JPS638277B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an ore collector suitable for deep seabed manganese nodule mining.

Manganese nodule exists in the muddy surface layer of the deep ocean floor, and comes in a variety of sizes, from pebbles to larger than a fist. The seabed where manganese nodule exists is several thousand meters below the sea surface, so the most efficient way to collect it is to transport it continuously to a collection vessel on the sea surface. As a continuous transfer method, a method has been proposed in which a flow of seawater is created in a pipe toward the sea surface, and minerals are transported to the sea surface by this flow.

However, it takes a considerable amount of time to lower the sampling device to the deep water bed and to pull it up from the water bed. Therefore, if a failure occurs underwater, a large amount of sampling time will be wasted due to raising the device and then lowering it again.

Various underwater mineral extraction devices have been proposed that are self-propelled on the seabed or towed by ships on the sea surface.
These sampling devices generally have complicated mechanisms, so they often break down, and there is a risk that mud and manganese nodule can become clogged inside the device, and the width of the device to suck and sweep the manganese nodule is limited due to the mechanism. , due to the limitations of ground-contacting members such as sleds, the width is narrower than the full width of the extraction device, resulting in a large amount of leftover material being left behind and low mining efficiency, and when the extraction device moves through soft seabed ground, it may penetrate into the ground. As a result, the change in vertical movement becomes large, making it difficult to always maintain the position of the intake part of the sampling device at an appropriate position for collecting the manganese nodule scattered on the seabed surface layer. There were drawbacks such as the fact that efficient ore collection could not be expected if the method was simply directed toward the surface.

It is an object of the present invention to overcome the above-mentioned drawbacks and to provide a highly reliable underwater mineral extraction device that has extremely few mechanically moving parts and is almost never likely to malfunction. Further, the present invention provides a device that can effectively collect minerals over substantially the entire width of a widely installed underwater mineral collecting device without being affected by vertical movement of the collecting device due to soft ground.

The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to Examples.

The present invention includes a sled 1, a plurality of water flow generating devices including, for example, a screw 2 and its prime mover 3, a plurality of energizing devices including an ore collecting plate 5, a duct 6, an intermediate nozzle 7, and a pump 8 for supplying water to the intermediate nozzle. , a collection chamber 9, a suction pipe 10, and a frame 4.

The sled 1 is ski-shaped and has a boat-shaped side wall at its front in the direction of travel. There are multiple sleds 1, generally 3 or more, in the figure, 5 sleds are placed at the same interval and placed in the frame 4.
They are installed in parallel and integrally with each other, and can be moved on the underwater surface by being towed from a ship at sea.

As shown in FIG. 3, the front end of the sled 1 in the direction of travel is pointed like the tip of a boat, and the screw 2 is disposed protruding forward from the front end. is provided to constitute a water flow generating device. Between the front side walls of the sled 1, an ore collector plate 5 having a downwardly convex curved surface whose center axis of curvature is perpendicular to the parallel direction of the sled 1 is connected such that the lowest surface is located above the bottom surface of the sled 1. There is.
In contact with the rear end of the ore collecting plate 5 on the rear side of the sled 1, the upper surface between the side walls of the sled is open to form a surplus water release window 11, and dissipation prevention gratings are installed at appropriate intervals in this part. 12 is formed parallel to the sled 1. The spacing between the dissipation prevention grids 12 is such that an ore of a desired size ore smaller than the minimum size can pass through. An entrance of a duct 6 that is continuous with the dissipation prevention grid 12 and has a width approximately equal to the width between the side walls of the sled 1 opens between the side walls of the sled 1, and the duct 6 extends parallel to the sled 1 and diagonally rearward and upward. , the opening 13 on the rear side is a window provided in the upper front side of the collection chamber 9 having a width close to the parallel width of the five sleds provided over each sled 1 near the rear end of the sled 1. It is inserted in 14. At the inlet of each duct 6, a plurality of intermediate nozzles 7 are arranged in parallel so that they can be biased over the entire width of each duct inlet as a biasing device that gives an upward motion to the water flow in the duct. Water is supplied to the nozzle 7 through a pump 8 and a distribution pipe 17 driven by a water intake pipe 15 and a pump motor 16 provided above the sled 1.

The side wall of the sled 1 is connected to the duct 6 as shown in FIG.
It suffices if it extends to the side of the inlet opening.

The rear upper surface of the window 14 of the collection chamber 9 is open, and a collection grid 18 is formed that faces the opening 13 of the duct 6 at a distance. The sieving grid 19 is provided diagonally with the window 14 side facing up and the rear side of the sled facing down, and its lower end projects outward from the outer wall of the collecting chamber 9. That is, collection room 9
Above the sieving grid 19, there is only a side wall facing in the parallel direction of the sleds 1, and below the sieving grid 19, it has a cylindrical shape with a bottom. The collection grid 18 has an interval that allows passage of an ore with a size smaller than the minimum size of the ore desired to be collected, and the sieving grid 19 allows the passage of an ore with the upper limit size of the ore desired to be collected. The gap is large enough to prevent anything larger than that from passing through.

A suction pipe 10 is connected to the bottom of the collection chamber 9 to communicate with the inside, and the suction pipe 10 is connected to the frame 4.
One end of the sled is fixed to the sled, and the other end is extended from the front end of the sled to the collection vessel on the sea surface. Bottom part 20 of collection chamber 9
As shown in FIG. 5, the sleds 1 are inclined gradually lower toward the center of the parallel sleds 1, and a plurality of sleds 1 are arranged at the upper part slightly apart from the bottom 20, and are inclined toward the bottom of the collection chamber 9. The cross-feeding rectifying plates 21 are arranged parallel to the bottom part 20 with gaps 22 between them, and in order to send the ore that has fallen onto the cross-feeding rectifying plates 21 to the bottom of the center of the collecting chamber 9. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 5, cross feed pumps 23 are installed on both sides in the cross feed pump water intake pipe 24, and the cross feed pumps 23 are driven by a cross feed pump prime mover 25 to capture the generated water flow. The water is sent from the side of the storage chamber 9 toward between the bottom 20 and the horizontal straightening plate 21 , and this water flow flows through the gap 22 of the adjacent horizontal straightening plate 21 on the surface of the straightening plate 21 and falls onto the straightening plate 21 . The collected ore is sent to the bottom of the collection chamber 9.

Next, the operation of the underwater mineral collecting device of the present invention will be explained.

The sled 1 of the underwater mineral extraction device according to the present invention is placed on the seabed so that the lower surface is in contact with the seabed, and is towed by a sampling boat using the suction pipe 10 or by a cable connected to the sampling boat and the frame 4 separately. When the screw 2 is rotated by the screw prime mover 3, the screw 2 generates a water flow in the opposite direction to the towing direction, causing a rearward flow between the side walls of adjacent sleds, and causing a charge on the bottom surface of the water. Since the existing ore such as manganese nodule is pushed backwards while stirring the water in the vicinity, if there is no stirring action like a screw, it will get under the sled 1 and become impossible to employ. Ore can be moved between sleds. The water flow generated by the water flow generating device such as the screw 2 has a higher flow velocity in the convex part below the ore collecting plate 5, and according to Bernoulli's theorem, the static pressure in this part becomes smaller, so the ore flows closer to the ore collecting plate. 5 and follow the curved surface of the ore collecting plate 5 to follow the arrow F in FIG.
It creates the flow shown by and gives buoyancy to the ore. Most of the water and mud flow along the ore collecting plate 5 and then pass through the gap of the dissipation prevention grid 12 provided in the surplus water discharge window 11 and are discharged upward. The ore to be extracted cannot pass through the anti-dissipation grate 12 and is directed towards the inlet opening of the duct 6. The ore that has reached the inlet opening of the duct 6 rises within the duct 6 along with the water flow jetted into the duct 6 from the intermediate nozzle 7 and enters the collection chamber 19 through the rear opening 13. Ore with a small size that is not desired to be collected and present in this water stream is discharged to the outside through the collection grid 18, and ore that cannot pass through the collection grid 18 falls onto the sieving grid 19, and even here, the ore of the desired size is discharged to the outside. Ore of a desired size that has passed through the sieving grid 19 falls onto a transverse straightening plate 21 in the collection chamber 9. The water is collected at the bottom of the collection chamber 9 by the water current generated by the cross-feeding pump 23, and is sucked into a collection vessel on the sea via the suction pipe 10.

As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, a screw 2 is installed in front of the sled 1, and instead of the screw motor 3, a water flow is generated along the front side wall of the sled 1, as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8. A front nozzle 26 whose tip is bifurcated to generate water, a front nozzle pump 27 that supplies water to the front nozzle 26, a driving motor 28 for the front nozzle, and a front nozzle pump 28 that supplies water to the front nozzle pump. It can also be replaced with the intake pipe 29.

As a biasing device for giving an upward movement to the water in the duct 6, a transfer pump 30 is installed in the middle of the duct 6 as shown in FIG. This may be provided and driven by the transport pump prime mover 31,
In addition, as shown in FIG. 10, a merging pipe 32 is provided in the middle of the duct 6, and a pressure pump 33 and a pressure pump prime mover 34 provided in the merging pipe 32 are used to generate water flow. It is also possible to adopt a so-called eductor system in which an upward flow is generated in the upper part of 6.

The water intake openings of the water intake pipe 15 for the intermediate nozzle 7, the water intake pipe 24 for the lateral feed pump 23, and the water intake pipe 29 for the front nozzle 26 are connected to the movement of the water bottom surface of this device. It is preferable that the opening be opened further forward in the traveling direction than the surplus water release window 11 so as not to suck in turbid water due to the accompanying stirring of the bottom of the water.

As shown in FIG. 11, the intermediate nozzle 7 has a bent tip, faces into the duct 6, and is swingable about the nozzle base 35. Therefore, the lower surface of the intermediate nozzle comes into contact with the bottom surface of the water due to the reaction of the water ejected from the nozzle tip, and ore can be efficiently fed into the duct even on irregularly high and low water bottoms.

In FIG. 1, each duct 6 is provided with an intermediate nozzle pump 8 for supplying pressure water, but one or two large pumps may be used to supply water to each intermediate nozzle.

As shown in FIG. 12, the intermediate nozzle 7 has a nozzle tip 36 connected to a joint 37 provided at the tip of a nozzle trunk 38.
The nozzle trunk 38 is attached to be swingable around the nozzle base 35 as an axis, and the nozzle tip 36 is always directed in the direction of inclination of the duct 6 regardless of how the nozzle trunk 38 swings. The other end of the arm 39 has one end pivotally attached to the nozzle base 35 and the other end facing in the same direction as the inclination of the duct 6, and a fulcrum 4 near the tip of the nozzle tip 36.
1 may be connected with links 40 to form a parallelogram. Further, as shown in FIG. 13, an excessive amount of ore may accumulate near the lower end of the duct inlet opening for some reason, making it impossible to take the ore into the duct 6. Therefore, in order to deal with this, the first
As shown in Figures 3 and 14, the lower end of the duct inlet can be opened and closed rearward to allow the accumulated ore to escape later. As shown in FIGS. 13 and 14, this opening/closing mechanism constitutes a hinge by a shaft 42 and a bearing 43, which are orthogonal to the parallel direction of the sleds.The shaft 42 is connected to the opening door 44, and the bearing 43 is connected to the duct The lever 45 is fixed to one end or both ends of the shaft 42 so that one end of the lever 45 is located outside the side wall of the duct 6. In normal use, one end of the lever 45 is fixed to the other end of the lever 45 and Due to the tension of a spring 46 whose other end is fixed to the side wall, the open door 44 is closed as shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 3, the spring 46 stretches and opens rearward without being able to resist the tension.

Preferably, in the apparatus of the present invention, the moving speed of the apparatus is 0.1 to 2 m/sec, and the ground velocity of the water flow generated by the water flow generator is 1 to 5 m/sec directly below the ore collecting plate 5.
sec, the radius of curvature of the ore collecting plate 5 is 0.3 to 2 m, the jetting speed of the intermediate nozzle 7 is 2 to 32 m/sec, and the dissipation prevention grid 12
The grid spacing of the collection grid 18 is 2 to 10 mm.
~10mm, the grid spacing of the sieving grid 19 is suction pipe 1
The device of the present invention can be constructed under such conditions that the inner diameter is less than half of the inner diameter of 0.

As shown in the embodiments of the device of the present invention, the total entrance width of the duct 6 can be configured to be approximately 1/2 of the effective sweep width (width between the center lines of both outer sleds), which is compared to the conventional device. This method has the following advantages over the duct entrance width, that is, the effective sweep width.

That is, (a) since the duct width is small, the volume of water surrounded by the vessel wall is small, the stress generated in this device when it is subjected to acceleration is reduced, and the strength constraints of the device are relaxed. It can be designed to have a lightweight structure.

(b) The width of the sled can be increased by the amount that the total duct width can be reduced, and it is possible to prevent the device from sinking to the bottom of soft water.

As can be seen from the above description of the embodiments, in the device of the present invention, when the ore to be collected gathers under the ore collecting plate 5, the mud is discharged along with water to the outside of the dissipation prevention grid. , there is no need to carry extra mud to the collection chamber 9, and ore can be efficiently collected.

In addition, mud that flies up during transportation and mud that is discharged when ore is separated tends to accumulate on equipment that operates underwater for long periods of time, but this equipment has multiple sleds and ducts arranged at intervals. Since there is a sufficient gap between each, less mud accumulates on the device, and the increase in the weight of the device due to accumulated mud can be minimized, so the device does not sink below the water bottom and is always stable. It is possible to extract ore, and since this device has an extremely simple mechanism and has few mechanically moving parts, it can be structurally robust, making it possible to obtain a highly reliable device with almost no failures. .

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of an embodiment of the underwater mineral extraction device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a side view of FIG. 1, and FIG. 4 is a vertical sectional view excluding the frame of FIG. 1, FIG. 5 is a rear view showing the collection chamber in FIG. 1 in cross section, and FIG. FIG. 1 is a front view of FIG. 1 with half of the frame in FIG. 1 removed, FIG. 7 is a side view showing another embodiment of the water flow generator, FIG. 8 is a plan view of FIG. FIG. 10 is a sectional view similar to FIG. 4 showing another embodiment of the device; FIG. 10 is a sectional view similar to FIG. 4 showing an alternative embodiment of the biasing device to FIG. 9; 12 is a side view showing another embodiment of the intermediate nozzle in FIG. 4; FIG. 12 is a side view showing another embodiment of the intermediate nozzle in FIG. 4;
FIG. 14 is a partially sectional side view showing an embodiment of the lower end of the duct inlet. 1... Sled, 2... Screw, 3... Prime mover, 4... Frame, 5... Ore collecting plate, 6... Duct, 7
...Intermediate nozzle, 8...Pump, 9...Collection chamber,
10... Suction pipe, 11... Surplus water release window, 1
2... Dissipation prevention grid, 13... Opening, 14...
Window, 15...Water intake pipe, 16...Pump motor, 17...Distribution pipe, 18...Collection grid, 19...
... Sieve grating, 20 ... Bottom, 21 ... Straightening plate, 2
2...Gap, 23...Transverse feed pump, 24...Water intake pipe, 25...Motor for the horizontal feed pump, 26...
...Front nozzle, 27...Pump for front nozzle, 2
8... Drive motor, 29... Water intake pipe, 30...
...Conveyance pump, 31...Transportation pump prime mover, 3
2...Merge pipe, 33...Pressure pump, 34...
...Prime mover for pressure pump, 35...Nozzle base, 3
6... Nozzle tip, 37... Joint, 38... Nozzle trunk, 39... Arm, 40... Link, 4
1...Fully point, 42...Shaft, 43...Bearing, 44...
...Opening door, 45...Lever, 46...Spring.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of sleds arranged side by side at intervals, each having a boat-shaped side wall at least at the front, and a water flow generator provided in front of the sleds to generate a water flow rearward between the sleds. A device, a frame for connecting the plurality of sleds and holding them at predetermined intervals, and a lowermost surface that connects the front side walls of each sled and has a downwardly convex curved surface whose center axis of curvature is orthogonal to the parallel direction of the sleds. a dissipation prevention grating installed in the surplus water release window formed between the side walls of the sled behind the ore collector plate; A duct connected to the end and having an opening toward the bottom of the sled between the side walls of the sled and inclined obliquely upward at the rear; What is claimed is: 1. An underwater mineral collecting device comprising: a biasing device provided therein; a collection chamber into which a rear end of a duct is inserted and connected to the frame; and a suction pipe communicating with the bottom of the collection chamber. 2. The underwater mineral collecting device according to claim 1, wherein the water flow generating device comprises a screw protruding forward from the sled and provided on the sled, and a driving device for the screw provided on the sled. 3. The water flow generator includes a nozzle installed at the front end of the sled so as to spray water backward along the side wall of the sled;
The underwater mineral collecting device according to claim 1, comprising a pump for supplying water to a nozzle provided at the tip of the sled or a nozzle, and a drive device for the pump. 4 The biasing device that gives upward movement to the water in the duct includes an intermediate nozzle arranged between the side walls of the sled so as to inject water in the upward direction of the duct at the duct inlet opening, and a sled that supplies water to the intermediate nozzle. The underwater mineral collecting device according to claim 1, comprising a pump provided in the frame and a drive device for the pump. 5. The underwater mineral collecting device according to claim 1, wherein the urging device for giving an upward movement to the water in the duct comprises a conveying pump provided in the middle of the duct and its driving device. 6 The urging device that gives upward movement to the water in the duct includes a merging pipe connected to the duct so as to merge in the middle of the duct, a pressure pump arranged in the merging pipe to forcefully send water toward the merging point, and its driving device. An underwater mineral extraction device according to claim 1, comprising: 7. The intermediate nozzle has a nozzle trunk pivoted around the nozzle base and a nozzle tip pivotably attached to the nozzle trunk tip, and includes a nozzle base, a nozzle tip, and an arm whose one end is swingably connected to the nozzle base; 5. The underwater mineral collecting device according to claim 4, wherein the link connecting the other end of the arm and the end of the nozzle tip forms a parallelogram whose internal angle can be changed. 8 An open door is provided at the lower end of the duct entrance opening so that the open door can be rotated backward via a hinge provided on the duct so that the axis is perpendicular to the parallel direction of the sleds, and a tension between the open door and the duct is provided. 2. The underwater mineral extraction device according to claim 1, wherein the open door is maintained in the extending direction of the wall of the duct by a provided spring.