Determination of Rock Excavability Properties by Use of CCS Type Mini Disc Cutter

Linear cutting machine (LCM) tests are one of the most used laboratory test for determine of rock cuttability. Using the real disc cutters in this machine improve the reliability but this test method have some disadvantages. The basic disadvantage of the full-scale linear rock cutting test is that it requires too much manpower and large blocks of rock samples, which are usually difficult, too expensive, or impossible to obtain. For these reasons a new portable linear rock cutting (PLCM©) machine was developed in the Mining Engineering Department of Istanbul Technical University and supported by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK-112M859). In this new portable linear cutting machine, mini disc cutter were used for rock cutting tests. Mini disc cutter is smaller than real cutters but it has same properties with a real disc cutter. In this study for determine the reliability of PLCM relieved and unrelieved linear rock cutting tests were performed on same rock sample with newly developed machine PLCM© and LCM then tests results were compared. The result of these comparisons a good relationship was obtained between LCM and PLCM tests results.