A power shovel is a machine equipped with a bucket, usually powered by electricity, used for digging and loading soil.
A power shovel is a type of rope excavator in which the excavation arm is controlled and driven by a winch and steel cable rather than hydraulics as in more common hydraulic excavators. The main parts of an excavator include the track system, cab, cables, stands, stacks, boom supports, saddle blocks, booms, boom head pulleys, and buckets. Bucket volumes range from 0.7 to 5 cubic meters.
An electric shovel is a construction vehicle designed to dig up dirt and load it onto a truck or other transport equipment waiting nearby. They can dig up all types of soil except hard rock without prior loosening.
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Working Principle of Power Shovel
Electric rope shovel usually consists of a rotating deck with a power plant, drive and control mechanisms, and front attachments such as a crane boom that support a handle with a digger bucket at the end. The word “dipper” is sometimes used to denote the combination of a handle and a digger. Equipment is mounted on a base platform with tracks or wheels. It can lift up to 80 m3 weight of soil.
Operation Cycle of Electric Power Shovel
The operation includes 4 parts.
- Digging
- Swinging
- Dumping
- Returning
The Digging phase consists of placing a bucket on the embankment, lifting the bucket to fill it, and then pulling the entire bucket off the embankment.
The Swinging phase occurs when the bucket crosses the weir both vertically and horizontally. The driver steers the bucket along the planned turn trajectory and lowers it until it is in the proper position above the tractor.
Dumping involves opening the bucket door to dump the load while maintaining the correct dump height.
Returning is when the bucket is returned to the bank and involves lowering the bucket to the track position to close the bucket door.
Applications of Power Shovel
- Work from close range.
- You are digging a very hard material.
- Remove large rocks.
- Material extraction and truck loading.
- Different types of work, including gravel digging, clay pits, excavations to support roadworks, roadside weirs, etc.
- Operation is very fast compared to the conventional shovel.