AUSTRALIA Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION Standard Patent Applicant(s): SIEMAG M-TEC2 GmbH Invention Title: Tube feeder, in particular three chamber tube feeder The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method for performing it known to me/us: - 2 TITLE OF INVENTION Tube feeder, in particular three chamber tube feeder FIELD OF INVENTION The invention relates to a tube feeder, in particular a 5 three-chamber tube feeder for exchange of mine or warm water and of fresh or cold water and/or for quasi continuous, hydraulic transportation of solids in underground mining, with constant filling and discharge direction of its chambers, in which the tube chamber has a 10 cold water valve battery at its one end and a warm water valve battery at the other end, encompassing, on the one hand, shut-off valves for respectively filling as well as, on the other hand, for discharging a high pressure and a low pressure conduit and for pressure build-up or for 15 depressurising, which shut-off valves can be brought into a closed or opened position. BACKGROUND TO INVENTION Such tube feeders or three-chamber tube feeders have become known by way of the DE 39 26 464 C2 or DE 43 11 277 20 C2. The continuous, hydraulic transportation along great heights for easily exchanging the required cold water with the warm water obtained in underground mining as well as liquids containing sludges and solids, is achieved in that the shutt-off valves arranged at the ends of the chambers 25 allow a continuous filling and transportation by way of suitable switching. In addition to the utilisation in mining such tube feeders also are applied in combination with an arrangement for water preparation, in particular for sea water de-salting according to the principle of 30 reverse osmosis. In doing so high pressure water is N:\Melbourne\Cases\Patent\74000-74999\P74451.AU\Specia\P74451.AU GH SPEC.doc 29/10/07 - 3 supplied to an osmosis plant and is separated into pressureless pure water as well as a concentrate still being under high pressure as compared to to the inlet pressure, whereby the concentrate can serve for energy 5 recovery. T-pieces are applied both in the valve batteries of the cold water side as well as also the warm water side at the change-over from the high pressure tube feeder chambers having a large nominal width, also referred to as exchange 10 chambers, to the smaller nominal diameter of the high pressure/low pressure warm water arrangement or high pressure/cold water arrangement for distribution of the water to the high pressure or high pressure conduit. These T-pieces are screw-connected by way of large flanges 15 to suitable end flanges of the tube chambers. This flange screw connection requires very long screws due to the constructional dependent design of the conventional three chamber tube feeders, which screws are difficult to mount because of spatial reasons. Furthermore, also the high 20 pressure and low pressure conduits are screw-connected to the T-piece by way of flange connections, for which also very long screws are required. In addition thereto that such a T-piece is of large dimension and is very expensive to manufacture, due to its flange connections it is based 25 on DIN-standard constructional parts, so that prescribed relationships must be adhered to for water distribution. It is desired therefore to provide a tube feeder, in particular three-chamber tube feeder, of the type mentioned, without the mentioned disadvantages, in 30 particular the distribution of water at the ends of the tube chambers at less expense and being more variable. 2348166_1 (GHMatters) 22107/10 -4 SMMARY OF INVENTION According to the invention, a tube feeder, in particular a three-chamber tube feeder for exchange of mine or warm water and of fresh or cold water and/or for quasi 5 continuous, hydraulic transportation of solids in underground mining, with constant filling and discharge direction of its chambers, in which the tube chamber has a cold water valve battery at its one end and a warm water valve battery at the other end, encompassing, on the one 10 hand, shut-off valves for filling as well as, on the other hand, for discharging respectively a high pressure and a low pressure conduit and for pressure build-up or for depressurising, which shut-off valves can be brought into a closed or opened position, 15 wherein a transfer block with throughbore and transverse bore branching off from the transfer block is arranged at the ends of the tube chamber or chambers for distribution of the water to the high pressure conduit or the low pressure 20 conduit, the transfer block being a closed block in which the throughbore and transverse bore are directly formed. The transfer block may be provided with a de-aeration bore for the tube chambers. The transfer block may have a connection for a pressure 25 compensation slider valve. The transfer block may have a hydraulic cylinder connection for operating the shut-off valve. The transfer block may be welded to the tube chamber end. 23481661 (GHMatters) 22107/10 -5 In that thereby the decades long practice of T-pieces is abandoned and the distribution bores are formed directly in a closed block, several advantages can be achieved simultaneously. The rectangularly or quadratically shaped 5 transfer block can be assembled without screw connections, namely according to a preferred embodiment of the invention by way of welding a connection to the tube chamber end. The transfer block itself no longer needs a flange and also allows a simple fitting of the high 10 pressure and low pressure conduit, which ends with direct ending in the transfer block, and also can be mounted by way of much shorter screws than the conventional screws. By using the transfer block in accordance with the invention the material and manufacturing expense is almost 15 halved as compared to the conventional T-pieces. As the transfer block in accordance with the invention requires no DIN-standard parts, a particular advantage exists therein that in the junction of the distribution bores due thereto that no flanges are required no 20 limitations or reductions are present and therewith in particular larger (up to 30 %) bore diameters are possible. Thus clearly reduced flow speeds are achievable in this region, which correspondingly improves the overall flow efficiency of the three-chamber tube feeder. This 25 can be clearly seen in the favourable energy consumption of the primary and secondary cycle pumps. The transfer block in accordance with the invention can be further designed as a multi-functiona.l constructional part, because, according to further advantageous 30 developments of the invention, it also can be provided simultaneously with a de-aeration bore for the tube chamber and a connection for a pressure compensation N3\Melbourne\Cases\Patent\74000-74999\P74451.AU\Speci\P'74451.AU GH SPEC.doc 29/10/07 - 6 cylinder as well as a hydraulic cylinder connection for operation of the shut-off valve. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS Further characteristics and details of the invention 5 result from the claims and following description of a three-chamber tube feeder arranged in underground mining according to an example of an embodiment of the invention. It is shown in: Figure 1 a schematic representation of a three-chamber 10 tube feeder in communication with the high pressure and low pressure liquid cycle in accordance with the invention; Figure 2 a front view of a detail of a three-chamber tube feeder of Figure 1 with transfer blocks welded 15 onto the tube chamber ends for water distribution; Figure 3 the subject of Figure 2 in plan view; Figure 4 a detail of a transfer block of Figure 2, in front view; and 20 Figure 5 a water distribution T-piece according to the prior art. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS According to the example of the embodiment shown in Figure 1 a three-chamber tube feeder 1 with its chambers 2, 3 and 25 4 is arranged and designed such that it can join a high pressure cycle HP and a low pressure cycle LD in direct and continuous exchange, in order to transport, on the one hand, fresh water or cold water from the above ground N:\Melbourne\Caaes\Patent\74000-74999\P74451.AU\Speci\P74451.AU GH SPEC.doc 29/10/07 - 7 region into the underground region and, on the other hand, mining water or warm water from the underground region into the above ground region. Thereby fresh water or cold water is fed from the above 5 ground region 5 by way of the high pressure conduit into the underground region 7 and is supplied to the chambers 2, 3, 4 of the three-chamber tube feeder 1. The pressure build-up and also the pressure reduction in the chambers 2, 3, 4 of the three-chamber tube feeder L is performed by 10 way of shut-off valves 8 to 11, which are allocated to each chamber and partially cooperate with their switches and devices for their control (not shown). The mining or warm water is supplied by way of the low pressure mining water conduit 14 to the chambers 2, 3, 4 15 of the three-chamber tube feeder 1 in counter current to the fresh or cold water. Because a continuous charging of the chambers 2 to 4 or a continuous transportation takes place by way of the three-chamber tube feeder 1, a central control system is provided, in which the signals of time 20 members and/or integrators are induced by contact manometers as well as by limit switches of the shut-off valves 8 and 11 in a fixed sequence. While the chamber 2 transports the mining or warm water by way of a high pressure mining water conduit 16 into the 25 above ground region, the chamber 3 is being filled with mining or warm water. In contrast the chamber 4 in turn is filled with fresh or cold water and is in the standby condition for being filled with mining or warm water. The fresh or cold water fed from the chambers 2, 3 and 4 30 of the three-chamber tube feeder 1 into the low pressure N:\Melbourne\Cases\Patent\74000-74999\P74451.AU\Specie\P74451.AU GH SPEC.doc 29/10/07 - 8 region LP arrives by way of the low pressure fresh water conduit 17 to the consumer. The transportation of the water takes place by way of pumps, not shown, joined thereto. 5 As can be seen in more detail in Figure 2, the three chamber tube feeders la, lb (compare Figure 3) switched in series next to each other for increasing the throughflow at the ends of the tube chambers 2, 3, 4 both at the cold water side C as well as at the warm water side W, a cold 10 water valve battery 18 or a warm water valve battery 19 are provided. By way of these arrangements the tube chambers 2, 3, 4 are joined for filling and for discharging as well as for pressure increase and for pressure decrease of, on the one hand, the high pressure 15 cold water conduit HP-CW and the low pressure cold water conduit LP-CW or the high pressure warm water conduit HP WW and the low pressure warm water conduit LP-WW. In each outer lying end of the tube chambers 2, 3, 4 a transfer block 21 is provided attached thereto by way of a welding 20 connection 20 for distribution of the water. The conduits HP-CW and LP-CW or HP-WW and LP-WW, communicating with each other and with the tube chambers 2, 3, 4, are attached by screwing directly into the associated transfer block 21. For this purpose, the massive, rectangular or 25 quadratically shaped transfer block 21 has suitable screw bores 22 (compare Figure 4) at suitable sides. The construction of the massive, compact transfer block 21 as multi-functional constructional part is also shown in Figure 4, whereas in contrast Figure 5 shows a 30 conventional usual T-distribution piece 23 of the prior art. This is not only very large in construction and expensive to assemble, but, in particular due to a flange N:\Melbourne\Cases\Patent\74000-74999\P74451.AU\Specis\P74451.AU GH SPEC.doc 29/10/07 - 9 connection 24 for joining to the tube chambers 2, 3, and 4, is subject to a unchangeable constructional and functional dependency regarding flow conditions. In Figure 5 it is further shown that also the joining of the 5 T-distribution piece 23 to the high pressure or low pressure conduit requires further connections by way of flange 25. In contrast to this T-distribution piece 23 the compact transfer block 21 shown in Figure 4 integrates a through 10 bore 26 in flow direction of the throughflow water of the tube chambers 2, 3, 4 to which either the conduit LP-CW (on the cold water side C) or the conduit HP-WW (on the warm water side W), and a transverse bore 27 branching off from the through bore 26 for distribution of the water to 15 either the conduit HP-CW or LP-WW. For aeration of the tube chambers 2, 3, 4 the transfer block 21 is also provided with a de-aeration bore 28 and furthermore has a connection 29 for a pressure compensation slider as well as a hydraulic cylindrical connection 30, the hydraulic 20 cylinder 31 is visible in Figure 3, for operation of a shut-off valve or valve 32. Depending on whether the valve 32 is open or closed, the water flows through the through bore 26 or the transverse bore 27 into the respective water cycles. 25 In the claims which follow and in the preceding description of the invention, except where the context requires otherwise due to express language or necessary implication, the word "comprise" or variations such as "comprises" or "comprising" is used in an inclusive sense, 30 i.e. to specify the presence of the stated features but not to preclude the presence or addition of further features in various embodiments of the invention. N:\Melbourne\Cases\Patent\740O0-74999\P74451.AU\Specis\P74451.AU GH SPEC.doc 29/10/07 - 10 It is to be understood that, if any prior art publication is referred to herein, such reference does not constitute an admission that the publication forms a part of the 5 common general knowledge in the art, in Australia or any other country. 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