Development of new bucket design for continuous excavators with the aime of modular cutting elements integration

By adopting a strategy for the energetics development in the Republic of Serbia by 2015, an increasing need for the production of electrical energy, with greater participation of Serbian energy resources, has been recognized. Thus defined developmental trend of electrical energy production can be realized with certain investments in the purchase of modern mining equipment and the revitalization of the existing one, which has been used for around 35 years on average. The most significant fuel in Serbia is still coal which represents 85% of total primary energy supply. Bucket-wheel excavators and bucket-chain excavators represent the basic machines in Excavator-Conveyer-Spreader system. Coal and tailings mining begins with the operating element of the excavator, i.e. teeth or bucket. The working process is performed by the bucket and its teeth which cut the material from the massif. The aim of the research is to reconstruct the bucket of bucket-chain excavator and bucket-wheel excavator so that modular cutting teeth can be installed and used. Thus, more successful adaptation and greater flexibility of the teeth at various operating conditions and under different technological procedures and mining methods can be achieved. From the aspect of tribology, i.e. abrasive wear, modular cutting teeth are well designed, which has been proved by the last project results.