Dredging of Gravel and Sand with Bucket Chain and Floating Grab Dredges

摘要

To a large extent, gravel and sand are dredged using land-based bucket chain dredges, floating bucket chain dredges and floating grab dredges. It is shown that these types of equipment complement another for gravel and sand dredging depending on the desired dredging depths below water and can be used on a completely equal basis. These dredges are applicable for both easy as well as extremely difficult geological conditions of deposits. The former prejudice which existed of the bucket chain dredge being "wear-intensive equipment" no longer apply for current designs. Only the geological conditions of the deposit and the desired dredging depth will affect the choice for the one or the other. The cost-effectiveness of dredging systems can be decisively influenced by the optimum selection of equipment in relation to the deposit to be extracted and by the continued technical development of drive concepts.