• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.496-504
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• 2015

Roadheader that excavates ground using pick cutters installed on the cutting head is one of the partial-face machines. A conical cutter among pick cutters is excavation tool decreasing the loss of cutter using tungsten carbide insert at the tip of the cutter and it has been widely used in the roadheaders. In this study, durability performance for three kinds of conical cutters was evaluated in copper mines composed of Manto and conglomerate. After field test, the visual inspection as well as the weight loss measurement of pick cutters was carried out to investigate the damage of pick cutters. In addition, CT scan and SEM were performed to check whether or not crack and apertures in pick cutters. As results, the conical cutter with hardfacing was evaluated as having the best durability performance and it was unable to find cracks in all cutters investigated.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.519-533
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• 2023

In this study, the linear cutting tests of pick cutters were carried out on a granitic rock with the average compressive strength over 100 MPa. From the tests, the correlation between the cutter acting force and the temperature measured by infrared thermal imaging camera during rock cutting was analyzed. In every experimental condition, the maximum temperature was measured at the rock surface where the chipping occurred, and the temperature generated in the rock was closely correlated with the cutter acting force. On the other hand, the temperature of a pick cutter increased up to only 36℃ above the ambient temperature, and the correlation with the cutter force was not obvious. This can be attributed to the short cutting distance under laboratory conditions and the high thermal conductivity of the tungsten carbide inserts. However, the relatively high temperature of the tungsten carbide inserts was found to be maintained. Therefore, it is recommended that a reinforcement between the insert and the head of a pick cutter or the quality improvement of silvering brazing in the production of a cutter is necessary to maintain the high cutting performance of a pick cutter.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.414-424
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• 2023

In this study, a total of 326 data on a variety of geometric parameters of pick cutters and the corresponding cuttable rock conditions were collected and built as a database. Statistical analysis of the database showed that there is a significant positive correlation between the parameters that define the geometry of a pick cutter, especially between the parameters related to the length of a pick cutter and the geometry of a tungsten carbide insert. The diameter of a pick cutter shaft was also strongly correlated with the geometry of the inserts. On the other hand, it was difficult to find a clear correlation between the parameters for the rock conditions defined by the four conditions and the geometric parameters of pick cutters, which may be due to the uncertainty of the rock mass and the fact that the application of a pick cutter is presented as a range rather than a numerical single value. However, the mean values of geometric parameters of pick cutters tend to increase as a rock mass becomes harder. However, the pick length parameters are found to decrease as a rock mass becomes harder, which may be a way to reduce the moments that can occur when using long pick cutters in a hard rock condition.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.161-182
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• 2018

We carried out a series of linear cutting machine tests to assess the cutting performance of a pick cutter in sedimentary rock. The specimens were Linyi sandstone from China and Concrete (rock-like material, conglomerate). Using the small scaled LCM system, we estimated the cutter force and specific energy under different cutting conditions. The cutter forces (cutting and normal) increased with penetration depth and cutter spacing in two rock types, and it was affected by the strength of specimens. On the other hand, the ratio of the peak cutter force to the mean cutter force was influenced by cutting characteristic and composition of rock rather than rock strength. The cutting coefficient was affected by the friction characteristic between rock and pick cutter rather than the cutting conditions. Therefore, the optimal cutting angle can be determined by considering of cutting coefficient and resultant force of pick cutter. The optimum cutting condition was determined from the relationship between the specific energy and cutting condition. For two specimens, the optimum s/p ratio was found to be two to four, and the specific energy decreased with the penetration depth. The result from this study can be used as background database to understand the cutting mechanism of a pick cutter, also it can be used to design for the mechanical excavator.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.49-59
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• 2019

In this study, the durability of conical pick cutter was compared and analyzed by pre- and post-test visual inspection, measurement of weight loss and wear volume through field test on two types of conical pick cutters applied to rotary drum cutter. In the visual inspection, it was found that only 9 inserts were lost in the slim type conical pick cutter. This result show that the thickness of the head cover surrounding a insert was important to maintain the insert during excavation. The weight loss and wear volume of the heavy type conical pick cutter were less than half that of the slim type. From these results, it can be confirmed that heavy type is more useful than slim type in hard rock. It should be noted that, when determining the wear loss of the conical pick cutter, the mutual comparison of the weight measurement and the wear volume measurement results may be different due to the unit weight of the material and the spalling caused by excavation.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.651-669
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• 2018

This study suggests the prediction model to estimate the specific energy of a pick cutter using a gene expression programming (GEP) and particle swarm optimization (PSO). Estimating the performance of mechanical excavators is of crucial importance in early design stage of tunnelling projects, and the specific energy (SE) based approach serves as a standard performance prediction procedure that is applicable to all excavation machines. The purpose of this research, is to investigate the relationship between UCS and BTS, penetration depth, cut spacing, and SE. A total of 46 full-scale linear cutting test results using pick cutters and different values of depth of cut and cut spacing on various rock types was collected from the previous study for the analysis. The Mean Squared Error (MSE) associated with the conventional Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) method is more than two times larger than the MSE generated by GEP-PSO algorithm. The $R^2$ value associated with the GEP-PSO algorithm, is about 0.13 higher than the $R^2$ associated with MLR.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.573-584
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• 2014

In this study, the variations of cutter acting forces depending on cutting conditions were examined to obtain basic data for roadheader cutting head design. The linear cutting tests were performed in the condition of different attack angles, penetration depths, cutter spacings by using a slim conical pick for the light cutting condition. Cutter acting forces were measured by 3-directional load cell under different test conditions, and the analysis for cutting performance were carried out after calculating average values of the measured results. It is confirmed that the optimal cutting condition for the mortar specimen is the 50 degree attack angle, the cutter spacing of 12 mm, the cutting depth of 9 mm which are obtained from the analysis results. In addition, 50 degree attack angle is more effective than 45 degree attack angle to design optimal specifications of cutting head.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.40 no.7
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• pp.685-692
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• 2016

A cutting head is an attachment on the front of an excavator that cuts or grinds rocks. Cutting tools, called pick cutters, are arranged on the surface of the cutting head. The exact arrangement and configuration of pick cutters is one of the most important factors in determining grinding efficiency. This study focuses on the problem of automation for pick arrangement design, in order to make the design process more efficient and convenient. Design automation was carried out using RecurDyn/ProcessNet, and it was composed of three parts: 'Drum set', 'Pick load', and 'Pick arrangement' sections. The presented method helps to decrease costs attributed to designing cutting heads and can be used to generate a wide range of attachment mechanisms.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.386-396
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• 2022

To analyze the influence of variables of roadheaders, the linear cutting testing data of pick cutter were collected from the former literatures. The input factors were set up as uniaxial compressive strength, cutting depth, cutting spacing, attack angle, skew angle, and output factors were determined as specific energy, average cutting force, maximum cutting force, average vertical force, and maximum vertical force. After composing a table of the design of experiment (DOE). The contribution level of each factor was calculated by analysis of variance (ANOVA). As a result, the factors having greatest influence on cutting force and specific energy were uniaxial compressive strength and cutting spacing.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.585-597
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• 2014

In this study, the cutter acting forces were measured by 3-directional load cell at two different skew angles and various S/d ratios during a series of linear cutting tests using a slim conical pick. The analysis for cutting performance were carried out after calculating average values of the measured results. The increase of penetration depth results in the decrease of specific energy. And the variations of the cutter acting forces depending on penetration depth in the case of 6 degree skew angle were smaller than in the case of 0 degree skew angle. From this results, 6 degree skew angle is more effective than 0 degree skew angle in designing optimal specifications of cutting head. In addition, $F_c/F_n$ under the setting of 6 degree skew angle was smaller than under the setting of 0 degree skew angle. However, it should be considered that the increase of cutter acting force in the cutting direction accompanied the increase of driving force in the case of the setting for 6 degree skew angle.