Hydraulic Mining Excavators

TriPower
The Magic Triangle
 Patented for 25 years

• Standard geometry for all Bucyrus Face Shovels

• Well proven in more than 1,000 units

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 Design Features

Rotating
triangular rockers

Steering rods

Boom cylinders
attached to the
TriPower rockers

Bucket cylinders
attached to the
TriPower rockers

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 Advanced Design

• TriPower
– Boom cylinders attached to
the triangular rockers
– Bucket cylinders attached to
the triangular rockers

• Old Conventional
Attachments
– Bucket cylinders attached to
the stick
– Boom cylinders attached to a
fix point at the boom
– Today not more in use
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 Advanced Design

• TriPower
– Boom cylinders attached to the triangular
rockers
– Bucket cylinders attached to the triangular
rockers
– Standard on all Bucyrus face shovel excavators

• Parallelogram kinematics
– Today the standard for
all other suppliers

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 TriPower Main Benefits Overview

TriPower kinematic function TriPower kinetic function

• Automatic parallel horizontal and • Supports hydraulic forces
vertical bucket guidance • Raises boom momentum
• Roll back limiter • Increases crowd force

 Increases safety and  Boosts up production

ease of operation

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 Roll Back Limiter

• TriPower • Parallelogram kinematics

– Bucket @ max reach height – Bucket @ max reach height in
in a safe position an unsafe position

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 Roll Back Limitation

• Parallelogram kinematics
– Bucket @ max reach height in an
unsafe position

• To avoid such bucket positions

the operator has to control
manually the bucket cylinders
i.e.
– Whenever a second cylinder
function is activated the available
amount of oil for the boom
cylinder function is cut to half
– More difficult to operate and
higher fatigue for the operator
– Safety risks

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 Automatic Parallel Bucket Guidance

• Horizontal direction
– Only stick cylinder hydraulically charged
– Boom cylinders in floating position
– Bucket adapts to
ground conditions

Constant angle
bucket position

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 Automatic Parallel Bucket Guidance

• Vertical direction
– Only boom cylinders hydraulically charged
– All pumps supplying boom up function

Constant angle
bucket position
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 Hydraulic Boom Momentum Conventional Attachment

• Decreasing boom momentum

– Effective leverage for cylinder
forces decreases while lifting
– Boom momentum Mh
decreases down to 55 %

Mh
Hydraulic boom
momentum depends
directly on effective
leverage!

Cylinder force 100 %

constant max. leverage
55 %
min. leverage

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 TriPower Advantage: Hydraulic Boom Momentum

• TriPower
– Shifts pivot point forward
– Balances the loss of hydraulic
momentum during lifting

100 %
max. leverage
80 %
min. leverage

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 TriPower Advantage: Additional Boom Momentum

Mathematical • TriPower
Background!
Action – Transfers digging / gravity
= forces into the superstructure
Reaction – Creates a supporting boom
momentum M+ additional to the
hydraulic momentum

M+
Bucket cylinders
not hydraulically
charged !!!

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 TriPower Advantage: Constant Boom Momentum
• TriPower
high position – Activates additional momentum
M+ with the lifting height
80 % hydraulic Mh – Keeps boom momentum constant
20 % additional M+

100 % Momentum
100 %

low position
M+
100 % hydraulic Mh
0 % additional M+
Mh
100 % Momentum

=> keeps lifting speed constant!

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 Constant Boom Momentum

• TriPower
– allows smaller boom
cylinders for higher lifting
speed
– keeps lifting speed constant
– enables the excavator to
haul up a once taken load
along the entire lifting
distance
– no retracting of stick
cylinders required

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 Boom Cylinder Diameter

• All Caterpillar excavator with shovel attachment have due to TriPower smaller
boom cylinders than competitive shovel units of the same class

Caterpillar 6015 6018 6030 6040 6050 6060 6090

7.0 m³ 10.0 m³ 16.5 m³ 22.0 m³ 26.0 m³ 34.0 m³ 52.0 m³
180 mm 220 mm 280 mm 320 mm 330 mm 350 mm 480 mm

Komatsu PC 1250 PC 2000 PC 3000 PC 4000 PC 5500 PC 8000

6.5 m³ 11.0 m³ 15.0 m³ 22.0 m³ 28.0 m³ 42.0 m³
225 mm 280 mm 320 mm 330 mm 380 mm 460 mm

Hitachi EX 1200 EX 1900 EX 2500 EX 3600 EX 5500 EX 8000

6.5 m³ 11.0 m³ 15.0 m³ 21.0 m³ 27.0 m³ 40.0 m³
230 mm 280 mm 310 mm 360 mm 420 mm 480 mm

Liebherr R 984 C R 9250 R 9350 R 995 R 996 B R 9800

7.0 m³ 15.0 m³ 18.0 m³ 26.5 m³ 36.0 m³ 42.0 m³
240 mm unknown unknown 380 mm unknown unknown

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 Additional Crowd Force

Mathematical
Background!
• TriPower
– Transmits the bucket resistance force into the superstructure
– Amplifies the hydraulically generated crowd force by additional
momentum at boom / stick pivot point

Bucket cylinders
not hydraulically
charged !!!

Crowd force

Resistance force
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