Increased Cutter Tools Lifetime

Work Package 7

The main objective of this work is to develop cutter tools with an extended lifetime, in order to reduce the frequency of maintenance operations on the TBM cutter head, hence reducing the operator risks. This approach is led in parallel with the robotics subproject and ensures that the remaining human interventions (which the robot cannot take into account) are reduced to the minimum.

The final goal is to contribute to the reduction of human interventions by 20%, and subsequent related reduction of casualties and fatalities.

This objective will be achieved by meeting the following targets:

• understand the wear phenomena occurring between the cutter tools and the ground

• model the tool penetration in granular material representative of different ground type

• optimise the shape and configurations of the cutter tools and the cutter head design and compose maps enabling selection of the most suitable tool for given ground

• develop wear resistant materials for cutter tools with increased lifetime that can be used in different types of grounds

• characterise the wear resistance of existing and specifically developed materials for different ground conditions

• test the developed cutter tools on actual TBMs in operation