Directions for increasing conical picks’ durability

Conical picks are cutting tools used in many branches, in particular in the mining, road construction and building branch. Contact with the excavated face causes their constant wear, which is an unfavorable but unavoidable process. Milling heads of working machines are equipped with several dozen conical picks, and mining in abrasive or hardly accessible rocks can reduce their life to a few hours. It is in the interest of both users and producers to increase their durability, as tools replacement, apart from purchase and logistic costs, results in machine downtimes. In the article various solutions of conical picks, their construction, dimensions and materials used have been discussed. Technical procedures applied to increase the durability of conical picks and their regeneration as well as methods of extending the life of picks working in difficult conditions have been presented. Two author’s methods of extending the life of picks working in difficult conditions, covered by a patent application, have also been presented. The first solution involves ensuring an uninterrupted rotational movement of the pick in the holder. Patent claims include an innovative method of equipping the additional sleeve integrated with the holder with a rotational bearing, which enables a continuous rotation of the pick. The tool equipped with a bearing generates much lower movement resistance than the standard mounting. The holder is designed to mount classic commercial picks. What is important, the pick replacement does not require interfering with the bearing assembly. The second solution concerns the manner of protecting the working part of the pick by means of a special element made of an abrasion resisting material. This element is the pick tip, the geometry of which varies from the commonly applied posts made of sintered carbide. In this solution, the tip has a shape corresponding to the form of conical pick’s wear, which causes that its steel body does not wear. Moreover, there is a possibility of applying a mobile, rotational mounting of the tip to the body.