Face Shovel And Method Of Operation

The method of operating a digging machine, the machine comprising:

• a bucket,
• an arm assembly supporting the bucket,
• an actuator assembly for moving the bucket and arm assembly to crowd loose material into the bucket and to dump the loose material from the bucket, and
• a control system including user controls, the control system being arranged to control the operation of the actuator assembly responsive to user commands received via the user controls;
• the bucket comprising a front part, a rear part, and a digging aperture through which, in a digging configuration of the front part, loose material may be crowded into the bucket;
• the rear part being pivotably mounted on the arm assembly;
• the actuator assembly being configured to move the rear part in rotation, when considered in a vertical plane, in opposite, forward and rearward directions through a range of angular positions in an angular range of movement, wherein in the digging configuration of the front part,
• the forward direction is defined as an angular movement away from an upwardly facing orientation of the bucket and towards a downwardly facing orientation of the bucket, and
• the rearward direction is defined as an angular movement away from the downwardly facing orientation of the bucket and towards the upwardly facing orientation of the bucket;
• the front part comprising a leading edge of the digging aperture;
• the front part being moveable in rotation by the actuator assembly relative to the rear part between the digging configuration and a dumping configuration, wherein
• in the dumping configuration respective edges of the front part and rear part are separated to define between said edges a dumping aperture through which loose material may fall downwardly out of the bucket in the upwardly facing orientation of the bucket, and
• in the digging configuration the front and rear parts are closed together to retain the loose material in the bucket in the upwardly facing orientation of the bucket;
• the method comprising:
• controlling the actuator assembly, by the control system, responsive to at least a dump command received via the user controls, to move the bucket in a dump sequence, the dump sequence comprising a predefined sequence of movements including:
• (i) in a pre-positioning step, in the digging configuration of the front part, moving the rear part in rotation to a first dump orientation, the first dump orientation being a first predefined angular position or range of angular position of the rear part in the angular range of movement;
• and then
• (ii) after the pre-positioning step, in an opening step, moving the front part from the digging configuration to the dumping configuration.