An apparatus for recovering minerals from a seam is described in German Patent No. 35 14 439. It has trough sections forming a conveyor portion and a digging portion for respectively transporting the mined minerals and removing them from the mine face or breast. These trough-like members are formed from bent steel plates and are specially formed on the one hand for the conveying operation and on the other hand for the digging or removing and carrying function.
This apparatus has the drawback that in a replacement of the trough parts acted on by wear, the coupler parts between the trough parts always fully incorporated with them must be replaced as well. The conveyed volume of these trough parts is considerable and leads to considerable difficulty in different underground transport situations including transport in shafts, galleries and tunnels.
A considerable operating expense is connected with the time-consuming complete replacememt of the trough parts. The mining of minerals, especially coal, must be interrupted for the time for removing the trough parts which have become unserviceable and for mounting or incorporating the new trough parts.