Actuated disc cutting: An enabler for mechanized hard rock mining

While mechanized mining operations are integral part of mining activities in soft rocks, drill and blast fragmentation method still dominates the hard rock mining operations. Mechanized fragmentation technology for hard rock mining should be robust, relatively small, and flexible; however, development of such system has been a challenge due to energy requirement of cutting hard rocks and the short life span of the cutters. These limitations strongly suggest the need for alternative solutions to reduce the energy requirement of hard rock failure. Actuated Disc Cutting (ADC) is a new dynamic cutting method, which uses disk-shape cutters attacking the rock in an undercutting mechanism. This new system dynamically actuates the cutter, while it is moved across the rock. Breaking the rock under direct tension, ADC consumes less energy for fragmenting rock than conventional methods, hence, reducing the overall power requirement of mechanical hard rock excavation. Introducing the characteristics of an ADC system, this paper summarizes the findings of an experimental study, which investigates the rock failure mechanism and the forces associated with the cutting process using a laboratory ADC test unit.