The radial line concept for cutting head pick lacing arrangements

The picks which are located at the nose portion of a boom-type tunnelling machine cutting head are of crucial importance and also very vulnerable to damage. Long term underground investigations accompanied by laboratory studies have revealed that these picks are subject to skew cutting which leads to severe pick and tool holder damage. This depends on the radial line position with respect to tool plan length. The damage is predominantly in the form of premature wear developing on the tool body rather than on the tungsten carbide tip. It was found that the picks having a small cutting radius and tilt angle greater than 30° should be provided with skew angles relevant to the pick geometry and cutting radius. High forces were also shown to act on these picks. It was further concluded that radial type cutting tools are not suitable as corner cutting picks on boom tunnelling machine cutting heads currently used in practice.