Nouveautés

HIGHER PERFORMANCE
WIRTGEN PLACES VALUE ON PERFECT CUTTING TOOL

As is the case with many applications, it is clear in surface mining too that special demands need special solutions. Success is then achieved above all if not only the product works really well, but also the partnership between toolmaker, machine manufacturer and user.

The miner glides slowly on the limestone bed and eats through the rock. Though it may appear leisurely, it is in fact an act of great force and involves ‘surgical precision’. Specialists from Betek and Wirtgen performed a series of tests in a quarry in France in order to achieve even higher performance in surface mining. In doing so they exhausted every option.

It was only after the (2200 SM) miner had had two tons of extra weight added to it and Betek and partner Wirtgen had fine-tuned the cutting system and the tools being used that maximum performance was achieved for the machine as it worked on the stone. It was then possible to extract over 1,000 cubic metres of limestone in one 8-hour day. A great performance, to which Betek engineer Uli Krämer along with colleagues from partners Wirtgen had all contributed.

Surface mining replaces the method of quarrying otherwise used, namely blasting, which not only causes noise, dust and ground vibrations, but also makes it impossible to mine the required material with any degree of precision. Selective extraction of the limestone, on the other hand, enables a higher proportion of the deposit to be mined. The machine used for this cost-efficient and environmentally friendly method in the test in France was Wirtgen’s 2200 SM surface miner, fitted with Betek cutting tools.