A rational comparison of groove deepening to relief cutting in terms of tool spacing with drag tools

Abstract

This paper mentions a rational comparison between relief cutting and groove deepening for tool lacing design of partial-face cutting machines employed for mechanical excavations of rocks, coal and stones. The comparison was carried out by simulating actual cutting actions of picks at different spacing to depth ratios respectively, through full-scale laboratory linear cutting experiments with drag tools. Relief cutting exhibited lower tool forces and lower specific energy. This merit was attributed to lower 'effective area' defined within cross sections swept by tools. Furthermore, with simulated trials there found to be no marked minimum in specific energy, as opposed to previous cutting experiments on flat rock surface. The results were presented and discussed in details.