Introduction

Bucket Wheel Excavator (BWE)

Bucket wheel excavator is a multi bucket continuous excavator. Continuous digging

with this machine is possible with evenly spaced bucket on the periphery of the
rotating wheel. Once the material is dug by the bucket, it flows in a continuous
stream via a transfer chute to the conveyor system which in turn transport it to the
discharge point. The wheels are adjustable in r.p.m and mount 6 to 18 bucket of
equal size.
the bucket wheel excavator were first developed to handle only the easy
digging materials such as brown coal in germany, but with the advancement in the
electric drives, metallurgy of bucket and teeth and introduction of high speed steel
cord belts, the BWE’s are finding its applications to dig medium to medium hard
digging materials such as hard pottery clays (a clay free of iron, suitable for making
pottery or for modeling), oil shales (it is an organic-rich fine-grained sedimentary
rock containing solid bituminous materials that are released as petroleum-like
liquids when the rock is heated in the chemical process of pyrolysis) etc.
• The bucket wheel ranges from 1.5 to 21 m in diameter.
• No. of buckets generally varies from 6 to 18.
• Capacity of each bucket is ranging from 0.025 to 6 Cu. m.
• Peripheral cutting velocity is ranging from 1 to 3.2 m/s.
• Max. conveyor speed is varies from 270 – 300 m/min.
• Inclination of the trough with side idlers is varies from 300 to
450.
 Bagger 293 Bwe
• It is a giant bucket wheel excavator made by the
German industrial company TAKRAF.
• Bagger 293 is 96 m tall, 225 m long, weight 14200 te,
diameter of bucket wheel 21.3 m with 18 buckets
each of which can hold over 15 cubic meters of
material.
• It can move 240,000 cubic meters of soil per day.
 Construction
Bucket wheel excavator essentially consists of the following
units:
✓ The bucket wheel
✓ The wheel boom and primary conveyor
✓ The traction unit
✓ The discharge boom with the conveyor
✓ Swing unit with swinging platform carrying the superstructure
consisting of power and transmission unit, control panels and
operator cabin.
 Construction…
Bwe’s are usually crawler mounted machine with a swing body similar to that
in single bucket excavators. The swinging platform carries a fixed boom
with hoist sheave at that point. The bucket wheel is carried at the front
end of a rigid structural jib which is hinged to the swinging platform at the
back end and suspended by hoist ropes at the front end. The jib can then
be raised or lowered by the hoist ropes.
The bwe has 6-18 toothed buckets mounted at the periphery and wheel
diameter varies from 1.5 to 21 m depending on the size of the machine.
The bucket capacity varies from 100 L to 1700 L. The wheel rotates at a
speed of 10 rpm such that its peripheral cutting speed varies from 1 to 3.5
m/sec.
The drive for the wheel is mounted at the end of the jib. A safety clutch in the
wheel disengages it from wheel in the event of the latter encountering
hard rock that offers excessive resistance to digging.
The buckets are open against the wheel so that their loads spill as they pass
over the top. The cutting material fall on a deflecting chute that takes it to
the side of the wheel on to the conveyor belt.
The conveyor used on the BWE determines the capacity of the excavator
hence high belt speed of the order of 270-300 m/min are adopted for such
conveyors. The limiting inclination of belt conveyors for material transport
limits the angle of inclination of jib and hence the height of the bench
negotiated with a given jib length, that’s why a BWE can dig below grade
to very limited extent.
The excavated material from the jib conveyor is discharged on the another
belt conveyor mounted on an independent swinging discharge boom at
the opposite end of the excavator and is finally loaded on to shiftable
bench conveyor or muck piles. The BWE are usually electrically operated
how ever smaller excavators are partly diesel powered.
 Principle of operation
A bucket wheel excavator is a continuous type of excavator
designed for cutting of soft to medium hard digging strata that
are amenable to excavation without blasting (or with the help of
zero throw blasting in some cases). The BWE’S are generally used
for large capacity excavation over long mine life from higher
benches (20 to 30 m). The machine is generally used to dig
above its crawler level (high cut) but can also dig below its
crawler level (deep cut ) when designed so.
The material dug by the buckets from the face is discharged to
the belt conveyor mounted on the cutting boom of the machine.
The material carried by the cutting boom conveyor is transferred
to the belt mounted on the discharge boom via a transfer chute.
 Principle of operation….
• The discharge boom transfers the material via a transfer feeder to
the bench conveyor which in turn transfers the material to the
mine transport conveyor system. The conveyor system carries the
material to the dump yard or stock yard – waste to dump yard
and ore to stock yard, depending on the material being excavated.
The bench conveyor needs to be shifted periodically depending
on the advancement of the face sometimes a mobile transfer
conveyor is used to reduce the frequency of bench conveyor
shifting.
• For dumping the material carried by conveyors either spreaders
or stackers are used in the dump yard. The spreaders are most
commonly used to dump the material carried by the conveyor
belt continuously in form of rough leveled surface. The conveyors
feed the spreaders through tripper. In the ore stock yard, stackers
are used to form the stock piles.
 Application

Bucket wheel excavator finds it application when:

• The formation are soft to medium hard.

• The formation are free of geological disturbances.
• The formations are free of boulders.
• The formation are such that it will not clog the wheel, transfer point, belts etc
because of stickiness or pressure of buried vegetations or such other things.
• Selective mining of inter bedded ore and waste is necessary.
• Continuous working is possible.
• Reserve is large and amenable to high rate of extraction.

Working/ Cutting/ Digging

Using BWE, mining is either done by Lateral block method or full block method of
excavating.
 Cutting Geometry

In Lateral Block method, the machine travels parallel to the highwall with the
crawlers offset. Long deep benches or terraces are cut along the highwall, starting
at the top. The angle of swing into the highwall in the from 10 or 15 degrees
through 90 degree to the direction of the travel. This generally requires a machine
equipped with a long boom.
In Full Block Method, the wheel travels parallel to the highwall, removing a block
width which is a function of the wheel cutting radius and the swing arc. Optimum
block width is normally achieved with a swing angle of 800 degree to the highwall
and 45o to 50o on the discharge side. This is most common operating mode.
Terrace Cut Dropping Cut
 Terrace cut
• In the terrace cut, the face slope is established by a series of
small bench type cuts made by the forward arc of the cutting
wheel. To start excavation of a terrace, the bucket wheel
excavator engages the forward arc of the cutting wheel at one
end of the slice to be cut to establish the first cut depth by
propelling the machine forward and then the wheel is slewed
from one end to the other end of the face (swing pass). The
machine is propelled forward after each swing pass to provide
the cut depth and this is repeated until the desired terrace
depth achieved. The machine is then repositioned (by
propelling backward) for the start of next cut slice. In this way
the whole bench height is excavated in required number of
terraces.
 Merits
• The face slope can be controlled by maintaining designed
space between two successive terraces.
• For the same BWE it can excavate higher benches compared
to by dropping cut.
Demerits
▪ Terrace cutting in the upper slices tends to produce large
lumps when digging in to agglomerated, semi-compacted
material.
▪ It requires more travelling compared to that in dropping cut.
▪ The forward and reverse propelling sequence of the BWE may
tear up the floor under marginal conditions.
 Dropping cut
• In the dropping cut, the final slope of the face is defined by
the vertical arc of the cutting wheel about its boom pivot
point on the machine main frame. Cuts are made by the
bottom arc of the cutting wheel progressing from the top to
the bottom of the bench face as the wheel is slewed from side
to side. To start the cut sequence the bottom arc of the
cutting wheel is placed at one end of the face to create the
first cut height and then the wheel is slewed from side to side.
Once the cut is made over the entire face, the cutting wheel is
dropped down for the another cut height and the process is
repeated till the whole bench height is excavated. After a cut
has been made over the entire face, the BWE is repositioned
by advancing to the selected cut depth.
 Merits
▪ It minimizes lumps and improves efficiency in hard materials
of a stable highwall.
▪ It provides easier operator control of the cutting slice depth
and overall slope.
▪ It requires less machine travel compared to that in terrace cut.
Demerits
✓ It leaves a bumpy floor.
✓ The face slope can not be controlled . It is defined by the
vertical arc of cutting wheel.
➢ For the same BWE it can not excavate as high benches as by
terrace cut.
 Classification of BWE
The BWE’s can be classified into different type based on certain criteria:
➢ Based on type of buckets:
1. Cell type
2. Semi-cell type
3. Cell-less type → more popular
➢ Based on Propel mechanism:
1. Crawler – 3 point support – most popular
2. Walking pad type
3. Rail mounted
➢ Based on types of cutting boom
1. Crowding type
2. Non-crowding type – most popular
 Classification of BWE
➢ Based on type of discharge boom
1. Non-telescopic type-most popular
2. Telescopic type
3. Direct casting type
➢ In terms of their individual bucket capacity and
digging force
1. Individual bucket capacity-350 lit, 700 lit, 1400 lit,
>1400 lit.
2. Digging force- Normal digging force
High digging force
 Different Types of Buckets and their Comparison

Cell Type Bucket:

Here each bucket is provided with individual cell chutes, lined with wear plates. The chute
receives material from the bucket and discharges it on to an inclined plate and ultimately to the
conveyor belt.

Cell-Less Type Bucket:

There is no individual chute here. The material is discharged on to a common hopper, which is
not an integral part of the bucket.
Advantages of BWE

Some of the advantage that BWE’s have in compare to other types of excavators are:
➢ More stable pit slopes for both high wall and spoil heap.
➢ Availability of Wider working spaces.
➢ More maneuvering room when working with a shovel and truck tandem operation.
➢ Greater amounts of developed reserves exposed by operating on wide benches.
➢ Close control in selective mining of inter bedded ore and waste.
➢ Ability to deliver material either above or below the working level.
➢ High and/or deep cuts can be handled depending on machine design.
➢ Comparatively smooth and level working benches.
➢ Cost of excavation of material per ton or per m3 is generally lowest.
➢Load fluctuation is minimum due to uniform operation.
 Disadvantages of BWE

❖Requirement of high capital investment as the machine is very

costly.
❖The system of excavation is rigid in the sense that it is not amenable
to flexibility of operations compared to other conventional method of
mining such as shovel and dumper combination.
❖Require a very high reserve that should be amenable to high rate of
extraction over a long mine life.