Bucket Wheel Excavators: 3D Machine Control on a

Large Scale

by Randy Noland, Managing Editor/CoFounder - MachineControlOnline.com

During a recent business trip to Australia, I had the pleasure of visiting

several open pit, coal mines. These operations are colossal in scale and because of
their enormity, constant
analysis of productivity is
extremely important. Even
small improvements in their
processes yield big dollars. The
purpose of this article is to
discuss how 3D Machine
Control can improve the Bucket
Wheel Excavatorʼs safety,
accuracy and productivity.

First, a little background.

Bucket Wheel Excavators
(BWE) are continuous cutting
machines for soft to semi hard
materials like clay, sand,
gravel, marl and their blending as
well as lignite and hard coal. Tenova TAKRAF BWE excavate a wide range of capacities
between 200 and 16000 m³/h and at working bench heights from less than 5 m to
maximal 51 m.

The BWE is connected to a conveyor belt system. These systems can literally traverse
hundreds of meters until they reach their destination; usually a bunker at the power
station or spread onto a stockpile awaiting transport.

According to local mine conditions Compact and Large BWEʼs are offered – whereas
the selection mostly is determined by required cutting height and width (working block).

The characteristic parts of a BWE are the cutting wheel with buckets, the wheel boom,
the superstructure with counterweight boom, the substructure, the undercarriage with

MachineControlOnline.com July 2009

crawler tracks and a transfer boom to the bench conveyor (or a connecting bridge to the
loading unit). All main parts are designed to meet the demands of the project regarding
optimization, standardization and maintenance.

BWEʼs are among the largest terrestrial vehicles ever constructed - the biggest
machine built, the Tenova TAKRAF SRs 8000, has a weight of 14.200 t and moves
240,000 m³ of overburden per day. <http://www.takraf.com/en/products/
miningequipment/bucketwheelexcavator.htm>

Specifically, the RB293 is a

giant bucket-wheel excavator
made by the German
industrial company TAKRAF.
It was recorded as the largest
and heaviest terrestrial
vehicle in the Guinness Book
of Records (2001–2009).
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
MAN_Takraf_RB293>

History
While researching the history
of Bucket Wheels
Excavators, I found this
picture shown to the right. This
is one of two bucketwheel excavators fabricated in the Lauchhammer works, in 1926.

In 1990, TAKRAF Schwermaschinenbau AG manufactured their 500th bucketwheel

excavator and in 2005, production reached completion for the 1000th.
<http://www.takraf.com/en/aboutus/history/main.htm>

I was in awe at the sheer size of these machines but had no idea of their long history
prior to preparing this article.

New Technology Meets Traditional Brawn

New life has been given to this massive historical workhorse. The Bucketwheel
Excavator is an excellent candidate for 3D Machine Control. One of the sites I visited
had 5 Bucketwheels retrofitted with 3D Machine Control. It was amazing to see 5 of
these 6+ story tall machines munching away, almost silently, at the coal.

MachineControlOnline.com July 2009

Letʼs discuss briefly the general anatomy of a 3D Machine Control Bucketwheel. First,
there is a dual GNSS receiver installed. One GNSS antennae is installed at the center
or pivot point. This offers a base position for the machine and proximity to the site and
surface. The second GNSS antennae is positioned so as to monitor the arm swing. Both
GNSS positions also provide heading. There are also a series of axial sensors installed
at strategic locations to monitor all articulation. (See picture)

System Component Placement

MachineControlOnline.com July 2009

The Operators Cab
The operatorʼs cab is as big as small apartment I once rented in the San Francisco Bay
area. The cockpit rivals a commercial jet. All of the sensors feed into a computer
system loaded 3D Machine Control Software. The software calculates (in real time) all
positioning information presenting the operator with
simple to follow instructions for cut/fill, productivity
and machine proximity on the site. A radio system

Software User Interface

wirelessly transmits this data in real time

back to the mining office for each of the 5 Yours truly at the controls
machines. A command and control center
receives this data in real-time while logging to a database for further analysis. Reports
and playback are also possible. The office software can also send data to all BWEʼs
over the same wireless network.

Benefits
Several benefits are realized by retrofitting the
BWE with 3D Machine Control. First and foremost
is safety. No longer does a person need to be at
the cutting wheel measuring surface progress nor
does the machine have to stop to accommodate
this task. The accuracy is greatly improved at +/-
50 mm. And productivity gains increased due
longer time periods of uninterrupted operation
while calculating the volume of coal, real-time.
This is key for producing the right amount of coal
based on the power plants fluctuating demands Current Accuracy at bucket teeth

MachineControlOnline.com July 2009

Summary
There is a responsibility for providing the best energy at the best price. The mining
industry is ever challenged in this quest. By implementing new and emerging
technologies, the industry has proved that advances can be realized without losing the
investments of past implementations. RN July 2009

Video Note
I will be posting a video presentation of footage
I gathered while on site. Please check the
front page of MachineControlOnline.com and
our Exclusive Video section.

MachineControlOnline.com July 2009