Pick wear state analysis in tunneling or mining running operation

Rockfeel is developing sensor based assistant systems for rock cutting machines, especially with round shaft picks. By analyzing pick movement in the holder/bashing, certain states indicating heightened risk of pick break can be assessed. Indicating critical states to the operator in advance, actual pick break may be avoided and manual pick inspection time reduced, saving time for cutting more efficiently and spare significant repair and downtime costs when cutting rock, minerals or concrete. The system prototype has been tested in field like conditions on a 80kW hydraulic cutterhead with concrete up to 45Mpa UCS and is going to be tested in open and underground mines soon.