Impact of Design Parameters on the Efficiency of Loading Organs with Gathering Stars of the Roadheaders

Modern roadheaders of selective action are mostly equipped with loading organs with gathering stars, which have simpler drive structure and increased reliability. On the one hand, the process of traffic flow formation by loading organs with gathering paws is well studied, and on the other hand, the variety of its designs suggest of the manufacturers’ attempts to find empirically optimal parameters of loading organs of road headers. As a result of experimental studies performed at SRSPU (NPI), Russia it has established that under certain conditions a large-lump material of the pile may be converted into a fluidized state, which reduces the load on the shaft of gathering star. In addition, when designing of loading organs of road headers, it is advisable to choose power capacity as an objective function, and take additional criteria into account: angles of gathering star rays “meeting” with conveyor and the front edge of the pile. The analysis of built Power capacity–Performance diagram showed that an increase in the number of rays of gathering star reduces the influence of other parameters of loading organ. Thus, for a multi-beam gathering star, shape of rays and their setting angle cease to play a decisive role in the formation of loads in the drive, as the shape of gathering paw for similar loading organs, and good discharge capacity on receiving conveyor of the road header shall be ensured.