ABSTRACT
Use of mechanical miners (tunnel boring machine, roadheader, continuous miner etc.) in both mining and civil industries has been considerably increased in recent years in the world. If mechanical miners are not properly designed and selected, some problems arise such that advance rates may decrease dramatically and significant economic losses may be encountered. Rock cutting tests in different scales are the most widely used experimental methods for properly selection and design of mechanical miners and optimizing their performances. Previous studies indicated that the effect of cutting speed on cutting performance was contradictory in both laboratory-scale cutting (lower speeds usually up to ~25 cm/s) and cutting in the field (higher speeds, up to a few meters per second) with real-life mechanical miners. This study investigates the effects of laboratory-scale cutting speeds on cutting performance of a conical pick cutter. A previously developed portable linear rock cutting machine (PLCM), which cuts at a constant speed (3 cm/sec), is modified so that the cutting speed can be adjusted at three levels (3, 12.5 and 25 cm/s). Then, laboratory rock cutting experiments are performed by using PLCM on a rock sample (beige marble) at three different cutting speeds to analyze the effect of cutting speed on cutting performance (mean normal and cutting forces, and specific energy). Depth of cut values used in the tests are 2, 3 and 5 mm in single spiral cutting mode at constant line spacing of 10 mm.
The results indicate that laboratory-scale cutting speeds affect the normal and cutting forces, and specific energy. The studies should be continued with some other rock types, other cutter types, and different experimental conditions.
