1501113 Automatic control of tunnelling machines ANDERSON MAVER Ltd 11 April 1975 [20 April 1974] 17420/74 Heading E1F [Also in Division G3] Pivotal movement of the cutter-carrying boom of a tunnelling machine is regulated by a control system that involves two generator systems that can generate signals representative of the displacement of the cutter along a substantially horizontal axis and along a substantially vertical axis from a datum position, two comparison means for respectively comparing the first signals to reference horizontal and vertical signals and generating on the basis of differences between the first and the second sets of signals a horizontal and a vertical control signal, and means responsive to the control signals to pivot the boom about a vertical axis and a horizontal axis so that the cutter does cut outside a locus determined by an appropriately established relationship between the reference signals. Preferably the generators involve electrical transducers 31, 32 and the means responsive to the control signals comprise solenoids regulating valves controlling the supply of pressurised hydraulic fluid to rams acting on the boom. The signalling system can be designed for automatic stepwise traversal of a face.
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