US4370713A
Expired / Lapsed
US
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
Anti-tightline control system and method for dragline type equipment
Assignee: General Electric Co
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Filing: 1980-08-11
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Granted: 1983-01-25
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Expires: 2000-08-11
Abstract
Abstract An anti-tightline control system and method which monitors the hoist and drag rope-in length of dragline type equipment, and in the event that certain preset levels are exceeded, the control system functions to slow the hoist and drag rope drives, initiate a warning to the operator of the dragline equipment, and if required, stops the hoist and drag rope drives. The control provides a limit to a voltage reference signal from the operator's hoist and drag master control for the hoist and drag drive motor voltage regulators under static or dynamic tightline operating conditions to automatically reduce the speed of both the hoist and drag rope drives towards zero as the amount of net rope-in increases. For certain specialized dragline equipments having specially-shaped tightline limit boundary characteristics, the control system makes available a function generator for establishing a shaped tightline limit boundary instead of the elliptical tightline boundary used with other types of equipment. Additional reference circuits are provided for converting the form of control signal derived at the output of the anti-tightline control system into a different form suitable for use with the form of signal required by a particular equipment.
Inventors
- 👤 Charles E. McCoy, Jr.
- 👤 James L. Crowgey
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
US
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-03 13:46
CPC Classifications
E; E02; E02F; E02F3/00; E02F3/04; E02F3/46; E02F3/48; E02F9/00; E02F9/20; E02F9/2025; E02F9/2037
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 36
Claim 1
Independent Claim
275 words
An anti-tightline control system for dragline type equipment having respective hoist and drag rope means that can be paid-out or taken-up by operator controlled respective hoist rope and drag rope pay-out and take-up means to control positioning and operation of a dragline bucket means, said anti-tightline control system comprising hoist rope position encoding means for deriving electric hoist rope position signals representative of the length of hoist rope means paid-out or taken up by said hoist rope pay-out and take-up means at any given time, drag rope position encoding means for deriving electric drag rope position signals representative of the length of drag rope means paid-out or taken-up by said drag rope pay-out and take-up means at any given time, means for separately developing a maximum hoist and drag rope length allowed-in bias signal representative of the maximum length of hoist and drag rope allowed to be taken-up and still avoid a tightline condition if the hoist and drag rope velocities are near zero, a first summing circuit means responsive to the outputs from said hoist rope and drag rope position encoding means and said maximum hoist and drag rope-in allowed bias signal, said first summing circuit means serving to sum together the hoist rope and drag rope positions signals with the maximum hoist and drag rope length allowed-in bias signal and to derive an output difference allowed hoist and drag rope length static anti-tightline boundary limited control signal that is useful for regulating and controlling operation of the hoist rope and drag rope pay-out and take-up means while avoiding a tightline operating condition for the dragline type equipment during continued operation of the equipment.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
275 words
An anti-tightline control system for dragline type equipment having respective hoist and drag rope means that can be paid-out or taken-up by operator controlled respective hoist rope and drag rope pay-out and take-up means to control positioning and operation of a dragline bucket means, said anti-tightline control system comprising hoist rope position encoding means for deriving electric hoist rope position signals representative of the length of hoist rope means paid-out or taken up by said hoist rope pay-out and take-up means at any given time, drag rope position encoding means for deriving electric drag rope position signals representative of the length of drag rope means paid-out or taken-up by said drag rope pay-out and take-up means at any given time, means for separately developing a maximum hoist and drag rope length allowed-in bias signal representative of the maximum length of hoist and drag rope allowed to be taken-up and still avoid a tightline condition if the hoist and drag rope velocities are near zero, a first summing circuit means responsive to the outputs from said hoist rope and drag rope position encoding means and said maximum hoist and drag rope-in allowed bias signal, said first summing circuit means serving to sum together the hoist rope and drag rope positions signals with the maximum hoist and drag rope length allowed-in bias signal and to derive an output difference allowed hoist and drag rope length static anti-tightline boundary limited control signal that is useful for regulating and controlling operation of the hoist rope and drag rope pay-out and take-up means while avoiding a tightline operating condition for the dragline type equipment during continued operation of the equipment.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
179 words
An anti-tightline control system according to claim 1 further including a second summing circuit means serving to algebraically sum together the hoist rope and drag rope length signals, and a differentiating circuit means responsive to the output from said second summing circuit means for deriving a net hoist rope and drag rope velocity signal whose magnitude is representative of the net speed at which the hoist and drag rope means are being paid-out or taken-up and whose polarity is indicative of whether the hoist and drag rope means are being paid-out or taken-up, and means for supplying the output from said differentiating circuit means to an input for said first summing circuit means whereby said first summing circuit means sums the net hoist rope and drag rope velocity signal together with the hoist rope and drag rope position signals and the hoist and drag rope length allowed-in bias signal to derive an output dynamic hoist and drag rope speed-adjusted, allowed hoist and drag rope length anti-tightline boundary limited control signal useable in controlling operation of the dragline type equipment.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
62 words
An anti-tightline control system according to claim 1 or 2 further including clamping circuit means coupled to said first summing circuit means for clamping the output anti-tightline boundary limited control signal to a range of values extending between an allowed first value corresponding to full speed operation of the dragline equipment and an allowed second value corresponding to shut-down of the equipment.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
128 words
An anti-tightline control system according to claim 2 further including limit circuit means responsive to the output from said summing circuit means for establishing predetermined alarm and shut-down values for said allowed hoist and drag rope length anti-tightline boundary limited control signal, warning signal means responsive to the output from said limit circuit means for providing a warning to an operator of the dragline type equipment in the event the equipment approaches a tightline operating condition and the output signal from said summing circuit means exceeds the predetermined alarm value, and trip-out circuit means responsive to the output from said limit circuit means for controlling operation of the regulating control means for the respective hoist rope and drag rope means and automatically shutting-down operation of the respective hoist
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
209 words
An anti-tightline control system according to claim 2 further including limit circuit means responsive to the output from said summing circuit means for establishing predetermined alarm and shut-down values for said allowed hoist and drag rope length anti-tightline boundary limited control signal, warning signal means responsive to the output from said limit circuit means for providing a warning to an operator of the dragline type equipment in the event the equipment approaches a tightline operating condition and the output signal from said summing circuit means exceeds the predetermined alarm value, and trip-out circuit means responsive to the output from said limit circuit means for controlling operation of the regulating control means for the respective hoist rope and drag rope means and automatically shutting-down operation of the respective hoist rope and drag rope pay-out and take-up means in the event the output signal from the summing circuit means exceeds the shut-down value established by the limit circuit means, and further including clamping circuit means coupled to said summing circuit means for clamping the output anti-tightline boundary limited control signal to a range of values extending between an allowed first value corresponding to full speed operation of the dragline equipment and an allowed second value corresponding to shut-down of the equipment.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
135 words
An anti-tightline control system according to claim 1 further including hoist rope length and drag rope length limit circuit means responsive to the respective outputs from said hoist rope and drag rope position encoding means, warning signal circuit means responsive to the output from said hoist rope and drag rope length limit circuit means for warning an operator of the drag-line type equipment that the allowed amount of hoist rope and drag rope taken-up is about to be exceeded, and trip-out circuit means responsive to the output from said hoist rope and drag rope length limit circuit means for automatically shutting-down operation of the respective hoist rope and drag rope pay-out and take-up means in the event the output signal from the summing circuit means exceeds the shut-down value established by the limit circuit means.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
134 words
An anti-tightline control system according to claim 5 further including hoist rope length and drag rope length limit circuit means responsive to the respective outputs from said hoist rope and drag rope position encoding means, warning signal circuit means responsive to the output from said hoist rope and drag rope length limit circuit means for warning an operator of the dragline type equipment that the allowed amount of hoist rope or drag rope taken-up is about to be exceeded, and trip-out circuit means responsive to the output from said hoist rope and drag rope length limit circuit means for automatically shutting-down operation of the respective hoist rope and/or drag rope pay-out and take-up means in the event that the allowed amount of hoist rope or drag rope taken-up is exceeded by a predetermined value.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
60 words
An anti-tightline control system according to claim 1 or 2 further including circuit means for converting the form of the anti-tightline boundary limited control signal from the summing circuit means to a different form compatible with the form of control signal required by a particular operator controlled hoist and drag rope regulating control means of a given dragline type equipment.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
58 words
An anti-tightline control system according to claim 7 further including circuit means for converting the form of the anti-tightline boundary limited control signal from the summing circuit means to a different form compatible with the form of control signal required by a particular operator controlled hoist and drag rope regulating control means of a given dragline type equipment.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
175 words
An anti-tightline control system according to claim 1 or 2 or 9 further including function generator means having a transfer function for separately defining a static tightline operating limit condition for specialized dragline type equipment whose static tightline boundary operation condition characteristics are non-elliptical in nature, said function generator means having its input supplied with the hoist rope position signal from said hoist rope position encoding means and deriving therefrom an output drag rope-in prohibited signal representative of the drag rope length required to be paid-out to avoid a static tightline operating condition, the output signal from said function generator means being supplied to the input of said summing circuit means in place of the hoist rope position signal for summation with said drag rope position signal, said hoist rope and drag rope velocity signal and the maximum hoist and drag rope-in allowed bias signal to derive an output dynamic hoist and drag rope speed adjusted allowed hoist and drag rope length anti-tightline boundary limited control signal for use with such specialized dragline type equipment.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
185 words
In a drive regulating system for controlling operation of the bucket means for dragline type equipment having respective hoist and drag rope means attached to the bucket means which can be taken-up or paid-out by respective hoist rope and drag rope pay-out and take-up means to control the positioning and operation of the bucket means, and respective operator controlled hoist and drag rope regulating control means for controlling operation of said respective hoist rope and drag rope pay-out and take-up means; the improvement comprising anti-tightline control system means for monitoring the respective lengths of the hoist and drag rope means paid-out or taken-up at any given time and the speed at which the hoist and drag rope means is being taken-up and for deriving a rope speed adjusted allowed combined hoist and drag rope length anti-tightline boundary limited control signal, and means for supplying said anti-tightline boundary limited control signal to said respective operator controlled hoist and drag rope regulating control means for overriding the operator control settings and maintaining operation of said dragline type equipment within constraints required to avoid a tightline operating condition.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
185 words
In a drive regulating system for controlling operation of the bucket means for dragline type equipment having respective hoist and drag rope means attached to the bucket means which can be taken-up or paid-out by respective hoist rope and drag rope pay-out and take-up means to control the positioning and operation of the bucket means, and respective operator controlled hoist and drag rope regulating control means for controlling operation of said respective hoist rope and drag rope pay-out and take-up means; the improvement comprising anti-tightline control system means for monitoring the respective lengths of the hoist and drag rope means paid-out or taken-up at any given time and the speed at which the hoist and drag rope means is being taken-up and for deriving a rope speed adjusted allowed combined hoist and drag rope length anti-tightline boundary limited control signal, and means for supplying said anti-tightline boundary limited control signal to said respective operator controlled hoist and drag rope regulating control means for overriding the operator control settings and maintaining operation of said dragline type equipment within constraints required to avoid a tightline operating condition.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
242 words
A drive regulating system for dragline type equipment according to claim 11 wherein said anti-tightline control system means comprises hoist rope position encoding means for deriving electric hoist rope position signals representative of the length of hoist rope means paid-out or taken-up by said hoist rope pay-out and take-up means at any given time, drag rope position encoding means for deriving electric drag rope position signals representative of the length of drag rope means paid-out or taken-up by said drag rope pay-out and take-up means at any given time, means for separately developing a maximum hoist and drag rope length allowed-in bias signal representative of the maximum length of hoist and drag rope allowed to be taken-up and still avoid a tightline condition if the hoist and drag rope velocities are near zero, summing circuit means responsive to the outputs from said hoist rope and drag rope position encoding means and said maximum hoist and drag rope-in allowed bias signal, said summing circuit means serving to sum together the hoist rope and drag rope positions signals with the maximum hoist and drag rope length allowed-in bias signal and to derive an output difference allowed hoist and drag rope length static anti-tightline boundary limited control signal that can be used in regulating and controlling operation of the hoist rope and drag rope pay-out and take-up means while avoiding a tightline operating condition for the dragline type equipment during continued operation of the equipment.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
173 words
A drive regulating system for dragline type equipment according to claim 12 further comprising differentiating circuit means responsive to the outputs from said hoist rope and drag rope position encoding means for deriving a net hoist rope and drag rope velocity signal whose magnitude is representative of the net speed at which the hoist and drag rope means are being paid-out or taken-up and whose polarity is indicative of whether the sum of the hoist and drag rope means results in a net pay-out or take-up of the combined rope lengths, and means for supplying the output from said differentiating circuit means to an input for said summing circuit means whereby said summing circuit means sums the hoist rope and drag rope velocity together with the hoist rope and drag rope position signals and the hoist and drag rope length allowed-in bias signal to derive an output dynamic hoist and drag rope speed adjusted allowed hoist and drag rope length anti-tightline boundary limited control signal useable in controlling operation of dragline type equipment.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
161 words
A drive regulating system for dragline type equipment according to claim 13 further including limit circuit means responsive to the output from said summing circuit means for establishing predetermined alarm and shut-down values for said allowed hoist plus drag rope length anti-tightline boundary limited control signal, warning signal means responsive to the output from said limit circuit means for providing a warning to an operator of the dragline type equipment in the event the equipment approaches a tightline operating condition and the output signal from said summing circuit means exceeds the predetermined alarm value, and trip-out circuit means responsive to the output from said limit circuit means for controlling operation of the regulating control means for the respective hoist rope and drag rope means and automatically shutting-down operation of the respective hoist rope and drag rope pay-out and take-up means in the event the output signal from the summing circuit means exceeds the shut-down value established by the limit circuit means.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
138 words
A drive regulating system for dragline type equipment according to claim 14 further including hoist rope length and drag rope length limit circuit means responsive to the respective outputs from said hoist rope and drag rope position encoding means, warning signal circuit means responsive to the output from said hoist rope and drag rope length limit circuit means for warning an operator of the dragline type equipment that the allowed amount of hoist rope or drag rope taken-up is about to be exceeded, and trip-out circuit means responsive to the output from said hoist rope and drag rope length limit circuit means for automatically shutting-down operation of the respective hoist rope and drag rope pay-out and take-up means in the event that the allowed amount of hoist rope or drag rope taken-up is exceeded by a predetermined value.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
178 words
A drive regulating system for dragline type equipment according to claim 11, 12 or 15 further including function generator means having a transfer function for separately defining a static tightline operating limit condition for specialized dragline type equipment whose static tightline boundary operation condition characteristics are non-elliptical in nature, said function generator means having its input supplied with the hoist rope postion signal from said hoist rope position encoding means and deriving therefrom an output drag rope-in prohibited signal representative of the drag rope length required to be paid-out to avoid a static tightline operating condition, the output signal from said function generator means being supplied to the input of said summing circuit means in place of the hoist rope position signal for summation with said drag rope position signal, said hoist rope and drag rope velocity signal and the maximum hoist and drag rope-in allowed bias signal to derive an output dynamic hoist and drag rope speed adjusted allowed hoist and drag rope length anti-tightline boundary limited control signal for use with such specialized dragline type equipment.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
62 words
A drive regulating system for dragline type equipment according to claim 15 further including circuit means for converting the form of the anti-tightline boundary limited control signal from the summing circuit means to a different form compatible with the form of control signal required by a particular operator controlled hoist and drag rope regulating control means of a given dragline type equipment.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
62 words
A drive regulating system for dragline type equipment according to claim 16 further including circuit means for converting the form of the anti-tightline boundary limited control signal from the summing circuit means to a different form compatible with the form of control signal required by a particular operator controlled hoist and drag rope regulating control means of a given dragline type equipment.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
66 words
A drive regulating system for dragline type equipment according to either claim 11 or 12 further including clamping circuit means coupled to said summing circuit means for clamping the output anti-tightline boundary limited control signal to a range of values extending between an allowed first value corresponding to full speed operation of the dragline equipment and an allowed second value corresponding to shut-down of the equipment.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim
64 words
A motion drive regulating system from dragline type equipment according to claim 17 further including clamping circuit means coupled to said summing circuit means for clamping the output anti-tightline boundary limited control signal to a range of values extending between an allowed first value corresponding to full speed operation of the dragline equipment and an allowed second value corresponding to shut-down of the equipment.
Claim 23
Dependent Claim
254 words
In a drive regulating system for dragline type equipment having respective hoist and drag ropes which can be taken-up or paid-out by an operator to control the positioning and operation of a bucket for doing work and which can be so operated as to place the dragline type equipment in a tightline condition that in turn could result in damaging the equipment; the method of controlling operation of the drive regulating system by deriving an anti-tightline control regulating signal for overriding the operator control setting under threatened tightline operating conditions and for regulating further take-up of the hoist and drag ropes so as to avoid a tightline operating condition while maintaining continued operation of the dragline type equipment, said method comprising deriving respective hoist rope and drag rope position electric signals which are indicative of the length of hoist and drag rope paid-out or taken-up at any given instant of time, separately developing a maximum hoist and drag rope length allowed-in bias signal representative of the maximum length of hoist and drag rope allowed to be taken-up and still avoid a tightline condition if the rope velocities are near zero, comparing the combined hoist and drag position electric signals with the maximum hoist and drag rope length allowed-in bias signal and deriving an output difference allowed hoist and drag rope length static anti-tightline boundary limited control signal that can be used for regulating and controlling further operation of the dragline type equipment while avoiding a tightline operating condition during continued operation of the equipment.
Claim 24
Dependent Claim
254 words
In a drive regulating system for dragline type equipment having respective hoist and drag ropes which can be taken-up or paid-out by an operator to control the positioning and operation of a bucket for doing work and which can be so operated as to place the dragline type equipment in a tightline condition that in turn could result in damaging the equipment; the method of controlling operation of the drive regulating system by deriving an anti-tightline control regulating signal for overriding the operator control setting under threatened tightline operating conditions and for regulating further take-up of the hoist and drag ropes so as to avoid a tightline operating condition while maintaining continued operation of the dragline type equipment, said method comprising deriving respective hoist rope and drag rope position electric signals which are indicative of the length of hoist and drag rope paid-out or taken-up at any given instant of time, separately developing a maximum hoist and drag rope length allowed-in bias signal representative of the maximum length of hoist and drag rope allowed to be taken-up and still avoid a tightline condition if the rope velocities are near zero, comparing the combined hoist and drag position electric signals with the maximum hoist and drag rope length allowed-in bias signal and deriving an output difference allowed hoist and drag rope length static anti-tightline boundary limited control signal that can be used for regulating and controlling further operation of the dragline type equipment while avoiding a tightline operating condition during continued operation of the equipment.
Claim 25
Dependent Claim
167 words
The method of controlling operation of the drive regulating system of dragline type equipment according to claim 21 further comprising differentiating the hoist rope and drag rope position signals for deriving hoist and drag rope net velocity signal whose magnitude is representative of the net speed at which the hoist and drag ropes are being paid-out or taken-up and whose polarity is indicative of whether the hoist and drag ropes are in sum being taken-up or paid-out, and adding said hoist and drag rope net velocity signal into the comparison of the hoist and drag rope position signals to the maximum hoist and drag rope length allowed-in bias signal whereby in effect the absolute value of the rope allowed-in bias signal is dynamically varied in accordance with the rope net speed and the output difference allowed hoist and drag rope length anti-tightline boundary limited control signal is dynamically varied in a direction to decrease the value of the maximum rope length allowed-in for increasing rope take-up speeds.
Claim 26
Dependent Claim
124 words
The method of controlling operation of the drive regulating system of dragline type equipment according to claim 21 for dragline type equipment having a specialized static tightline boundary operating condition characteristic which is non-elliptical in nature; said method further comprising processing the hoist rope position electric signal in a suitable function generator whose transfer function corresponds to the specialized static tightline boundary operating condition characteristic of the dragline type equipment and deriving at its output a drag rope-in prohibited signal for use in place of the hoist rope position signal otherwise used in the comparison step to derive the output difference allowed hoist and drag rope length static anti-tightline boundary limited control signal for regulating and controlling continued operation of the dragline type equipment.
Claim 27
Dependent Claim
124 words
The method of controlling operation of the drive regulating system of dragline type equipment according to claim 22 for dragline type equipment having a specialized static tightline boundary operating condition characteristic which is non-elliptical in nature; said method further comprising processing the hoist rope position electric signal in a suitable function generator whose transfer function corresponds to the specialized static tightline boundary operating condition characteristic of the dragline type equipment and deriving at its output a drag rope-in prohibited signal for use in place of the hoist rope position signal otherwise used in the comparison step to derive the output difference allowed hoist and drag rope length static anti-tightline boundary limited control signal for regulating and controlling continued operation of the dragline type equipment.
Claim 28
Independent Claim
62 words
The method of controlling operation of the drive regulating system of dragline type equipment according to claims 21, 23 or 24 further comprising clamping the output anti-tightline boundary limited control signal to a range of values extending between an allowed first value corresponding to full speed operation of the dragline equipment and an allowed second value corresponding to shut-down of the equipment.
Claim 29
Dependent Claim
107 words
The method of controlling operation of the drive regulating system of dragline type equipment according to claim 21, 22, 23, or 24 further comprising deriving a warning signal to an operator of the dragline type equipment in the event the value of the output anti-tightline boundary limited control signal exceeds a predetermined first limit value indicative that the dragline type equipment is approaching a tightline operating condition, and deriving a shut-down signal that trips-out or otherwise stops further operation of the dragline type equipment in the take-up direction in the event that the anti-tightline boundary limited control signal exceeds the first limit value by a predetermined amount.
Claim 30
Dependent Claim
139 words
The method of controlling operation of the drive regulating system of dragline type equipment according to claim 21, 22, 23 or 24 further comprising deriving a warning signal to an operator of the dragline type equipment in the event the value of the combined hoist rope and drag rope position signals indicate that the amount of hoist or drag rope taken-up exceeds a first limit value smaller by a predetermined amount than the maximum length of hoist and drag rope allowed to be taken-up and still avoid a tightline condition if the rope velocities are near zero, and deriving a shut-down signal that trips-out or otherwise stops further operation of the dragline type equipment in the take-up direction in the event that the amount of hoist or drag rope taken-up exceeds the first limit value by a predetermined amount.
Claim 31
Dependent Claim
65 words
The method of controlling operation of the drive regulating system of dragline type equipment according to claim 21, 22, 23 or 24 further comprising converting the form of the anti-tightline boundary limited control signal to a different form compatible with the form of control regulating signal required by a particular operator controlled hoist and drag rope drive regulating means of a given dragline type equipment.
Claim 32
Dependent Claim
59 words
The method of controlling operation of the drive regulating system of dragline type equipment according to claim 22 further comprising clamping the output anti-tightline boundary limited control signal to a range of values extending between an allowed first value corresponding to full speed operation of the dragline equipment and an allowed second value corresponding to shut-down of the equipment.
Claim 33
Dependent Claim
103 words
The method of controlling operation of the drive regulating system of dragline type equipment according to claim 29 further comprising deriving a warning signal to an operator of the dragline type equipment in the event the value of the output anti-tightline boundary limited control signal exceeds a predetermined first limit value indicative that the dragline type equipment is approaching a tightline operating condition, and deriving a shut-down signal that trips-out or otherwise stops further operation of the dragline type equipment in the take-up direction in the event that the anti-tightline boundary limited control signal exceeds the first limit value by a predetermined amount.
Claim 34
Dependent Claim
135 words
The method of controlling operation of the drive regulating system of dragline type equipment according to claim 30 further comprising deriving a warning signal to an operator of the dragline type equipment in the event the value of the combined hoist rope and drag rope position signals indicate that the amount of hoist or drag rope taken-up exceeds a first limit value smaller by a predetermined amount than the maximum length of hoist and drag rope allowed to be taken-up and still avoid a tightline condition if the rope velocities are near zero, and deriving a shut-down signal that trips-out or otherwise stops further operation of the dragline type equipment in the take-up direction in the event that the amount of hoist or drag rope taken-up exceeds the first limit value by a predetermined amount.
Claim 35
Dependent Claim
61 words
The method of controlling operation of the drive regulating system of dragline type equipment according to claim 31 further comprising converging the form of the anti-tightline boundary limited control signal to a different form compatible with the form of control regulating signal required by a particular operator controlled hoist and drag rope drive regulating means of a given dragline type equipment.
Claim 36
Dependent Claim
124 words
The method of controlling operation of the drive regulating system of dragline type equipment according to claim 32 for dragline type equipment having a specialized static tightline boundary operating condition characteristic which is non-elliptical in nature; said method further comprising processing the hoist rope position electric signal in a suitable function generator whose transfer function corresponds to the specialized static tightline boundary operating condition characteristic of the dragline type equipment and deriving at its output a drag rope-in prohibited signal for use in place of the hoist rope position signal otherwise used in the comparison step to derive the output difference allowed hoist and drag rope length static anti-tightline boundary limited control signal for regulating and controlling continued operation of the dragline type equipment.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
USPTO Annuity & Maintenance Windows
| Annuity Stage | Window Opens | Payment Deadline | Surcharge Period Until | Estimated Fee | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.5 Years (Year 4) | 1986-01-24 | 1986-07-26 | 1987-01-25 | $2000.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 7.5 Years (Year 8) | 1990-01-24 | 1990-07-26 | 1991-01-25 | $3760.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 11.5 Years (Year 12) | 1994-01-24 | 1994-07-26 | 1995-01-25 | $7700.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |