Percussive cutting of hard rocks with point attack picks: dependency of specific energy consumption and number of blows per unit length of cut groove on impact energy and cutting parameters

The development of sustainable technological solutions for the non-blasting excavation of hard rocks remains at the forefront of efforts of many researchers and engineers worldwide. This paper discusses the applicability of the percussive cutting method with the use of point attack picks for hard rock excavation applications. Based on laboratory test results, regression models describing dependencies of the specific energy consumption and the number of blows per unit length of cut groove on the impact energy and cutting parameters were developed. Several hard rocks such as sandstone, granodiorite and dolomite samples with respective uniaxial compressive strengths of 139 MPa, 205 MPa and 79 MPa, were used in the cutting tests. The study has demonstrated that effective cutting of rocks used in the tests is possible if the single impact energy exceeds 20-30 Joules per mm of cut depth. The currently achievable maximum cutting speed is discussed.