Changing the cutter is an essential procedure in tunnel boring machine (TBM) operations. The danger and low efficiency of manually replacing the disc cutter has led engineering equipment designers to study technologies to automate the changing of cutters. The key step is to design a new integrated disc cutter (simplifying the replacement process) to facilitate robot operation. Until now, the design and research of new integrated disc cutter systems has mainly relied on inspiration. In this paper, a solution space of a certain configuration of an integrated disc cutter system based on topology theory was designed. The evaluation system for the solution space was constructed by the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), and the optimal scheme of the configuration was finally obtained. In addition, experiments and simulations show that the structural strength and anti-loosening performance of the new disc cutter system meet the engineering requirements. Application of topology theory and the new evaluation system provides useful theoretical analyses and guidance for the design of new cutter systems.
Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) is widely used in tunnel construction due to its advantages of high efficiency and environmental friendliness. The cutters distributed on TBM cutterhead are the main tools of TBM for rock breaking. They are easy to wear and need to be replaced frequently. At present, the replacement of TBM cutters entirely depends on manual work. Manual cutters change not only has a terrible operating environment, but also takes a long time, which leads to a large risk of tunnel construction and a long construction period. However, the traditional cutter system (TCS) is not suitable to use robots for disassembly and assembly because it is composed of many parts. Therefore, developing an integrated cutter system (ICS) suitable for robot operation is of great significance to reduce the cycle and cost of tunnel construction, and to facilitate the risk management of tunnel engineering. In this paper, the theory of the planar mechanism topology structure is applied to the early design process of the ICS, and four types of ICS are obtained. Then this article puts forward the evaluation index of the ICS based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), which is used to evaluate the above four ICS solutions to obtains the optimal ICS. Finally, this paper proposes a dead-point anti-loosening structure for the ICS, and performs related experimental verification. The experimental results show that compared with the TCS, the novel ICS has a greatly reduced cutters change action and a significantly improved fastening performance, which can meet the robot cutters change requirements.
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