Rock Breakage
Session 7
Drum Cutter Mobile Excavation Machines
Jian Zhao
Drum Cutter Excavators
Session Contents
• Drum cutter excavator types
• Roadheader specifications
• Roadheader cutting rate and performance
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Drum Cutter Excavators
Drum Cutter Mobile Excavators
Excavator Type Main Features Cutting Tools
Rotating cutting drum, boom, muck
Roadheader Pick cutters
loader and conveyer
Continuous Rotating cutting drum, boom, muck
Pick cutters
Miner loader and conveyer
Rotating cutting wheel, boom, muck
Mobile Miner Disc cutters
loader and conveyer
Longwall Rotating cutting drum, roof
Pick cutters
Shearer supporting chock, muck conveyer
Mobile Drum Rotating cutting drum, boom,
Pick cutters
Cutter mobile
Drum Cutter Excavators
Roadheaders Cutterhead
© Sandvik
Primarily for low to
moderate strength rocks.
Cutterheads rotate axially
and transversely, cutting
rocks by picks penetrating
and shearing.
Muck removal system is ©Mitsui
attached. Carbide-
tipped
pick
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Drum Cutter Excavators
Continuous Miners
Different versions of continuous miners. Typical one
has transversal rotating cutterhead mounted with
picks, to excavated low to moderate strength rocks.
It is used often for room-and-pillar mining in layered
deposits (e.g., coal seam). Specially
design low type machines are
used for thin coal seams.
They can be equipped © Komatsu
with conveyor for muck
removal.
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Drum Cutter Excavators
Mobile Miners
This type machines are similar to continuous miners
but uses roller disc
cutters.
They are designed to
excavated moderate to
high strength rocks. © Epiroc
They are often used to
cut seam deposits
or excavate access
tunnels.
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Drum Cutter Excavators
Longwall Shearers
Roof support
Longwall coal mining is
fully mechanised. Coal Cutterhead
seam at front is cut by
the fast rotating and Coal
moving cutterhead with
picks or teeth. Conveyor © Caterpillar
Excavated coal are removed and transported by the
front and back conveyors. Excavation front is
protected by hydraulic roof supports.
Drum Cutter Excavators
Drum Cutter Mobile Excavators
© Aussiebuckets
Drum cutter mobile
excavators can be fit on
mobile equipment.
This type of excavators © Caterpillar
can be used for surface
and underground
excavation of low to
moderate strength rock.
It can also be used for
secondary rock breaking.
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Roadheader Specifications
Axial and Transverse Roadheaders
Axial Transverse ©Mitsui
Comparison Cutterhead Cutterhead
Profile
smoothness Favourable Unfavourable
Machine
stability Unfavourable Favourable
Muck loading
efficiency Unfavourable Favourable ©Sandvik
Soft to medium hard
Soft rocks, UCS rocks, UCS < 120
Application < 80 MPa, non-
limits MPa, moderately
abrasive
abrasive
Production High for UCS < High for UCS > 60
rate 60 MPa MPa
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Roadheader Class and Cutterhead Power
Standard Maximum Rock
Roadheader Roadheader Cutterhead
Cutting Area Strength (UCS,
Class Weight (ton) Power (kW)
(m2) MPa)
Light 8-40 50-170 25 60-80
Medium 40-70 160-230 30 80-100
Heavy 70-110 250-300 40 100-120
Extra heavy >100 350-400 45 120-140
In highly fractured low RQD rocks, can cut rocks with strength up to 180 MPa
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Roadheader Specifications
Working Principles of Roadheaders
(a) Excavation: cutterhead mounted with carbide-
tipped picks to break rock.
(b) Transportation: loading apron and muck
conveyer to remove Cutterhead
mucks. © Sandvik
(c) Moving: crawler Boom Muck conveyor
chassis to move
forward, boom to
reach excavation Loading apron
Crawler chassis
height and width.
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Roadheader Specifications
Roadheader Excavation in Hard Rocks
Cutting capability and
rate reduces significantly
with increasing rock
strength. Cutting rock
after 80 MPa is possible
but not effective. © sydneymetro.info
Possible to cut
rock beyond 100 Field cutting rate and rock
strength for roadheaders
Mpa if rock mass (Copur et al. 1997)
is fractured.
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Roadheader Specifications
Factors Affect Cutting Performance
Roadheaders are primarily used for excavating low
to moderate strength rocks.
Excavation performance is governed by cutterhead
power, rock material strength and rock mass
fracturing degree.
ICR (Instantaneous cutting rate, m3/h)
Rock hardness and = 0.28 x P x 0.974RMCI
P = Cutter head power (hp)
abrasiveness govern
RMCI (Rock mass cuttability index)
cutting tool wear, and = 𝛔ci (RQD/100)2/3
influences cutting (Bilgin et al 1988, 2004)
Performance.
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Roadheader Specifications
Advantages and Risks of Roadheaders
Advantages Risks
Flexibility, possibility of excavating No protection or support given
opening of different sizes and to the rock while excavating.
shapes.
Limited to stable ground.
Mobile, easy to move between Difficult to work with
excavation face and locations groundwater.
Low capital investment. Suitable to excavate rocks of
UCS up to 120 MPa.
Relatively short time from order to
delivery at the site, and no Excavation height is limited.
installation time needed.
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Roadheader Cutting Performance
Rock Cutting Specific Energy
Specific energy: energy required to excavated a
unit volume of rock.
SE = 0.027 (𝛔c 𝛔t) + 0.675 (Copur et al. 2001)
𝛔c : Uniaxial compressive strength of rock
𝛔t : Tensile strength of rock
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Roadheader Cutting Performance
Instantaneous Cutting Rate
Instantaneous Cutting Rate, ICR = k (P/SE)
P in kW, SE in kW.h/m3, ICR in m3/h. Constant k total system
efficiency and usually 0.8 to 0.9 for roadheaders.
ICR = 0.205 P･0.974RMCI (Bilgin et al. 1996)
RMCI (Rock Mass Cuttability Index) = 𝛔c(RQD/100)2/3
𝛔c: rock UCS in MPa, and RQD is the rock quality
designation.
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Roadheader Cutting Performance
Rock Mass
Properties and
Cutting Rate High rock strength
not suitable for
roadheader
Cutting rate ICR:
• Decreases with RQD
increasing rock
strength (UCS).
• Decreases at higher
rock mass quality
Roadheader cutting rate by Bilgin 1996
(RQD). equation for 300 kW cutter power.
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Roadheader Cutting Performance
Roadheader Cutting Field Performance
Field measurements
indicate that
roadheader cutting
performance : (Thuro and
Plinninger
1999)
• Decreases with
increasing rock
strength (UCS).
• Decreases at widely Roadheader cutting rate from
field data for 300 kW cutter
spaced joints (higher
power.
RQD).
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Roadheader Cutting Performance
Estimation of Cutting Rate at Site
Instantaneous or operating cutting rate can be
obtained during the cutting operation at site,
typically measured the volume of excavation per
minute.
Average hourly rate is influenced by the machine
utilization.
Average hourly cutting rate (m3/hr) =
Machine utilisation (%) x
Operating cutting rate (m3/min) / 60
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Roadheader Cutting Performance
Pick Wear and Consumption
Tool consumptions are primarily
pick wear, and is governed by rock
abrasivity.
Pick wear and damage
(Su and Akkas 2020)
Pick damage may occur in hard
rocks.
Tool consumption affects the
cutting performance, in terms of
cutting rate, machine utilisation,
and cost.
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Roadheader Cutting Performance
Tool Consumption, Strength and Abrasivity
Correlation between tool
consumption rate (TCR), uniaxial
compressive strength (𝜎! ) and
Cerchar abrasivity index (CAI)
(Plinninger and Restner 2008).
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Roadheader Cutting Performance
Roadheader Excavation Cost Comparison
Cost per m Cost per Cost per m Cost per
Cost
Drive Volume Cost Expense Drive Volume
Expense Percentage (US$/m) (US$/m3) Percentage
(US$/m) (US$/m3)
Rent of
jumbo drill 160 5.7 7.6%
Roadheader* 312.5 11.2 22%
Energy 9.3 0.33 0.4%
Energy 62.5 2.2 4%
Bit and rod
Cutter consumption 0.12 0.004 0%
consumption 42.5 1.5 3%
Water and oil
consumption 30 1.1 1.4%
Maintenance
repair & 65.0 2.3 5% Explosive 600 21.4 28.4%
spare parts
Maintenance
Labour 950.0 33.9 66% repair & 60 2.1 2.8%
spare parts
Total 1432.5 51.1 100% Labour 1252 44.7 59.4%
*Roadheader cutterhead power 160 kW. Total 2111 75.4 100%
Excavation cross-section area 28 m2, in a same Excavation cross-section area 28 m2, in a same
claystone as the drill-and-blast. claystone as the roadheader.
Cost and distribution of mine roadway by roadheader and drill-blast (Su and Akkas 2019)
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Drum Cutter Excavators
Session Summary
• Drum cutter excavator types
• Roadheader specifications
• Roadheader cutting rate and performance
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