guide cell is coupled to the support member by the piston rod l7 of another telescopic hydraulic ram, the cylinder of which is mounted on support member l0. A further telescopic ram l8 is attached between the fore end of support member l0 and drill centralizer l6. A carriage 20, longitudinally slideable along the front flanges of the guide cell channel members, has a rock drill motor 2l mounted thereon. Chain sprockets 22 and 23 are journalled between the fore and rear ends of the guide cell channel members and a chain, driven by a feed motor 25, passes around both sprockets and is attached to the carriage 20; to move the drill motor longitudinally of the guide cell.

[0011] As shown by Figs 4 and 5, the drilling apparatus l replaces the bucket at the end of the boom 32 of a self-­propelled hydraulic shovel 30; bracket 2 is pivotally secured at 34 to the end of the boom with the piston rod of the bucket ram 37 pivoted to the bracket 2 at 36. The boom 32 is in two parts 32a and 32b with a pivot 38 therebetween and one ram 39 acting between the two boom parts and another ram 40 acting between boom part 32b and the shovel body 49.

[0012] In operation, a drill rod 42 is attached to the drill motor 2l via a coupling sleeve 44 and a water swivel 45 and has a rock bit 43 attached to its fore end. Hydraulic power for the rams of the drilling apparatus is supplied from the shovel's extisting hydraulic supply, whilst air for the pneumatic rock drill 2l is supplied by a compressor 46 mounted on the shovel chassis together with a dust collector 47.

[0013] The drilling hole can be freely positioned by actuating either singly or in combination:-
Swing means (not shown) to swing shovel body 49 horizontally about turntable 50 on the crawler undercarriage 48;
hydraulic boom rams 39 and 40;
bucket ram 37;
guide cell rotating motor 3; and,
guide cell pivoting ram ll.
In other words the angular position of guide cell 9 with respect to the longitudinal axis of boom part 32a is controlled by bucket ram 37 and by guide cell pivoting ram ll; whilst motor 3 can rotate the guide cell about the longitudinal axis of bracket 2. As pivotal joint 7 is attached to the back of support member l0, drill 2l, 42, 43 is on the side of guide cell 9 farthest away from the axis of motor 3. All this enables the drilling apparatus to drill a hole parallel to the ground, walls or roof of a tunnel and in relative proximity thereto. In actual drilling, guide cell 9 is moved forwards by ram l7 to press footpad l5 against the rock face to be drilled, drill motor 2l is activated to rotate the drill 42,43 and feed motor 25 drives the drill into the rock.

[0014] When a hydraulic shovel chassis is used with the above described drilling apparatus, the reach of the chassis is increased and the apparatus can be turned through 360 degrees. This is not possible with conventional crawler drills and markedly increases the drilling range of the described apparatus in comparison to conventional drilling apparatus.

[0015] By use of all the above described movements, drilling apparatus can, for example, when drilling a tunnel, drill parallel holes over an entire working face without a dead angle and with less drilling. The apparatus can drill holes for rock anchor bolts as required by the New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM). Also, when drilling a vertical shaft, such as for deep foundations, parallel holes can be drilled about the entire periphery of the shaft with the chassis only having to be set up once.

[0016] Forward dead angles created by the boom and arm of conventinal drilling apparatus are avoided by the above described apparatus.

[0017] In an example, drilling apparatus can drill working face holes of approximately l50 mm diameter and NATM holes of approximately 38 mm diameter; this latter type of hole enables tunnels to be drilled in rock without blasting. Holes of different sizes are drilled by the same apparatus merely by controlling hydraulic pressure and the flow-rate of a large size hydraulic drifter (rock driller).

[0018] Finally, the above described apparatus is not limited to drilling parallel holes; the apparatus can drill in any arbitrary direction over most of a drilling surface.

Claims

1. Drilling apparatus comprising a drill carried in a guide cell mounted at the end of the boom of a self-­propelled chassis characterised in that the guide cell (9) is attached to the boom (32) by a pivotable joint (7), an actuator (ll) being operatively connected between the guide cell and the boom to pivot the boom about an axis transverse to the general longitudinal axis of the boom; whereby parallel holes can be drilled by the apparatus.

2. Drilling apparatus as claimed in claim l, characterised in that the pivot (8) of the pivotable joint (7) is offset from the general longitudinal axis of the boom (32) and a rotatable joint (3) is attached between the pivotable joint (7) and the boom (32), turning means (5) being operatively connected between the pivotable joint and the boom to rotate the guide cell about said general longitudinal axis.

3. Apparatus as claimed in claim l and claim 2, characterised in that the self-propelled chassis is a self-propelled hydraulic shovel (30) or the like, the body (49) of which can swing about a vertical axis with respect to the crawler (50) and the boom (32) of which can be tilted about a horizontal axis with respect to the body; the guide cell (9) having an elongate support member (l0) to one side of which the drill (42) is longitudinally movably mounted and to the other side of which the pivotable joint (7) is attached.

4. Apparatus as claimed in claim 3, characterised in that the pivotable joint (7) has one arm (7a) attached to the rotatable joint (3) and the other arm (7b) attached to the support member (l0); the actuator being a telescopic ram (ll) connected between the rotatable joint and the support member.

5. Apparatus as claimed in claim 4, characterised in that the rotatable joint is a motor (3) fixed to the end of the boom (32), the motor shaft (5) being attached to arm (7a) of the bracket (7).

6. Apparatus as claimed in any of claims 3 to 5, characterised in that one end of the guide cell support member (l0) has a foot pad (l5) and a centralizer (l6) for the drill rod (42) which is rotated by a drill motor (2l) mounted on a carriage (20) that is slideable longitudinally of the support member to axially move the drill rod.

7. Apparatus as claimed in any of claims 2 to 6, characterised in that a bracket (2) is pivotally attached at (34) to the boom (32) and the rotatable joint (3) is mounted on the bracket; an actuator (37) being operatively connected between the bracket and the boom.

Drawing