Multi-metal nodule desliming device suitable for deep-sea mining

Abstract

The invention relates to the technical field of ocean engineering deep-sea mining equipment, in particular to a multi-metal nodule desliming device suitable for deep-sea mining, which consists of a mineral aggregate input connecting flange, a mineral aggregate input transition cabin, a mineral aggregate enrichment cabin, a waste discharge cabin, a desliming screen, a screen fixing frame, a screen fixing screw and a waste discharge guide plate. The mineral aggregate input connecting flange is located at the front end of the multi-metal nodule desliming device and used for being connected with the multi-metal nodule collecting and conveying device, the mineral aggregate input transition cabin is tightly connected with the mineral aggregate input connecting flange, and a square opening is formed in the rear end of the mineral aggregate input transition cabin. The shape of the front end of the mineral aggregate input transition cabin is the same as that of the mineral aggregate input connecting flange.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention relates to the technical field of marine engineering deep-sea mining equipment, and in particular to a polymetallic nodule desludging device suitable for deep-sea mining. Background Art

[0002] There are many mineral resources rich in manganese, cobalt, lithium, nickel and other metals in the deep sea, which are important raw materials for the production of intelligent instruments, high-end equipment and new energy batteries. Polymetallic nodules, cobalt-rich crusts and polymetallic sulfides in the deep sea are the most valuable for mining. Among them, polymetallic nodules are a typical mineral resource, which exists in the surface of deep-sea sediments in the form of ellipsoids and semi-buried. Because they are located on the flat seabed, large-scale mining is easy to achieve, making them the most commercially promising in global industrial applications. Due to the extremely harsh deep-sea environment, the mining technology of polymetallic nodules is very difficult. The seabed topography is complex, the hydrostatic pressure of ultra-deep water is extremely high, and there are complex marine environmental conditions such as waves, ocean currents, and internal waves. Large-scale collection of ore from the deep seabed and lifting it to the surface has high requirements for the operating efficiency and reliability of mining equipment, and the multi-system coordinated control and joint operation during the mining process are difficult. Due to the immaturity of the corresponding mining technology and equipment, deep-sea mineral resources have not yet been commercially mined worldwide.

[0003] Because the deep-sea surface sediments are sparse, soft and highly adhesive, when deep-sea mining vehicles operate on the seabed, the collected polymetallic nodules will be accompanied by a large amount of mud. If the ore is transported to the surface together with a large amount of mud, it will cause a large-scale unnecessary transportation load, and the actual mining rate will be greatly reduced. In addition, the transported mud needs to be treated secondary, which can easily cause environmental pollution. Therefore, the best way is to desludging the ore underwater to reduce unnecessary energy consumption and pollution. Currently, there is no ore desludging device based on deep-sea mining vehicles used in commercial mining, and related technologies need to be urgently resolved. Summary of the invention

[0004] The object of the present invention is to provide a polymetallic nodule desludging device suitable for deep-sea mining to solve the problems in the above-mentioned background technology.

[0005] To achieve the above-mentioned purpose, the technical solution adopted by the present invention is to provide a polymetallic nodule desludging device suitable for deep-sea mining, which is composed of a mineral input connecting flange, a mineral input transition chamber, a mineral enrichment chamber, a waste discharge chamber, a desludging screen, a screen fixing frame, a screen fixing screws and a waste discharge guide plate. The mineral input connecting flange is located at the front end of the polymetallic nodule desludging device and is used to connect the polymetallic nodule collection and transportation device. The mineral input transition chamber is tightly connected to the mineral input connecting flange. The rear end of the mineral input transition chamber is a square mouth, and the front end of the mineral input transition chamber has the same shape as the mineral input connecting flange.

[0006] Furthermore, the mineral enrichment chamber is located in the middle and lower part of the polymetallic nodule desludging device, and the front end is connected to the lower edge of the mineral input transition chamber, and the rear end is connected to the lower edge of the waste discharge chamber. The overall structure is a bucket shape that is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom.

[0007] Furthermore, the waste discharge chamber is located in the middle and rear part of the polymetallic nodule desludging device, with square openings at the front and rear, and the rear opening is larger. The overall shape is a trumpet with the tail tilted downward. The front opening is connected to the ore input transition chamber, and the front lower opening is connected to the ore enrichment chamber.

[0008] Furthermore, the desludging screen is obliquely installed inside the waste discharge chamber through a screen fixing frame and screen fixing screws.

[0009] Furthermore, the screen fixing frame is fixedly connected to the upper, lower, left and right walls of the waste discharge chamber as a whole. The upper side of the screen fixing frame is located at the connection between the upper edge of the mineral material input transition chamber and the waste discharge chamber, and the lower side of the screen fixing frame is located at the connection between the lower edge of the mineral material enrichment chamber and the waste discharge chamber. The angle between the inclined surface of the screen fixing frame and the horizontal plane is 40°-60°.

[0010] Furthermore, the screen fixing frame is a square frame with a hole in the middle, the hole in the middle is slightly smaller than the size of the square demudifying screen, and the demudifying screen is installed on the front side of the screen fixing frame by screen fixing screws on the four edges.

[0011] Furthermore, the mesh of the desludging screen is designed to be a waist-shaped hole, the semicircle diameter of the waist-shaped hole is 1cm-1.5cm, the semicircle center distance is 1cm-2cm, and the distance between the edges of adjacent waist-shaped holes is 0.5cm-1.5cm.

[0012] Furthermore, the waste discharge guide plate is located inside the waste discharge cabin, and the left and right sides of the waste discharge guide plate are fixedly connected to the left and right walls of the waste discharge cabin respectively. Its structural form is a plate structure with a horizontal front half and a downwardly bent rear half. The bending angle is 120°-135°, and there are 3 waste discharge guide plates, which are evenly distributed in the waste discharge cabin at the top, middle and bottom.

[0013] The beneficial effects of the present invention are: 1. The development of deep-sea mining technology is beneficial to reducing environmental pressure on land, promoting the development of clean energy, achieving sustainable development, expanding marine economic space, and promoting the comprehensive upgrading of the marine industry. Due to the extreme mining environment, special occurrence state and extremely high environmental protection requirements of deep-sea mineral resources, the exploitation of deep-sea mineral resources has become a high-end technology-intensive production activity involving multiple disciplines and industries. Taking into account factors such as function realization, mining efficiency, convenient operation and maintenance, and reasonable weight and space layout, the present invention provides a polymetallic nodule desludging device suitable for deep-sea mining. Through the assembleable desludging screening structure, ore enrichment structure and waste discharge diversion structure in the device, the efficiency of mineral resource exploitation is improved and the damage to the mining environment is reduced.

[0014] 2. The present invention adopts a waist-shaped hole-type assembleable screen to maximize the separation of polymetallic nodule ore and fine-grained mud and sand impurities, improve the impact resistance and service life of the structure, and the overall structure is easy to assemble and replace, which meets the use requirements of commercial deep-sea mining equipment; the open waste discharge cabin and the downward curved guide plate design are conducive to reducing the waste discharge water flow velocity and the discharge flow direction is closer to the seabed, which can effectively weaken the impact of the plume caused by mining operations on the deep-sea environment; the expansion-type ore input transition cabin can reduce the movement speed of the ore in the cabin, so that the ore can be fully scrubbed in the cabin, and the efficiency of ore desludging and screening is improved; the flange connection design can improve the assemblability of the structure and can match the structural forms of different collection and transportation pipelines; because the input ore and mud mixed flow is screened into two parts of fluid-solid mixture, discharge and collection, the closed-end ore enrichment structure can speed up the collection speed of the ore after desludging and improve the overall transmission rate of the device. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0015] In order to more clearly illustrate the specific implementation methods of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings required for use in the specific implementation methods or the description of the prior art will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the drawings described below are some implementation methods of the present invention. For ordinary technicians in this field, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without paying creative work.

[0016] Figure 1 It is a three-dimensional axonometric diagram of the desludging device according to the present invention; Figure 2 It is a front view of the desludging device of the present invention; Figure 3 A bottom view of the desludging device according to the present invention; Figure 4 This is a left side view of the desludging device according to the present invention; Figure 5 It is a right side view of the desludging device of the present invention; Figure 6It is a cross-sectional view of the desludging device according to the present invention; Figure 7 This is a working principle diagram of the deep-sea polymetallic nodule desludging device described in the present invention.

[0017] Description of reference numerals: 1. Desludging device; 11. Ore input connecting flange; 12. Ore input transition chamber; 13. Ore enrichment chamber; 14. Waste discharge chamber; 15. Desludging screen; 16. Screen fixing frame; 17. Screen fixing screws; 18. Waste discharge guide plate; 2. Polymetallic nodule ore; 3. Silt and impurities; 4. Plume flow; A. Ore and silt mixed flow; B. Polymetallic nodule ore flow; C. Waste flow. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0018] The technical solution of the present invention will be described clearly and completely below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Obviously, the described embodiments are only part of the embodiments of the present invention, not all of the embodiments. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without creative work are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0019] In the description of the present invention, it should be noted that the terms "center", "upper", "lower", "left", "right", "vertical", "horizontal", "inner", "outer", etc., indicating the orientation or positional relationship, are based on the orientation or positional relationship shown in the drawings, and are only for the convenience of describing the present invention and simplifying the description, rather than indicating or implying that the device or element referred to must have a specific orientation, be constructed and operated in a specific orientation, and therefore cannot be understood as limiting the present invention. In addition, the terms "first", "second", and "third" are used for descriptive purposes only, and cannot be understood as indicating or implying relative importance.

[0020] In the description of the present invention, it should be noted that, unless otherwise clearly specified and limited, the terms "installed", "connected", and "connected" should be understood in a broad sense, for example, it can be a fixed connection, a detachable connection, or an integral connection; it can be a mechanical connection or an electrical connection; it can be a direct connection, or it can be indirectly connected through an intermediate medium, or it can be the internal communication of two components. For ordinary technicians in this field, the specific meanings of the above terms in the present invention can be understood according to specific circumstances.

[0021] In addition, the technical features involved in the different embodiments of the present invention described below can be combined with each other as long as they do not conflict with each other.

[0022] like Figures 1 to 7As shown, the present invention provides a polymetallic nodule desludging device 1 suitable for deep-sea mining, which is mainly composed of a mineral input connecting flange 11, a mineral input transition chamber 12, a mineral enrichment chamber 13, a waste discharge chamber 14, a desludging screen 15, a screen fixing frame 16, a screen fixing screws 17 and a waste discharge guide plate 18.

[0023] The ore input connection flange 11 is located at the front end of the polymetallic nodule desludging device 1 and is used to connect the polymetallic nodule collection and transportation device to facilitate receiving the collected polymetallic nodule ore. This embodiment uses a disc flange with uniformly distributed holes, and the actual shape and size can be adjusted according to the pipeline form of the polymetallic nodule collection and transportation device.

[0024] The mineral input transition chamber 12 is closely connected to the mineral input connecting flange 11. The rear end of the mineral input transition chamber 12 is a square opening, and the front end has the same shape as the mineral input connecting flange 11. Since the shapes of the openings at both ends are inconsistent and the rear end opening is larger than the front end opening, a structural shape transition is required. This embodiment adopts a square tube that is narrow in front and wide in the back.

[0025] The ore enrichment chamber 13 is located in the middle and lower part of the polymetallic nodule desludging device 1, and the front end is connected to the lower edge of the ore input transition chamber 12, and the rear end is connected to the lower edge of the waste discharge chamber 14. The overall structure is a bucket shape that is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom.

[0026] The waste discharge chamber 14 is located in the middle and rear part of the polymetallic nodule desludging device 1. It has square openings at the front and rear, and the rear opening is larger. The overall shape is a trumpet with the tail tilted downward. The front opening is connected to the ore input transition chamber 12, and the front lower opening is connected to the ore enrichment chamber 13.

[0027] The desludging screen 15 is obliquely installed inside the waste discharge chamber 14 through the screen fixing frame 16 and the screen fixing screws 17. Among them, the screen fixing frame 16 is fixedly connected to the four upper, lower, left and right walls of the waste discharge chamber 14 as a whole, the upper side of the screen fixing frame 16 is located at the upper edge connection of the mineral material input transition chamber 12 and the waste discharge chamber 14, and the lower side of the screen fixing frame 16 is located at the lower edge connection of the mineral material enrichment chamber 13 and the waste discharge chamber 14. The angle between the inclined surface of the screen fixing frame 16 and the horizontal plane is preferably 40°-60°. The screen fixing frame 16 is a square frame with a hole in the middle, and the hole in the middle is slightly smaller than the size of the square desludging screen 15. The desludging screen 15 is installed on the front side of the screen fixing frame 16 through the screen fixing screws 17 on the four edges, which is convenient for the installation, disassembly and replacement of the desludging screen 15.

[0028] The mesh of the desludging screen 15 is designed to be a waist-shaped hole. In this embodiment, according to the average minimum size of deep-sea polymetallic nodules, the particle size of the designed separation mud and impurities is not more than 2 cm, the semicircular diameter of the waist-shaped hole is preferably 1 cm-1.5 cm, the semicircle center distance is preferably 1 cm-2 cm, and the distance between the edges of adjacent waist-shaped holes is preferably 0.5 cm-1.5 cm.

[0029] The waste discharge guide plate 18 is located inside the waste discharge chamber 14, and the left and right sides of the waste discharge guide plate 18 are fixedly connected to the left and right walls of the waste discharge chamber 14 respectively. Its structural form is a plate structure with a horizontal front half and a downwardly bent rear half. The bending angle is preferably 120°-135°, and the number of waste discharge guide plates 18 is preferably 3, evenly distributed in the waste discharge chamber 14 at the top, middle and bottom.

[0030] The working principle of the polymetallic nodule desludging device 1 is as follows: First, the collected and transported polymetallic nodule ore and sediment mixed flow A enters the ore input transition chamber 12 through the ore input connection flange 11. Due to the increase in the conveying space, the ore and sediment mixed flow A is initially diffused in the ore input transition chamber 12. Due to the effect of hydraulic conveying, the ore and sediment mixed flow A still has a certain kinetic energy after entering the ore input transition chamber 12, and impacts the desludging screen 15; Furthermore, the desludging screen 15 screens the mixed flow A of ore and sediment, and the polymetallic nodule ore 2 with a particle size larger than the minimum aperture of the screen will be intercepted. After the ore hits the screen, the sediment adhering to its surface will pass through the screen and move backward under the action of the water flow. At the same time, other sediment and impurities 3 with a particle size smaller than the minimum aperture of the screen will also pass through the screen and move backward. The intercepted ore will fall downward and fall into the ore enrichment chamber 13, forming a clean polymetallic nodule ore flow B. Furthermore, the silt and impurities 3 that pass through the screen are acted upon by the waste discharge guide plate 18 to form a waste flow C that is discharged from the tail opening of the waste discharge compartment 14 and is directed obliquely downward into the open sea, and further forms a plume 4 under the action of the bottom current. Due to the downward diversion, the plume 4 can settle in a shorter time, thereby reducing the impact on the environment.

[0031] The embodiments of this specific implementation method are all preferred embodiments of the present invention, and are not intended to limit the protection scope of the present invention. Therefore, any equivalent changes made based on the structure, shape, and principle of the present invention should be included in the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A polymetallic nodule desludging device suitable for deep-sea mining, characterized in that: The invention is composed of a ore input connection flange, a ore input transition chamber, a ore enrichment chamber, a waste discharge chamber, a desludging screen, a screen fixing frame, screen fixing screws and a waste discharge guide plate. The ore input connection flange is located at the front end of the polymetallic nodule desludging device and is used to connect the polymetallic nodule collection and transportation device. The ore input transition chamber is closely connected to the ore input connection flange. The rear end of the ore input transition chamber is a square mouth. The front end of the ore input transition chamber is the same shape as the ore input connection flange. The ore enrichment chamber It is located in the middle and lower part of the polymetallic nodule desludging device, and its front end is connected to the lower edge of the ore input transition cabin, and the rear end is connected to the lower edge of the waste discharge cabin. The overall structure is a bucket shape that is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom; the waste discharge cabin is located in the middle and rear part of the polymetallic nodule desludging device, and its front and rear openings are both square openings, and the rear opening is larger, and the overall shape is a trumpet with the tail tilted downward, the front opening is connected to the ore input transition cabin, and the front lower opening is connected to the ore enrichment cabin; the desludging screen is obliquely installed inside the waste discharge cabin through a screen fixing frame and a screen fixing screw.

2. A polymetallic nodule desludging device suitable for deep-sea mining as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that: The screen fixing frame is integrally fixedly connected to the upper, lower, left and right walls of the waste discharge chamber. The upper side of the screen fixing frame is located at the connection between the upper edge of the mineral material input transition chamber and the waste discharge chamber, and the lower side of the screen fixing frame is located at the connection between the lower edge of the mineral material enrichment chamber and the waste discharge chamber. The angle between the inclined surface of the screen fixing frame and the horizontal plane is 40°-60°.

3. A polymetallic nodule desludging device suitable for deep-sea mining as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that: The screen fixing frame is a square frame with a hole in the middle, the hole in the middle is slightly smaller than the size of the square desludging screen, and the desludging screen is installed on the front side of the screen fixing frame by screen fixing screws on the four edges.

4. A polymetallic nodule desludging device suitable for deep-sea mining as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that: The mesh of the desludging screen is designed as a waist-round hole, the semicircle diameter of the waist-round hole is 1cm-1.5cm, the semicircle center distance is 1cm-2cm, and the distance between the edges of adjacent waist-round holes is 0.5cm-1.5cm.

5. A polymetallic nodule desludging device suitable for deep-sea mining as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that: The waste discharge guide plate is located inside the waste discharge cabin, and the left and right sides of the waste discharge guide plate are fixedly connected to the left and right walls of the waste discharge cabin respectively. Its structural form is a plate structure with a horizontal front half and a downwardly bent rear half. The bending angle is 120°-135°, and there are 3 waste discharge guide plates, which are evenly distributed in the waste discharge cabin at the top, middle and bottom.

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