Wear mechanisms associated with rock excavation using attack picks

The performance of Roadheading machines in face gate roads, cross-measures drifts and major access roadways is of importance to the profitability and productivity of modern mechanised longwall mines. Slow advance rates due to arduous cutting conditions results in cost increases and delays. An understanding of the mechanisms contributing to cutter pick deterioration is vital.

Over the past decade much emphasis has been placed on wear problems associated with the excavation of rock and this had led to a concentration of the study of abrasive wear of cutting tools. However much of this initial work was applied to surface mining problems and it is felt that it is not directly applicable to the conditions encountered when cutting rock with boom-type roadheaders where the cutting and transient forces are higher. Indications suggest that a composite mechanism for tool wear occurs, with abrasion, impact loading and frictional heating all playing an interlinked part in the wear and ultimate destruction of cutting tools.