Wheel Excavators

• Typical Units
– Large stripping wheels
• 21.6 to 38 ft. diameter
• 2700 to 7600 yd3/hour
capacity
– Medium-size wheels
• 10 to 25 ft. diameter
• 400 to 3500 yd3/hour
capacity
– Small fixed wheels
• 3 to 16 ft. diameter
• 1000 to 2800 yd3/hour
capacity
• Wheel excavators dig with a
rotating bucket wheel, which
discharges the material on to
a belt conveyor
Large Stripping Wheel Medium Size Wheel

Small Fixed Wheel

 Basic Machine Operations

• Continuous operation (shovel, FEL cyclic operation)

• Multiple small buckets, mounted on the edge of a
rotating wheel, take progressive slicing side cuts, as the
wheel is swung back and forth across the digging face
• Upward cutting action
• Material is dumped from the buckets to conveyor belt
continuously
• The wheel is raised and lowered for successive cuts
across the face
 Applications

• Overburden
excavation with
direct spoiling
(stripping wheels)
• Overburden
excavation with
conveyor or truck
loading
• Coal excavation with
conveyor or truck
loading
Operational Practices
 General Characteristics

• Continuous output
• Can dig medium hard consolidated material
without prior blasting
• Cannot economically handle large boulders,
frozen ground, consolidated hard formations
• Highly customized design
• Limited pit mobility
• Produces a sized product for discharge
 Selection Considerations

• Large boulders and blocky material cannot be

handled
• Hard consolidated material need excessive
power and abuse the machine
• Sticky materials cause build up in buckets
• Abrasive material cause excessive teeth wear
• Relatively stable digging face required