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Lec9-Rock Cutting Tools
Lec9-Rock Cutting Tools
Lec9-Rock Cutting Tools
• You can’t tell, can you, since you don’t know what type of
material that the tool will be cutting, what the spacing between
tool is, nor what type of machine that it will be on.
•Cone type bits with tungsten carbide button inserts, are only
used these days on tricone small hole (8 to 26 inch) drills, and
some raise boring applications in hard rock.
• This profile provided high rates of advance when the cutter was new, its
performance, as expected, dropped rapidly as edge wear developed and
the rock‑cutter contact area became larger.
• The CCS cutters are designed to maintain a more or less constant profile
as edge wear occurs. This means the machine performance does not
decline as rapidly with cutter wear.
• The CCS cutters are less susceptible to edge fracturing in hard rock
formations.
(Abu Bakar, 2012)
• Disc cutters have steadily grown in size from about 8 inches to present day 17,
19 and 20 inch cutters.
• For the same thrust load on the cutter, increased diameter causes a reduction in
the depth of cutter penetration into the rock because of larger cutter footprint
area.
• However, larger cutters provide for higher bearing capacity which more than
offsets the performance loss brought about by the longer cutter ‑rock contact
area.
• Larger cutters rotate slower for a given machine rpm which means less heat
generation during boring.
• They also contain more cutter material to wear out before replacement becomes
necessary, again contributing to longer ring life. All these features combined
thus lead to improved cutter life and reduced excavation costs.
•The CCS cutters come in different edge widths.
•In general, the narrow‑section cutters are utilized on center and
face positions on the TBMs to achieve the highest production rate.
•The entire machine can, of course, also be fitted all with narrow or
wide edge cutters to suit the hardness and/or abrasiveness of rock
to be excavated.
•The cutter ring is subject to the highest wear of a disc cutter and is
exposed to high contact pressure. Hence, special materials need to
be used for cutter rings. Commonly, alloy steels and tool steels
treated to about 56 to 60 HRC are utilized.
Center Cutters
Face Cutters
Gauge Cutters
Rock Failure under a Disc Cutter (Indenter)