What is the Best Way to Dig Shale？ Expert：with a Drum Cutter

2022-10-14

Shale is a kind of rock formed by dehydration and cementation of clay. It is mainly composed of clay minerals such as kaolinite and hydromica, and has obvious thin bedding structure. According to the different components, it can be divided into carbonaceous shale, calcareous shale, sandy shale, siliceous shale, etc. Among them, the siliceous shale is slightly stronger, and the rest are weaker, and the compressive strength of the rock blocks is 19.61-68.65 MPa or lower.

Shale is prone to softening and swelling after being soaked in water, with small deformation modulus and extremely poor anti-sliding stability. Therefore, if there is shale between two hard rocks, special attention should be paid to its existence, which has a great influence on the stability of hydraulic structures. Full attention should be given to engineering geological exploration.

What is the Best Way to Dig Shale？ Expert：with a Drum Cutter

So what kind of equipment should be used to excavate rocks of this nature like shale to achieve high efficiency and labor saving? The first thing that comes to mind must be that the strength of shale is so low that it can be dug with a bucket. But in fact, although shale is a weaker rock type, the bucket is still immobile. Another part of people thought that they could be broken with a breaker hammer, but the fact once again hit the face, the efficiency of using a breaker hammer is very low, and only round holes can be punched.

At this time, the Yichen drum cutter played its role. As a unique attachment at the front end of the excavator, the drum cutter drives the cutter drum to rotate through the hydraulic power of the excavator, which can efficiently excavate and break the rock mass, and can solve the problem that conventional equipment cannot be constructed. The drum cutter can mill up to 60 MPa of rock hardness, and can be adapted to 4.5-65 tons of excavators, with a wide range of adaptability.

Using a drum cutter to mine shale, shale can be easily milled into smaller particles, and the output can reach about 70 cubic meters per hour. This kind of rock is not very hard, so it is very suitable to use a drum cutter, with high efficiency and low cost, it is a very cost-effective choice.