CPC Definition - Subclass E21D
This place covers:
Methods or apparatus for making or lining tunnels, galleries or large underground chambers, using underground mining methods only, i.e. not involving disturbance of the ground surface.
Techniques and tools for stabilising such underground constructions against the pressure of the surrounding soil or rock.
This place does not cover:
Soil conditioning or soil stabilising materials | |
Underground spaces made by foundation engineering, i.e. involving disturbance of the ground surface. | |
Deep drilling | |
Drilling or cutting machines for mining or quarrying | |
Safety devices, transport, rescue, ventilation or drainage |
This place covers:
Vertical excavation of shafts from the surface and removal of cuttings:
Shafts can also be used as a starting point for the excavation of tunnels or for the excavation of galleries or horizontal bores for the production of hydrocarbons. Only the specific technical details disclosed relative to each part of the operative sequence should be classified in the corresponding groups.
This place covers:
Shafts starting from a gallery at a lower level, and which can be made by a single boring machine of by drilling multiple boreholes:
This place does not cover:
Making drillholes for rock anchors |
This place covers:
Methods, materials and apparatuses for lining a shaft, regardless of the method of excavation:
This place does not cover:
Sinking with simultaneous lowering of the lining | |
Lining tunnels or galleries |
This place covers:
Equipment installed permanently or removably in the shaft other than excavating or lining equipment
This place does not cover:
Lifts in hoistways or mines |
This place covers:
Methods or apparatus for excavating tunnels. This includes the stabilisation of the soil prior to the excavation, and the constructive details of the tunnel boring machines:
This place does not cover:
Tunnel linings per se | |
Tunnels or galleries, built in the open air or by methods involving disturbance of the ground surface all along the location line | |
Tunnels submerged into, or built in, open water | |
Laying of pipes by horizontal earth drilling techniques |
This place covers:
Making by using a driving shield, i.e. advanced by pushing means bearing against the already placed lining; Tunnel boring machines featuring driving shields with a cutting action or for protection against collapse of the tunnel:
This place covers:
Tunnel boring machines for which no driving shield is mentioned:
This place covers:
Materials, methods and machines for lining the surface of an excavated tunnel:
E21D 9/06 has several subgroups relative to a combination of driving shield and devices for lining the tunnel. The specific details of the lining operation are also classified in the corresponding subgroup under E21D 11/00.
This place does not cover:
Linings specially for shafts | |
Setting anchoring bolts | |
Anchoring bolts |
Attention is drawn to the following places, which may be of interest for search:
Documents mentioning aspects of lining, but focussing on the details covered by groups E21D 15/00 - E21D 23/00 are classified only in those groups.
This place covers:
Underground chambers having a three-dimensional volume, in contrast with vertical linear cavities (shafts) or with horizontal linear cavities (tunnels)
This place does not cover:
Linings per se | |
Modification of passages or chambers for storage purposes |
Attention is drawn to the following places, which may be of interest for search:
Storing fluids in natural or artificial cavities or chambers in the earth | |
Modification of mine passages or chambers for storage purposes, especially for liquids or gases |
This place covers:
Props: elongated supports to prop the roof of tunnels or galleries.
Chocks: roof support formed by fillable bags or stapled cribs:
This place does not cover:
Props in the building art |
Props forming part of supports for step-by-step movement are classified in E21D 23/00. If one such prop contains specific details not covered by E21D 23/00, then it should also be classified in E21D 15/00.
This place covers:
A cap is understood as the roof or top piece in a three-piece , support or beam set used for tunnel support. A piece of plank, timber, support or beam placed on top of a prop, stull, or post. The horizontal member of a set of timber, support or beam used as a roadway support:
This place covers:
Means for protecting a work area from rocks falling from the roof or tunnels other than the final lining. This temporary roof support can be in the form of movable shields, caps or covers, of mobile or temporary roof supports, or of linings fixed to the walls and intended to be supplemented by additional lining at a subsequent stage:
Documents mentioning aspects of provisional support by way of a driving shield for tunnels, or of mine roof supports for step-by-step movement, are classified instead in E21D 9/06 and in E21D 23/00 respectively.
This place covers:
Methods and machines for installing anchoring bolts or rock bolts, including machines for drilling a hole and inserting an bolt in combination. Under this main group is also classified the use of resins or mortars for fixing anchoring-bolts:
This place does not cover:
Anchoring bolts for shafts, tunnels or galleries | |
Means for anchoring structural elements or bulkheads specially adapted to foundation engineering | |
Dowels or other devices fastened in walls or the like by inserting them in holes made therein for that purpose |
Attention is drawn to the following places, which may be of interest for search:
Removing dust | |
Cleaning by suction | B25D17/18 |
This place covers:
Anchoring bolts, also known as rock bolts or roof bolts, characterised by their construction or by additional elements forming part of them, such as washer or anchoring heads.
This place does not cover:
Ground anchors E02D 5/80 | |
Anchorings for building constructions | |
Dowels or other devices fastened in walls or the like by inserting them in holes made therein for that purpose | |
Bolts with visible load |
Attention is drawn to the following places, which may be of interest for search:
Lining anchored in the rock |
This place covers:
Hydraulic jacks and frame for supporting the roof of the coal seam, as in longwall mining. A shearer cuts the coalface ahead of the support, and the support moves forward as the cutting progresses. The overburden collapses behind the support after passage of the same:
Attention is drawn to the following places, which may be of interest for search:
Props | |
Coal ploughs | |
Guiding a mining machine along a conveyor for cut mineral | |
Transport of mine roof support units | |
Scraper chain conveyors | |
Shifting of mine conveyors at the working face | |
Details of hydraulic circuits |