PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an earth discharging mechanism for a tunnel excavator, which is simple in structure, low in cost, and available for both excavating systems at the time of excavation of a tunnel, i.e. one in which a cutting face is held under pressure and the other in which a cutting face is held without pressure.;SOLUTION: When the cutting face is held without pressure at the time of excavation, a carrying device of an earth discharging mechanism 15 is switched to a pressureless carrying device 16a. Then an open excavation mechanism carries out excavation, and takes in excavated earth via a screw conveyor 20 to be crushed by a crusher 17, followed by kneading the crushed earth with slurry supplied from a crusher slurry supply pipe 21, to thereby discharge the earth to a slurry discharge pipe 18 extending to the outside of the tunnel. When the cutting face is held under pressure at the time of excavation, the carrying device is switched to a main slurry discharge pipe 12. Then a closed excavation mechanism carries out excavation, and takes in the excavated earth together with slurry in a chamber 10 via the main slurry discharge pipe 12, followed by crushing the earth by the crusher 17, to thereby discharge the crushed earth to the slurry discharge pipe 18 extending to the outside of the tunnel.;COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO&NCIPI
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