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now less popular, so there is little demand for new machines. The manufacturers of BWEs and similar mining systems now receive some revenue from maintenance and refurbishing projects, but also produce large steel parts for other purposes. Current use of bucket-wheel excavators is mainly focused in the area of lignite (brown coal) mining for the production of electricity, mostly in
Germany and East/Southeastern Europe. Unex has also made a BWE for extraction of diamonds from the Siberian permafrost.
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of which can hold over 15 m (20 cu yd) of material. BWEs have also advanced with respect to the extreme conditions in which they are now capable of operating. Many BWEs have been designed to operate in climates with temperatures as low as −45 °C (−49 °F). Developers are now moving their focus toward automation and the use of electrical power.
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In shipyards, bucket wheels are used for the continuous loading and unloading of ships, where they pick up material from the yard for transfer to the delivery system. Bucket chains can be used to unload material from a ship's hold. TAKRAF's continuous ship unloader is capable of removing up to 95%
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The overburden is then delivered to the discharge boom, which transfers the cut earth to another machine for transfer to a spreader. This may be a fixed belt conveyor system or a mobile conveyor with crawlers similar to those found on the BWE. Mobile conveyors permanently attached to the excavator
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systems, and online monitoring capabilities. The goal of these systems is to take away some of the work from the operators in order to achieve higher mining speeds. Project managers and operators are now able to track crucial data regarding the BWEs and other machinery in the mining operations via
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To allow it to complete its duties, the superstructure of a BWE is capable of rotating about a vertical axis (slewing). The cutting boom can be tilted up and down (hoisting). The speeds of these operations are on the orders of 30 m/min and 5 m/min, respectively. Slewing is driven by large gears,
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BWEs built since the 1990s, such as the Bagger 293, have reached sizes as large as 96 m (315 ft) tall, 225 m (738 ft) long, and as heavy as 14,200 t (31,300,000 lb). The bucket-wheel itself can be over 21 m (70 ft) in diameter with as many as 20 buckets, each
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Few companies are willing or able to manufacture the massive, expensive gears required for BWEs. Unex, Czech
Republic, still has the original casting forms, and is still able to manufacture BWEs. However, these machines were built to last indefinitely under continuous heavy use and strip mining is
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Because of the great demand for lignite, lignite mining has also been one of the areas of greatest development for BWEs. The additions of automated systems and greater manoeuvrability, as well as components designed for the specific application, have increased the reliability and efficiency with
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may have boom lengths as small as six metres (20 ft), weigh 50 tons, and move 100 m (3,500 cu ft) of earth per hour. Their larger models reach boom lengths of 80 m (260 ft), weigh 13,000 tons, and move 12,500 m (440,000 cu ft) per hour. The largest BWE
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BWEs are used for continuous overburden removal in surface mining applications. They use their cutting wheels to strip away a section of earth (the working block) dictated by the size of the excavator. Through hoisting, the working block can include area both above and below the level of the
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The bucket wheel from which the machines get their name is a large, round wheel with a configuration of scoops which is fixed to a boom and is capable of rotating. Material picked up by the cutting wheel is transferred back along the boom. In early cell-type bucket wheels, the material was
292:(brown coal) mining, where they are used for soft rock overburden removal in the absence of blasting. They are useful in this capacity for their ability to continuously deliver large volumes of materials to processors, which is especially important given the continuous demand for lignite.
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near
Cologne, Germany. The German BWEs had a wheel of over 16 m (52 ft) in diameter, weighed 5,500 short tons (5,000 t) and were over 180 m (600 ft) long, with eighteen crawler units for movement and could cut a swath of over 180 m (600 ft) at one time
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boom balances the cutting boom and is cantilevered either on the lower part of the superstructure (in the case of compact BWEs) or the upper part (in the case of mid-size C-frame BWEs). In the larger BWEs, all three booms are supported by cables running across towers at the top of the
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and is capable of moving 240,000 m (8,500,000 cu ft) of overburden every day. Excavations of 380,000 m (13,000,000 cu ft) per day have been recorded. The BWEs used in the United States tend to be smaller than those constructed in
Germany.
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processes. Heap leaching entails constructing stacks of crushed ore, through which a solvent is passed to extract valuable materials. The construction and removal of the heaps are an obvious application of stacking and reclaiming technology.
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are used to pick up material that has been positioned by a stacker for transport to a processing plant. Stacker/reclaimers, which combine tasks to reduce the number of required machines, also use bucket wheels to carry out their tasks.
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the
Internet. Sensors can detect how much material is being scooped onto the conveyor belt, and the automation system can then vary the speed on the conveyor belts in order to feed a continuous amount of material.
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Bucket-wheel excavators have been used in mining for the past century, with some of the first being manufactured in the 1920s. They are used in conjunction with many other pieces of mining machinery (
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Beneath the superstructure lay the movement systems. On older models these would be rails for the machine to travel along, but newer BWEs are frequently equipped with
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A discharge boom receives material through the superstructure from the cutting boom and carries it away from the machine, frequently to an external conveyor system.
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transferred through a chute leading from each bucket, while newer cell-less and semi-cell designs use a stationary chute through which all of the buckets discharge.
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Grathof, H. (1986). Design (Constructional
Characteristics) of Large Bucket Wheel Excavators. Journal of Mines, Metals, and Fuels, 34(4), 204-213.
134:(waste). While the overall concepts that go into a BWE have not changed much, their size has grown drastically since the end of World War II.
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Structural
Analysis of Continuous Ship Unloader, Society of Mechanical Engineers, 2012 Proceedings, 2012.11, 2075-2078 (4 pages)
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Sandvik Mining and
Construction Products > Bulk materials handling equipment > Bucket wheel excavators >PE200-1400/2x30
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take the burden of directing the material off of the operator. The overburden can also be transferred directly to a cross-pit
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In the 1950s two German mining firms ordered the world's first extremely large BWEs, and had three BWEs built for mining
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which scoop material as the wheel turns. They are among the largest land or sea vehicles ever produced. The 14,200-ton
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Tenova Takraf, a major manufacturer of open cast mining equipment-including the world's biggest Bucket wheel excavator
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540:"Big Wheels Keep on Turning" - Information about the development of bucket-wheel excavators and similar vehicles.
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The scale of BWEs varies significantly and is dependent on the intended application. Compact BWEs designed by
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Chironis, N. (1984). Bucket Wheel
Excavators of Compact Design Growing Popular. Coal Age, 84(10), 84-91.
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NASA Astronomy
Picture of the Day: Photo of bucket-wheel excavator crossing a road (22 November 2006)
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Bucket wheel excavators and bucket chain excavators take jobs that were previously accomplished by
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Automation of the BWEs requires integrating many sensors and electrical components such as
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Economic and technologic aspects of Bucketwheel Excavators - and Crusher/Conveyor-Systems
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of the material from a ship's hold, owing to a flexibly-configured digging attachment.
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Bucket wheel technology is used extensively in bulk materials handling. Bucket wheel
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Their primary function is that of a continuous digging machine in large-scale
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ThyssenKrupp Fördertechnik. (2005). Business Unit: Mining
402:"Tenova TAKRAF. (2007). Tenova Takraf Mining Equipment"
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while hoisting generally makes use of a cable system.
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525:Bucket Wheel Excavators World wide Installations
89:for the heaviest land-based vehicle ever built.
46:wheeled dozer at lower left for size comparison
106:Bucket-wheel excavator in the open-pit mining
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545:"Shovels Attached to Wheel in Big Evcavator"
154:A bucket wheel excavator (BWE) consists of a
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158:to which several more components are fixed.
130:, etc.) to move and mine massive amounts of
520:Bucket Wheel Excavators at Extreme Machines
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449:"Big Wheels Keep on Turning"
110:(Video, 1:40 Min., ca. 9 MB)
52:bucket-wheel excavator (BWE)
34:Bucket wheel excavators in
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499:February 11, 2011, at the
196:Bucket wheel excavator in
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430:, June 1956, pp. 114-115
330:Manufacturers and market
973:Bucket-wheel excavators
426:"Earth Eating Monster"
75:bucket chain excavators
36:Garzweiler surface mine
729:Bucket chain excavator
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27:Heavy mining excavator
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87:Guinness World Record
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968:Engineering vehicles
947:Part of a series on
714:Rocker Shovel Loader
278:hydraulic excavators
209:ever constructed is
882:Articulated hauler
719:Dragline excavator
373:Trencher (machine)
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42:. Note the 40-ton
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750:Fire-setting
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707:Steam shovel
702:Power shovel
671:Blasting cap
634:Sledgehammer
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410:. Retrieved
406:the original
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338:Bucket wheel
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270:rope shovels
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264:Applications
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932:Ventilation
912:Safety lamp
850:Slate wagon
734:Gold dredge
363:Bagger 1473
54:is a large
962:Categories
877:Haul truck
845:Quarry tub
818:Horizontal
809:Man engine
639:Jackhammer
624:Hand steel
600:Excavation
412:2010-03-10
384:References
358:Bagger 293
353:Bagger 288
306:reclaimers
247:Automation
215:Bagger 293
198:Ferropolis
132:overburden
108:Garzweiler
85:holds the
83:Bagger 293
71:overburden
892:Reclaimer
792:Headframe
773:Transport
686:Gunpowder
667:Detonator
274:draglines
226:Operation
200:, Germany
150:Structure
120:spreaders
922:Headlamp
840:Pit pony
835:Mine car
830:Minecart
780:Vertical
681:Dynamite
654:Blasting
497:Archived
347:See also
241:Spreader
178:crawlers
887:Stacker
866:Blondin
857:Mantrip
760:Hushing
629:Crowbar
614:Pickaxe
290:lignite
233:slewing
139:lignite
93:History
79:buckets
40:Germany
949:mining
905:Safety
676:Dualin
644:Gezähe
619:Shovel
219:tonnes
211:TAKRAF
787:Hoist
743:Other
607:Tools
937:SCSR
804:Whim
272:and
188:Size
253:GPS
213:'s
44:CAT
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
