Tom Weeks began the thought of his product while working in the old fields of Louisiana and starting developing the product over two years ago in Beckley, West Virginia.

The Mine Safety Technology Consortium began working with Tom in the summer of 2009 by showcasing his product at the 2009 Miners’ Celebration. MSTC has assisted Tom with the revision of his business plan with a partnership with the Small Business Administration and the Women’s Business and Training Center; this development allowed Tom to apply for a small business loan with a lending institution.  Additionally MSTC was able to provide Tom legal counsel with Monika Hussel from Dismore and Shol by assisting Tom with obtaining his patton and sole proprietorship for Miners Helper.

Lauren Clark of the MSTC staff is working with Tom do develop technical drawings of the fourth generation of the robotic arm and the Senior Engineering Technology class at WVU Tech will be developing the fourth generation arm in the Spring Semester of 2010.

“MSTC is bending over backwards to help me. They are doing everything in their power to see that I get what I need for my business” - Tom Weeks Miners Helper, LLC

Our intent is to continually improve our product design by listening to the needs of our customers. Our original plan was to design a tool that would help the miner with belt move operations but as the Arm was being built it was realized that other tools could be adapted similar as a socket is to a ratchet wrench.

At the present time we are designing our third arm with a tilt feature on the forks and it will also be a wireless remote control design. The overall design of this particular model requires that it receive hydraulic power and 12vdc for the remote to come from the vehicle that it is mounted to.

On the drawing board is an ‘Arm’ that is a stand alone. It will be mounted on tracks and will come with its own power source either battery or diesel.

Designed to reduce injuries there by lowering the insurance premiums at the same time increasing production.

Adaptable to virtually any vehicle for stability. 12 volt D.C. required for Wireless Remote. PTO required for hydraulic power supply

ARTICULATE – having joints; composed of segments.
MANIPULATE – to move, arrange, operate or control skillfully by the hands or mechanical means.
LATERAL SLIDING BASE --- - 1,300 lbs. 60” wide consists of two slide sections with 24” travel for each section. 3 FUNCTION CRANE --- - 350 degrees rotation. - Booms up to 70 degrees elevation. - Extensions – main boom to fork tip = 8’ X 3,766 lbs. - 1st extension to fork tip = 11’2” X 2,035 lbs. - 2nd extension to fork tip = 14’4” X 1,292 lbs.
ROTARY ACTUATOR --- - Yaw motor that rotates 90 degrees each side of center. SLEW DRIVE --- - Roll motor that spins the forks 360 degrees. CLAMP WITH LOCK VALVE --- - Hydraulic cylinder with 8” stroke. 2 POSITION 24”
FORKS - Forks open up from 2’ to 4’. 12 vdc 7 function Wireless Remote Control. Hydraulic Flow Divider mounted on the Lateral Sliding Base. 80” tall with boom straight out and total weight of 2,330 lbs.

Tom Weeks c/o Miner’s Helper L.L.C. PO Box 1065 Beckley, WV 25802 304-237-8555 (Home/Cell) 877-349-6983 (Fax) This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Bob Nasby c/o Miner’s Helper L.L.C. PO Box 1065 Beckley, WV 25802 304-252-3233 (Home) 304-673-6322 (Cell) This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The Arm mounted to the red sliding base was recorded after the ’08 Las Vegas Coal Show and is 5 minutes long. This is the second Arm built and is a wireless remote control design.

The ‘Arm’ with the blue, lateral sliding base is our first model which has a manually operated hydraulic valve bank. The demo video was taken at the ’07 Bluefield Coal Show and is approximately 3 minutes long.

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Tom Weeks.pdf	[ ]	14 Kb