⛏️ Bucket-Wheel Excavator: Cutting Force, Conveyor Throughput and Ground Pressure of a Giant Machine

A giant 18-bucket wheel excavator cuts a lignite bench in 3D: specific cutting resistance sets the wheel power, bucket count, fill and swell set the throughput, and the belt chain and 12 crawler tracks are checked for capacity and ground pressure. An experiment sweeps the digging resistance to show where the 3.4 MW drive, not the buckets, limits the output.