Research on cutting performance and fatigue life of conical pick in cutting rock process

The conical pick is the most crucial tool of roadheader for breaking rock, establishing the conical pick cutting rock and conical pick fatigue life numerical simulation models to investigate the influence of cutting parameters on rock damage, average peak cutting force, specific cutting energy and the conical pick fatigue life. The research results indicate that the width and depth of rock damage increase with increasing cutting depth and cutting speed. The average peak cutting force and the specific cutting energy have the same changing tendency. The changing trend of conical pick fatigue life and conical pick stress is opposite relationship. The optimum cutting angle of the conical pick cutting rock is 45°. Applying the research results for guiding the optimization of the cutting parameters reduces the specific cutting energy and stress and improves the conical pick fatigue life.

Conical picks of mining machines with increased utility properties – selected construction and technological aspects

Shearers and roadheaders are commonly used to extract useful mineral deposits, especially hard coal, and for drilling roadways in underground mines, tunnels and other underground buildings in civil engineering. As the primary working process of this type of machines, mechanical mining of rocks is carried out by cutting. These machines' working units are equipped for this purpose with picks, usually conical (point-attack). They have the form of an axially symmetrical body consisting of a steel shaft and a tip usually made of tungsten carbide, connected by a hard brass solder. Due to the possibility of spontaneous rotation in the pick holders and even wear and tear of their tip around the entire perimeter, conical picks have a much longer service life compared to radial picks. Their life, especially when cutting hard and sharp abrasive rocks, is, however, still unsatisfactory. Rapid wear of the picks leads to a decrease in mining efficiency, an increase in this process's energy consumption, and an increase in dynamic surplus to which the cutting machine is subject. Among many forms of wear and tear of the conical picks, attention was paid to the problem of asymmetrical abrasive wear of the tips, pulling out the connection of the soldered pick tip and fatigue breaking of the pick shafts in the transition zone of the shank into the shoulder. The article presents original propositions of modification of the construction of the roadheaders/shearers conical pick shafts and the method of fixing the tip in the pick shaft in order to increase their operational durability significantly. The technologies and devices necessary to manufacture conical picks of the proposed structure were described. The developed modifications significantly contribute to the improvement of functional properties, including the reliability of conical picks, used in particular for hard rock mining.

Numerical Simulation of Conical Pick Cutting Arc Rock Plate Fracture Based on ANSYS/LS-DYNA

The new method of rock breaking based on the combination of circular sawblade and conical pick was proposed to improve the effectiveness of hard rock breaking. The numerical simulation method was applied to research the conical pick cutting arc rock plate by ANSYS/LS-DYNA. The conical pick cutting arc rock plate numerical simulation model was established to research the influence of arc rock plate structural parameters and cutting parameters on cracks formation and propagation of the arc rock plate and the cutting force in the process of conical pick cutting arc rock plate. The amount of cracks is positively correlated with arc rock plate thickness, the cutting speed, and distance of cutting point to arc rock plate central axis and negatively correlated with the cutting angle. The mean peak cutting force is positively correlated with the thickness of arc rock plate and the distance of cutting point to arc rock plate central axis; however, it is negatively correlated with the arc rock plate height and width and cutting angle of conical pick. The simulation results can be used to predict the conical pick work performance with various cutting parameters and structural parameters.

Research on Cutting Characteristics of Rock Plate with Two Sides Fixed and Two Sides Free

Conical pick wear is an urgent problem in the roadway excavation caused by hard rock difficult to break. The traditional method of increasing cutting power to improve cutting performance of conical pick significantly increases pick wear. In the paper, a saw blade and conical pick combined cutting method is proposed based on increased free surface. To research the fracture morphology and cutting force of rock plate, theoretical, numerical, and experimental methods are used. By theoretical research, the bending mechanical model of rock plate bending is established. The cutting position and the junction between the free sides and fixed sides are preferentially broken. A numerical model combining the erosion and damage constitutive model is built, and the cutting process of rock plate was presented. According to rock plate experiment, the peak cutting force increases with the increasing uniaxial compressive strength, thickness of rock plate, and cutting depth of conical pick and decreases with the increasing width and height of rock plate. Exponential relationships exist between peak cutting force and thickness, width and height of rock plate, and cutting depth of conical pick. Linear relationship exists between peak cutting force and uniaxial compressive strength. The size of rock fragments increases with uniaxial compressive strength, width, and height of rock plate.

Recent Patents on Conical Pick and Flat Pick for Coal Mining

Background: Coal mining machines are the primary equipment used for the comprehensive mining of medium and thick coal seams. A shield machine is used to modify the geological structure of the soil, especially in urban subway tunnel engineering. The cutting and tunneling equipment have greatly improved the efficiency of coal seam mining and rock tunneling construction, but the consumption of picks in mining and tunneling is very high. Objective: In order to reduce the consumption of picks, it is necessary to obtain the change of temperature inside the pick in the process of cutting. Methods: This paper introduces a temperature measurement method to measure the temperature inside the conical and flat pick to provide a reference for the design and manufacture of picks. Results: The temperature measurement method used in flat and conical pick can obtain the temperature change inside the pick under the actual working condition, which has a considerable guiding significance to promote the development of coal mining. Conclusion: This study provides an important basis for the safety of mining operations and for prolonging the service life of picks. It has a strong innovation value and broad practicality.

Investigating the Influences of Indentation Hardness and Brittleness of Rock-Like Material on Its Mechanical Crushing Behaviors

Indentation hardness and brittleness are the important factors to be considered in the study of rock-like materials’ mechanical crushing behaviors. The brittleness of rock-like materials is defined as the ratio of uniaxial compressive strength to tensile strength in this paper. In order to investigate the influences of hardness and brittleness on rock-like materials’ crushing behaviors, quartz sand and high strength α-hemi-hydrated gypsum were used to prepare rock-like materials with different hardness and brittleness through different mass ratios. The artificial rock-like materials can eliminate the effects of natural rock’s weak structure plane on experimental results. The indentation test, Uniaxial compressive test, and Brazilian tensile test were conducted for characterizing the indentation hardness and brittleness of this artificial rock-like materials. The experimental results showed that brittleness increased with the increase of indentation hardness with high correlation coefficient. The confining stress presented a positive impact on the indentation hardness of the rock-like materials. Based on those mechanical properties, the numerical rock models were calculated to study rock crushing behaviors using discrete element method (DEM). A series of rock crushing tests were conducted to investigate the influences of hardness and brittleness of rock-like materials on rock crushing behaviors using a conical pick cutter. The numerical results showed that the normalized specific energy was negatively correlated with indentation hardness index (IHI). The normalized specific energy decreased with the increase of brittleness index (BI) with a high correlation coefficient. This study is beneficial in utilizing IHI and BI to evaluate the mechanical properties, failure patterns, and mechanical crushing efficiency of rock-like materials.