Coal tracker

Abstract

A system to process and handle minerals, aggregates, or ore during mining operations in a way that automatically collects, carries and transmits data about the product being mined. When mining coal, the system has a loader with a tag writer and coal loadable trucks with beds having read and writeable electronic tags mounted externally.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A combination of coal transport vehicles comprises:
 a loader or loading device or machine with a control box, the control box having a tag reader/writer, GPS receiver, setting for method of extraction, loader identification; and   a coal loadable truck, the truck comprising:
 a vehicle chassis and drive train; 
 a bed for receiving and hauling coal; and 
 a plurality of read/writable electronic tags mounted externally on the bed of the truck, each tag being readable and writable from a distance remotely, the plurality of tags being mounted in a defined pattern about the bed, wherein the defined pattern forms an array along each left and right side of the bed and a rear end of the bed. 
   
     
     
         2 . The combination of coal transport vehicles of  claim 1  wherein the rear of the bed has at least one tag. 
     
     
         3 . The combination of coal transport vehicles of  claim 1  wherein each left side and each right side have two or more tags. 
     
     
         4 . The combination of coal transport vehicles of  claim 1  wherein the loader or loading device or machine with a tag reader/writer is one of a bucket loader, a lift conveyor or shovel loader or any other loader. 
     
     
         5 . The combination of coal transport vehicles of  claim 1  wherein the tag antenna is mounted externally on a forward side of the coal loader. 
     
     
         6 . The combination of coal transport vehicles of  claim 1  wherein the read/writable tags on the bed are battery assisted. 
     
     
         7 . The combination of coal transport vehicles of  claim 1  wherein the tag writer can input data to the read/writable tags from a distance of several feet. 
     
     
         8 . A method of mining coal comprises the steps of:
 inputting the GPS location of the coal into an electronic tag read/writer installed onto a loader;   inputting the data onto the tag writer;   mining the coal using a loader with the tag read/writer;   loading the coal into a truck by approaching a bed of the truck with a plurality of read/writable electronic tags wherein one or more of the tags receives the data and GPS data from the loader when the loader approaches the bed of the truck loading the truck;   optionally driving the truck to a weighing scale;   weighing the truck with coal and electronically reading the tags sending the tag data to a central data control computer;   dumping the coal;   reweighing the unloaded truck to establish the coal weight; and   wherein all the tag data is transmitted automatically to the central data center.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8  further comprises the steps of:
 analyzing the dumped coal by loading the coal onto a conveyor system that passes by a material analyzer, the material analyzer measures the coal to ash ratio and the amount of or presence of contaminants such as arsenic sulfur content and passes analyzer data to the central computer to establish the coal quality and weight; and 
 segregating the coal by using a plurality of diverters to direct the coal to a dump site based on the analyzed coal properties. 
 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9  further comprises the step of:
 inputting all the collected tag data weigh, dated and analyzed data to a computer program to make a record of each load, establishing the value per load, the fee owed per load automatically.