Deep Sea Buoyant Mining System

Abstract

Realize green mining and avoid environmental pollution and waste of seabed mineral resources. [Solution] A deep-sea buoyant mining system including a mother ship 24, a float 10, spreaders 31, 34, a backfill box 35, and a mineral material box 33, wherein a metal shell 14 is provided on the outside of the float, an airbag 12 is provided inside the metal shell, and ports are provided at both ends of the metal shell, the port at one end is the valve outlet end of the airbag and is sealed connected to the valve of the airbag, and the other end is an oil port 16, and at least one lifting lug 17 is provided on the outside of the float, and the backfill box and mineral material box are suspended from the lifting lug, thereby preventing environmental pollution caused by seabed mud and enabling large ores to be pulled up to the mother ship, thereby avoiding waste of seabed mineral resources.

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to the technical field of deep sea mining equipment, and in particular to a deep sea buoyant mining system. [Background technology]

[0002] The seafloor is rich in mineral resources, including large amounts of manganese nodules, polymetallic sulfides, and cobalt-rich nodules, as well as large amounts of rare metals. The development of seafloor mineral resources is an important force supporting the future development of the economy, industry, and science and technology.

[0003] In deep sea mining, a surface mother ship is generally used as the support platform of the system, and an ore slurry lifting vertical pipe is connected to the bottom of the ship under the pipe-ship connection device, and the top of the lifting vertical pipe is connected to the pipe-ship connection device, and the bottom end of the lifting vertical pipe is connected to a lifting pump unit, a hose, and a submarine mining vehicle, etc. The mining vehicle works on the seabed, transports the collected ore slurry to the inlet of the lifting pump unit through the hose by the material pump, and then transports the ore slurry to the surface mother ship through the lifting vertical pipe by the lifting pump unit.

[0004] Since the ore slurry contains a large amount of seabed mud, the seabed mud is transported to the mother ship together with the mineral materials by the material pump and the lifting pump. Since the composition of the seabed mud is complex and the salt content is high, when commercial mining is carried out, a large amount of the seabed mud will be deposited on land, causing serious environmental pollution on land.

[0005] In addition, the ore slurry on the seabed also contains some large mineral nodules. On the one hand, due to the restriction of the diameter of the ore slurry lifting pipeline, it is not possible to load particularly large mineral nodules; on the other hand, the material pump and lifting pump generally use centrifugal pumps or plunger pumps, and due to the restriction of the function of the transport pump, when large mineral nodules pass through the centrifugal pump or plunger pump, it will cause serious wear and deformation to the main components such as the pump body of the centrifugal pump or plunger pump, thereby causing the failure of the centrifugal pump or plunger pump. Therefore, the large ores cannot be transported to the mother ship by pipeline transportation and are dumped on the seabed, causing a waste of seabed mineral resources.

[0006] As described above, when using material pumps, lifting pumps and pipelines to pull up ore slurry, two main problems arise: 1) the pulled up seabed muddy water accumulates on land, causing environmental pollution; and 2) large ores cannot be pulled up to the mother ship, resulting in the waste of seabed mineral resources. Summary of the Invention [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] The objective of the present invention is to solve two major problems that arise when existing deep-sea mining systems use pipelines, material pumps and lifting pumps to lift ore slurry: 1) the lifted seabed muddy water pollutes the environment; and 2) large ores cannot be lifted up to the mother ship, resulting in the waste of seabed mineral resources. In order to solve these two major problems, the present invention invents a deep-sea buoyant mining system, compensates for the deficiencies of existing deep-sea mining systems, realizes green mining, and avoids environmental pollution and the waste of seabed mineral resources.

[0008] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is realized by the following technical solutions.

[0009] The deep-sea buoyant mining system includes a mother vessel, a float, a spreader, a backfill box, and a mineral material box, the float has a metal shell on the outside, an airbag is provided inside the metal shell, and both ends of the metal shell are provided with ports, the port at one end is a valve outlet end of the airbag and is sealed connected to the valve of the airbag, and the other end is an oil port, the float has at least one lifting lug on the outside, and the backfill box and the mineral material box are suspended from the lifting lug.

[0010] The object of the present invention can be further achieved by the following technical solutions.

[0011] The mother ship is provided with a cable for connecting the float.

[0012] The lifting lug is provided on the outside of the metal shell, and a spreader is connected to the lifting lug, the backfill box uses a first spreader, and the mineral material box uses a second spreader; The backfill box uses a first spreader and the mineral material box is connected integrally with the float using a second spreader, and when they sink together in the sea, the bottom of the backfill box is h meters lower than the bottom of the mineral material box.

[0013] An automatic control hook is further provided under the first spreader, and a lifting rope is provided on the backfill box. The lifting rope is suspended from the automatic control hook. After the automatic control hook lifts the cargo, the automatic control hook closes, and the opening of the automatic control hook is controlled according to the magnitude of the force received by the second spreader.

[0014] The automatic control hook may be a mechanical structure or an electrically controlled structure.

[0015] The airbag body is inflatable, deflatable and made of high strength elastic material.

[0016] The inside of the airbag is filled with high pressure gas.

[0017] A reservoir chamber within the metal shell, outside the airbag, is filled with high pressure mineral oil.

[0018] The mother ship is equipped with a material crane and a cable car. Effect of the Invention

[0019] The deep sea buoyancy mining system of the present invention uses floats to backfill the seabed muddy water collected by the deep sea pipeline into the seabed mining area with the backfilling box, and at the same time, transports the large ore collected from the seabed that cannot be transported through the pipeline from the seabed to the mother ship with the mineral material box. Not only does it avoid the pollution of land caused by the seabed muddy water collected through the pipeline, but it also reduces the disturbance to the seabed mining area by backfilling the seabed muddy water into the seabed mining area, realizing green mining, and it also uses floats and mineral material boxes to re-collect the large ore dumped on the seabed, avoiding the waste of resources.

[0020] The float of the present invention uses a two-layer structure, that is, an airbag is further provided inside the metal shell of the outer layer of the float. The airbag is used to fill high-pressure gas such as high-pressure helium gas. Since the temperatures of the atmospheric environment and the seabed environment are both much higher than the liquefaction temperature of the gas, the gas in the airbag cannot liquefy under the high-pressure environment. By utilizing the small specific gravity of the gas, the weight of the float can be reduced and the ability of the float to transport ore can be improved. The liquid storage chamber uses the airbag as a compression body and is filled with high-pressure mineral oil. On the one hand, the operation of increasing the internal pressure of the metal shell is simplified. On the other hand, by utilizing the pressure balance between the inside and outside of the metal shell, the pressure resistance level of the metal shell on the seabed can be improved and the weight of the metal shell can be reduced.

[0021] In the present invention, when the marine underwater transportation system composed of the float, the backfilling box, and the mineral material box etc. are sunk into the sea together, the bottom of the backfilling box is h meters lower than the bottom of the mineral material box, the value of h is generally 0.5 meters, if the value is too large, it is not easy to load mineral material into the mineral material box on the seabed, if the value is too small, the bottom of the mineral material box is easy to contact the seabed, and when the backfilling box overcomes the buoyancy of the float and sinks to the seabed and contacts the seabed, the mineral material box will always float in the water under the influence of the buoyancy of the float, and the ore is constantly loaded into the mineral material box by remotely controlling the undersea trolley, and the whole process of loading mineral material is carried out by the mineral material box. The bottom of the box never sinks to the seabed of the seabed, and as the ore in the mineral material box constantly increases, the tensile force of the float received by the second spreader also constantly increases, and the maximum upward carrying force of the float is constant, so the tensile force of the float received by the first spreader of the backfill box decreases, and when the tensile force received by the first spreader of the backfill box decreases to the designed tensile force, the automatic control hook under the first spreader of the backfill box automatically opens, the backfill box releases the float and restrains and stays on the seabed, and at the same time, the float loses the restraint of the backfill box and immediately floats up to the sea surface together with the mineral material box, and then uses the material crane of the mother ship to pull the mineral material box to the mother ship. The set automatic unloading function of the automatic control hook under the first spreader of the backfill box not only allows the backfill box to release the float and stay on the seabed, but also automatically limits the ore loading capacity of the mineral material box, and avoids the problem of the mineral material box being overloaded and unable to float.

[0022] The cable installed on the mother ship of the present invention connects the float, and the purpose is to restrain the sinking and surfacing positions of the float and prevent the float from running out of control in the sea and affecting work efficiency.

[0023] The present invention uses the gravity of the seabed mud to bring the float to the seabed, and under the control of the cable of the mother ship, the seabed mud is backfilled in the seabed mining area at a fixed point, and at the same time, the float is used to automatically transport the large ore on the seabed to the sea surface by the mineral material box, and no external power is required during the entire process. At the same time, the present invention can mechanically realize the functions of automatically unloading the backfilling box, automatically controlling the ore loading amount of the mineral material box, and automatically floating the float together with the mineral material box. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0024] [Figure 1] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of a deep-sea buoyant mining system. [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the structure of the float 10 of the present invention. [Diagram 3] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of the self-regulating hook 40 of the present invention utilizing an anchor chain as a connecting member. [Figure 4] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a self-regulating hook 40 of the present invention utilizing a dual connecting rod as a connecting member. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0025] In order to make the objectives and technical solutions of the present invention clearer, the present invention will be further described below with reference to the drawings and examples.

[0026] As will be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art, unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs.

[0027] The meanings of "left, right, top, bottom, front, back" described in this invention refer to, when the reader faces Figure 1, the left side of the reader is i.e. left, the right side of the reader is i.e. right, the upper side of the reader is i.e. top, the lower side of the reader is i.e. bottom, the side of the paper in front of the reader is i.e. front, and the side facing the reader is i.e. back, and do not particularly limit the present invention.

[0028] The meaning of "connection" described in the present invention may be a direct connection between members, or an indirect connection between members via another member.

[0029] Example 1 As shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the deep sea buoyancy mining system includes a mother ship 24 and a float 10, the mother ship 24 includes a cable car 23 and a material crane 21, the cable car 23 uses a cable 22 to perform traction control on the float 10, the float 10 includes four lifting lugs 17, the float 10 uses the lifting lugs 17 and a first spreader 34, the automatic control hook 40 suspends the lifting rope 351 of the backfill box 35, and the lifting lugs 17 and a second spreader 31 suspend the mineral material box 33, the backfill box 35 is a disposable wooden fully sealed box, that is, each backfill box 35 is used only once, to avoid pollution of the marine environment. In order to achieve this, the backfilling box 35 can be made of other materials such as a paper box that can naturally decompose and are not polluting. When the backfilling box 35 is thrown into the sea, it is filled with seabed mud water and its weight exceeds the maximum upward carrying force of the float 10 in the sea. The mineral material box 33 is an empty box when thrown into the sea. The material crane 21 is used to lift the marine underwater transportation system consisting of the float 10, the backfilling box 35, and the mineral material box 33, etc., and throw it into the sea. The float 10 sinks to the seabed under the pull of the gravity of the backfilling box 35, etc., and the bottom of the backfilling box 35 comes into contact with the seabed, and the bottom of the mineral material box 33 is about 0.05 mm higher than the bottom of the backfilling box 35.5 meters high, the mineral material box 33 is always floating in the water, and the undersea trolley is remotely controlled on the sea to load ore into the mineral material box 33. As the ore loaded into the mineral material box 33 increases, the pulling force of the second spreader 31 on the float 10 to the mineral material box 33 also gradually increases. Since the maximum total upward carrying force of the float 10 is constant, the pulling force of the first spreader 34 and the automatically controlled hook 40 on the lifting rope 351 of the backfill box 35 of the float 10 gradually decreases, and the pulling force When the load of the backfilling box 35 drops to the design value of the automatic control hook 40, the automatic control hook 40 automatically opens, the lifting rope 351 of the backfilling box 35 automatically drops off from the automatic control hook 40 and is disconnected from the float 10, and the backfilling box 35 remains on the seabed. At this time, the mineral material box 33 floats in the water, but since its weight is smaller than the maximum load force of the float 10, the float 10 automatically rises to the sea surface together with the mineral material box 33, and the ore on the mineral material box 33 is unloaded to the mother ship 24 by the material crane 21. By utilizing the automatic release of the automatic control hook 40, not only is it possible to automatically release the backfilling box 35 on the seabed, but at the same time, it is also possible to further control the loading amount of the mineral material box 33, and avoid the difficult problem that the mineral material box 33 is overloaded and cannot automatically rise.

[0030] The float 10 has a two-layer structure, the outer layer of the float 10 is a metal shell 14, and the inside is provided with one layer of an airbag 12. Both ends of the metal shell 14 are provided with ports. The port at one end of the metal shell 14 is the outlet end of the valve 11 of the airbag 12, and is sealedly connected to the valve 11. The valve 11 is used to fill and release high-pressure gas into the airbag 12. The body of the airbag 12 is an inflatable, deflatable, high-strength rubber airbag. The high-pressure gas filled in the airbag 12 is helium gas, and the airbag 12 can also be filled with other high-pressure gases such as nitrogen gas. Since the atmospheric temperature and the ocean temperature are both much higher than the liquefaction temperature of helium gas, helium gas remains a gas under high pressure and cannot be liquefied. The small specific gravity of the gas is used to reduce the float's weight and improve the float's ability to transport ore.

[0031] The other end of the float 10 is an oil port 16, which fills and releases high-pressure oil into the storage chamber 15 in the metal shell 14. The storage chamber 15 utilizes the compressibility of the airbag 12 to fill the storage chamber 15 with high-pressure oil such as hydraulic oil, gasoline, etc. as mineral oil, the specific gravity of which is lighter than that of water. On the one hand, this simplifies the operation of increasing the internal pressure of the metal shell 14, and on the other hand, by applying prestress to the inside of the metal shell 14 in advance, the pressure balance between the inside and outside of the metal shell 14 is utilized to improve the pressure resistance level of the metal shell 14 at the seabed and reduce the thickness of the metal shell, thereby reducing the weight of the float 10. Four lifting lugs 17 are provided on the outside of the metal shell 14, the upper two lifting lugs 17 are connected to the cable 22 and provide lifting positions for the hook of the material crane 21, and the lower two lifting lugs 17 are respectively connected to the first spreader 34 and the second spreader 31, which in this embodiment may be anchor chains or cables, and two support rods 32 are provided between the first spreader 34 and the second spreader 31 to avoid the first spreader 34 and the second spreader 31 from getting tangled.

[0032] Example 2 The mechanical marine mining automatic control device includes a float, a backfill box, a mineral material box, a first spreader, and a second spreader, and an automatic control hook is provided between the backfill box and the first spreader, and the automatic control hook includes two "7"-shaped hook rods, i.e., a first hook rod and a second hook rod, and the "7"-shaped ends of the first hook rod and the second hook rod are downward and cross each other, and the ends are opposite to each other to form a clamp shape, and the two "7"-shaped ends at the lower ends are clamp jaws and are hinged at the crossing point, the hinge being designated as hinge A, and a compression spring is provided between the second hook rod and the first hook rod at the top of hinge A, and a connecting member is provided at the upper end between the second hook rod and the first hook rod, and the first spreader is connected to the middle of the connecting member.

[0033] The compression spring may be provided in two compression springs, or two or more compression springs may be used in parallel.

[0034] The connecting member is an anchor chain, and the length of the anchor chain connected between the upper end of the second hook rod and the upper end of the first hook rod is adjustable.

[0035] The connecting member may be as follows: a first connecting rod is provided at the upper end of a first hook rod, and a hinge C is used to hinge-connect the upper end of the first hook rod to one end of the first connecting rod, a second connecting rod is provided at the upper end of a second hook rod, and a hinge B is used to hinge-connect the upper end of the second hook rod to one end of the second connecting rod, and a hinge D is used to hinge-connect the first connecting rod to the other end of the second connecting rod.

[0036] The first connecting rod is provided with three or more hinge holes, and the hinge holes of the second connecting rod are the same in number, size and position as the hinge holes of the first connecting rod.

[0037] The first spreader is connected to the axis of the hinge D.

[0038] The rest is the same as in the first embodiment.

[0039] The mechanical marine mining automatic control device uses a clamp-like structure to place the lifting rope of the backfill box in the clamp jaw, and uses external force to clip the clamp jaw, and then fixes and connects the connection member of the automatic control hook--the anchor chain (or the axis of the hinge D of the first connecting rod and the second connecting rod) and the first spreader, and the material crane lifts the marine underwater transportation system composed of the float, the backfill box, and the mineral material box, etc., and then the clamp-like upper end composed of the first hook rod and the second hook rod receives the clip force of the connection member. The automatic control hook and the first spreader, under the pulling force of the buoyancy of the float, still clamp the lifting rope of the backfill box, and the bottom of the mineral material box. The bottom of the backfill box is about 0.5 meters higher than the bottom of the backfill box, so that the mineral material box floats in the water, and the submarine trolley loads ore blocks into the mineral material box under remote control. As more and more ore blocks are loaded into the mineral material box, the tensile force of the float received by the second spreader towing the mineral material box also becomes larger and larger. Since the maximum upward conveying force of the float is constant, the tensile force of the float received by the automatic control hook and the first spreader becomes smaller and smaller, and the first spreader applies a The applied clipping force also becomes smaller and smaller, and when the clipping force becomes smaller to a certain value, the elastic force of the compression spring overcomes the clipping force of the first spreader on the connecting members at the upper ends of the first hook rod and the second hook rod, the clamping jaws automatically open, the hoisting rope of the backfilling box automatically detaches from the clamping jaws, the backfilling box remains on the seabed, and the backfilling box is backfilled on the seabed. At the same time, the float loses the restraint of the backfilling box, so that it automatically floats up to the sea surface together with the mineral material box, and realizes the buoyant transportation of the ore.

[0040] In addition, the buoyancy of the float and the elastic modulus of the compression spring of the automatic control hook cannot be changed once the design and manufacturing are completed, so in order to more accurately control the hook-off clip force of the automatic control hook, the present invention changes the clip force applied by the first spreader to the upper ends of the first hook rod and the second hook rod by adjusting the length of the connecting member, and adjusts the rated load capacity of the mineral material box within a limited range, and when the mineral material box reaches the rated load capacity, the automatic control hook automatically unloads the backfill box, and at the same time, the mineral material box automatically floats.

[0041] In order to improve the response speed of the compression spring, the present invention uses multiple compression springs in parallel, thereby reducing the damping of the compression springs and improving the response speed of the compression springs.

[0042] As shown in FIG. 3, the automatic control hook 40 is a schematic diagram of an anchor chain 410 used as a connecting member. The automatic control hook 40 is provided with two "7"-shaped hook rods, namely a first hook rod 405 and a second hook rod 406. The "7"-shaped ends of the first hook rod 405 and the second hook rod 406 are downward and cross each other, and the ends face each other, forming a mirror image distribution, and are hinged at the intersection to form a clamp shape. The hinge is designated as hinge A 401. The two "7"-shaped ends at the lower end face each other to form a clamp jaw, which is used to hang the lifting rope 351 of the backfill box 35. Between the first hook rod 405 and the second hook rod 406, a compression spring 407 is provided at the top of the hinge A, and the compression spring 407 is used in parallel in two, under the same elasticity, the damping of two compression springs is smaller than that of a single compression spring, thus improving the response speed of the compression spring; at the upper end between the first hook rod 405 and the second hook rod 406, an anchor chain 410 is used as a connecting member, the length of the anchor chain 410 is adjustable, and the first spreader 34 is connected to the middle of the anchor chain 410, by adjusting the length of the anchor chain 410, the magnitude of the clip force applied by the first hook rod 405 and the second hook rod 406 to the compression spring 407 can be adjusted within a limited range, so that the automatic control hook 40 can more accurately adjust the minimum load required for the mineral material box 33 to open the clamp jaw of the automatic control hook 40.

[0043] 4 is a schematic diagram of an automatic control hook 40 using a double connecting rod as a connecting member, in which a first hook rod 405 is provided at the upper end thereof with a first connecting rod 408, and a hinge C 403 is used to hinge-connect the upper end of the first hook rod 405 to one end of the first connecting rod 408, a second hook rod 406 is provided at the upper end thereof with a second connecting rod 409, and a hinge B 402 is used to hinge-connect the upper end of the second hook rod 406 to one end of the second connecting rod 409, and a hinge D 404 is used to hinge-connect the first connecting rod 408 to the other end of the second connecting rod 409, and the distance between the hinge B and the hinge D of the first connecting rod 408 is 1 / 1000 the distance between the hinge C and the hinge D of the second connecting rod 409. The distance is the same as the distance between the first connecting rod 408 and the second connecting rod 409, and the first connecting rod 408 and the second connecting rod 409 are provided with multiple hinge holes at the same position, thereby allowing the spacing between the hinges attached to the first connecting rod 408 and the second connecting rod 409 to be adjusted, and the first spreader 34 is connected to the axis of the hinge D404, and by adjusting the spacing between the hinges on the first connecting rod 408 and the second connecting rod 409, the magnitude of the clip force applied by the first hook rod 405 and the second hook rod 406 to the compression spring 407 can be adjusted within a limited range, so that the automatic control hook 40 can more accurately adjust the minimum load required for the mineral material box 33 to open the clamp jaws of the automatic control hook 40. [Explanation of symbols]

[0044] 10. Float 11. Valve 12. Airbags 14. Metal shell 15, liquid storage chamber 16. Oil port 17. Lifting lug 21. Material crane 22. Cable 23. Cable car 24. Mothership 31. Second spreader 32, support rod 33. Mineral material box 34. First spreader 35. Backfill box 351 - Lifting rope 40. Automatic control hook 401, Hinge A 402, Hinge B 403, Hinge C 404, Hinge D 405, 1st hook rod 406, 2nd hook rod 407, Compression spring 408, first connecting rod 409, second connecting rod 410, Anchor chain

Claims

1. A deep-sea buoyant mining system comprising a mother vessel, a float, a spreader, a backfill box, and a mineral material box, wherein the float has a metal shell on the outside thereof, an airbag is provided inside the metal shell, and ports are provided at both ends of the metal shell, the port at one end is a valve outlet end of the airbag and is sealed connected to the valve of the airbag, and the port at the other end is an oil port, the float has at least one lifting lug on the outside thereof, the lifting lug is provided on the outside of the metal shell, and the spreader is connected to the lifting lug, and the backfill box and the mineral material box are suspended from the lifting lug using the spreader.

2. 2. The deep-sea buoyant mining system according to claim 1, wherein the mother ship is provided with a cable for connecting the float.

3. A deep-sea buoyant mining system as described in claim 1, characterized in that the spreader includes a first spreader and a second spreader, the backfill box is suspended from the lifting lug using the first spreader, and the mineral material box is suspended from the lifting lug using the second spreader.

4. The deep sea buoyant mining system of claim 3, characterized in that the backfill box uses the first spreader and the mineral material box is connected integrally to the float using the second spreader and when they sink together into the sea, when the bottom of the backfill box contacts the seabed, the mineral material box always floats in the water under the influence of the buoyancy of the float, the bottom of the backfill box is h meters lower towards the seabed than the bottom of the mineral material box.

5. The deep-sea buoyant mining system of claim 4, further comprising: an automatic control hook under the first spreader; a lifting rope on the backfill box; the lifting rope suspended from the automatic control hook; the automatic control hook including two hook rods, the two hook rods crossing each other and hingedly connected to each other, with opposite ends forming a clamp shape; after the automatic control hook lifts the load, the opposite clamp-shaped end of the automatic control hook closes; and the opening of the opposite clamp-shaped end of the automatic control hook is automatically opened when the pulling force of the float on the lifting rope of the backfill box by the first spreader and the automatic control hook gradually decreases, and the pulling force decreases to a design value of the automatic control hook.

6. 2. The deep-sea buoyant mining system according to claim 1, wherein the airbag is made of an elastic material having high strength so that it can be inflated, deflated, and filled with high-pressure gas.

7. 2. The deep-sea buoyant mining system according to claim 1, wherein the inside of the airbag is filled with high pressure gas.

8. 2. The deep sea buoyant mining system of claim 1, wherein a reservoir chamber within said metal shell and outside said airbag is filled with high pressure mineral oil.

9. The deep-sea buoyant mining system of claim 2, wherein the mother ship is equipped with a material crane and a cable car that utilizes the cable to provide traction control to the float.

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