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US 5,437,500 AGranted
Tunneling machine with center cutter and debris removing means
AssigneeHerrenknecht AG
InventorsGebhard Lehmann, Rolf Heerssen, Martin Herrenknecht
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The invention is directed to a tunnel-driving machine designed to bore a tunnel and having, in addition to a large outer cutter wheel, a smaller central cutter wheel which is mounted near the hub of the outer cutter wheel and which enables the formation of soil plugs and dead cores to be avoided along the longitudinal axis of the cutting wheel, thus reducing the resistance of the machine to forward motion.
Claims7
A tunneling machine for boring a tunnel into soil, comprising:
- a shield which is drivable into the said soil;
- a rotatable cutting wheel disposed in said shield, said cutting wheel having a plurality of ripping tools and defining a hub area;
- a crusher space;
- a center cutter disposed in said hub area, said center cutter rotatable relative to said cutting wheel, said center cutter including a plurality of ripping tools for loosening the said soil, and a central cutting wheel, said central cutting wheel having at least one inlet opening for permitting entry of the said loosened soil into said crusher space;
- and
- a conduit connected to said crusher space to provide one of flushing action and suction action.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.