Bucket wheel excavators: dutiful and versatile giants of the mining industry

摘要

To many, the mining industry has become synonymous with staggeringly large pieces of equipment forever moving equally large tonnages of material. Closer scrutiny of this simplistic view soon shows that this misconception is biased towards draglines, trucks and power-shovels. And admittedly these are indeed frequently astonishingly large units when compared to their on-highway or domestic equivalent, and that furthermore, loader-and-truck operations account for more material moved than all other alternatives combined. However and nevertheless, in terms of sheer awesome size, by far the largest pieces of mining equipment are without doubt the bucket wheel excavator (BWE).