A tunnel excavation device includes a front body section and a rear body section. The front body section includes a cutter head, a cutter head support, peripheral plates, a roof shoe, and side shoes. The cutter head includes a plurality of roller cutters. The cutter head support supports the cutter head. The peripheral plates, the roof shoe, and the side shoes are provided to the outer circumference and can be collapsed inward. The rear body section is disposed to the rear of the front body section. The rear body section includes a gripper section. The gripper section obtains a reaction force for performing excavation.

Provided is a tunnel boring machine that can detect a wear condition of a disc cutter with a highly reliable configuration. The tunnel boring machine includes a measurement device. The measurement device is disposed behind the disc cutter mounted on a cutter head. The measurement device has a function as an acquisition unit that acquires cutting edge position data indicating a position of a cutting edge part of a cutter ring in the disc cutter. The tunnel boring machine further includes a DC discrimination unit that discriminates which one of a plurality of disc cutters is the disc cutter the cutting edge position data of which is acquired by the measurement device and a wear amount calculator that calculates a wear amount of the cutting edge part of the discriminated disc cutter.

A tunnel boring machine includes: a disc cutter including a cutter ring; and a member for use in measurement of a wear amount of the cutter ring with a three-dimensional shape measurement device, in which the member is provided at a part constant in relative position to the cutter ring.

A cutter head arrangement comprising a cutter head portion including a cutter head side wall to define a chamber (or cavity) surrounded by the cutter head side wall. A substantially circular rim portion extends from (a distal end of) the cutter head side wall, the rim portion defining a working, contact face of the cutter head portion. A recessed wall portion extends away from the rim portion inwardly into the chanber so as to be surrounded by the cutter head side wall, with the rim portion and/or the recessed wall portion being fitter with a plurality of cutter elemenets, to enable the cutter head portion to blind bore a pilot hole in use. The recessed wall portion that extends away from the rim portion inwardly into the chamber is a substantially conical body so as to define a conical recess.

Systems for forming or extending a tunnel or shaft within a working surface may include a ram accelerator assembly for accelerating a projectile into geologic material to weaken a region of the geologic material. A cutting tool may then be used to remove the weakened material. A collection assembly may be used to move debris away from the working surface while the projectile and cutting operations are performed to enable generally continuous use of the system. The number of projectiles that are accelerated and the rate at which projectiles are used may be controlled based on characteristics of the geologic material and the rate at which created debris may be removed.

A Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) with a circular cutting profile includes secondary cutterhead components that produce a semicircular-arched tunnel profile for use in underground mining and/or civil construction operations, e.g., for boring in material containing rocks with

Unconfined Compressive Strength (UCS) of up to 200 MPA or stronger. The machine is particularly suited to excavate long access tunnels, mine development drifts, road tunnels, and other types of tunnels that require flat bottom, semicircular-arched profiles. The substantially flat tunnel floor allows immediate and effective use of standard vehicles for material and crew transport as well as other construction and mining activities.

A mining tool for a drill head of a tunnel boring machine for mining in rock includes a roller cutter fastening device. The roller cutter fastening device is mountable on the drill head for accommodating and mounting a rotatable roller cutter. The roller cutter is interchangeably and rotatably received in the roller cutter fastening device. A sensor arrangement for detecting a mechanical load of the roller cutter is formed at least partially in the roller cutter fastening device and includes at least one load-sensitive element.

A device for advancing a cavity in underground mining, including a rotary drive, an axial shaft that is rotatable together with the rotary drive about a longitudinal axis, exactly one extraction drum that is rotatable about an drum rotational axis, and a connecting arrangement which is connected to the axial shaft and which supports the extraction drum, the connecting arrangement being configured in such a way that the drum rotational axis and the longitudinal axis lie in a plane, and are oriented at an acute angle with respect to one another in the advancing direction, in all operating positions during the advancement, characterized in that the extraction drum extends over at least an effective radius of the device in the radial direction of the device during advancement of the cavity.

Embodiments of the invention generally relate to tunnel boring machine cutter assemblies, such as ripping and scraping cutter or tool assemblies, (collectively cutter assemblies), and related methods of use and manufacturing. The various embodiments of the cutter assemblies described herein may be used in tunnel boring machines (TBMs), earth pressure balance machines (EPBs), raise drilling systems, large diameter blind drilling systems, and other types of mechanical drilling and excavation systems.

The invention relates to a tunnel boring machine (103) in which the thrust cylinders (109) acting on a cutting wheel (106) are controlled by means of the direct input of coordinate values of a desired total center of pressure (151) in a coordinate system (154, 157) relating to the tunnel boring machine (103).