Machine Selection Criteria for Mechanical Excavation of Natural Materials

Challenging with the nature is not easy but an important and necessary for the modern life. One of the main problems in nature is an excavability of materials such as soil and rock. Mechanical tools such as Tunnel Bor-ing Machines (TBM), Earth Pressure Balance Machine (EPB), roadheader, excavators etc, should be reliable and economical to be used for excavating natural materials. Thus, before begin to facing with nature; reliable and optimum mechanical-technological tools should be selected to excavate the materials in the field. Machine selection criteria for excavating the natural materials depend on various parameters that could be listed as ma-chine specifications; such as material hardness, size and type of cutters and also natural material properties like hardness, strengths and brittleness of rock and soil materials. In this paper, machine selection criteria for exca-vation of natural materials were discussed.