#110 - Tenova Takraf – builds the largest vehicles on earth

Bucket Wheel Excavators (BWE) are among the largest terrestrial vehicles ever constructed. BWEs function basically as continuous cutting machines for soft to semi hard materials like clay, sand, gravel, marl and their blendings, as well as lignite and hard coal. They are used primarily in open pit mining operations.*

The characteristic parts of a Bucket Wheel Excavator are the cutting wheel with buckets, the wheel boom, the superstructure with counterweight boom, the substructure, the undercarriage with crawler tracks and a transfer boom to the bench conveyor (or a connecting bridge to the loading unit).

The bucket wheel concept has been in use in mining operations since the 1920’s. However, it was in the 1950’s that it came to be applied on truly massive scales in Germany. The biggest machine ever built, the Tenova TAKRAF Model SRs 8000, has a weight of 14,200 tons and moves 240,000m³ of overburden per day. This machine is also famously known as the Bagger293.

Project

Customer:  RWE Power AG (former Rheinbraun AG), Cologne

Plant Location:  Open Cast Mine Hambach (Germany)

Scope of work:  Turn-key project

Project Figures

Capacity per day: 240,000 m³ / 314,000 yd³

Cutting height: 51 m / 167 ft

Cutting depth: 17 m / 55 ft

Max. outreach of bucket wheel: 72.2 m / 236.9 ft

Center of discharge pulley: 138.75 m / 455.2 ft

Bucket wheel diameter: 21.6 m / 70.9 ft

Bucket wheel drive power: 3 x 1,120 to 1,680 kW

Nominal bucket volume: 6,600 L / 8.6 yd³

Length: 502 m / 1647 ft

Service weight: 14,200 t

Commissioned: 1995

Here is an excellent picture of this machine in action: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Braunkohlenbagger_im_Tagebau_Hambach.jpg

Tenova TAKRAF manufactures BWE’s in a wide range of capacities between 200 and 16000m³/hr. Models are available with working heights from less than 5m to a maximum of 51m. The type and size of excavator used on a mining site is determined by the local mine conditions and the required cutting height and width.

Here is an excellent wide angle picture of a Takraf rail-based Bucket Conveyer Excavator (BCE): http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/F60_in_Betrieb.jpg

It is worth pasting the above link into your browser and viewing it at its source. The picture is quite large and shows a high level of detail.

This style of excavator has its buckets attached to a conveyor instead of a wheel. This allows excavation from within and below their scope of movement. This is useful if the pit floor is unstable or even underwater. As shown in the picture link above, TAKRAF's BCEs travel on rails rather than on crawlers.

Agencies or companies that are in the market for one of these machines, should contact:

TAKRAF GmbH

Torgauer Straße 336

04347 Leipzig

Germany

phone +49 341 2423 500

fax +49 341 2423 510

sales@takraf.com

Tenova TAKRAF

Tenova SpA

Via Albareto 31

16153 Genoa

Italy

phone +39 010 6054067

fax +39 010 6054710

bulkhandling@it.tenovagroup.com

NOVA Analytical Systems

1-800-295-3771

sales at nova-gas dot com

websales at nova-gas dot com

http://www.nova-gas.com/

https://twitter.com/NOVAGAS

http://www.linkedin.com/company/nova-analytical-systems-inc-

http://www.tenovagroup.com/


* Open pit mining has declined somewhat in recent years for environmental reasons. However, many lignite mines remain in operation. Open pit mines and the land around them require a fair amount of rehabilitation after mining operations have ceased. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-pit_mining

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