Excavator Buckets

Design & simulation solutions for excavator buckets.

Excavator buckets must perform effectively, be durable and meet the specific needs of the application, taking into consideration bucket capacity and shape, weight and balance and the expected wear and tear.

Simulation can help to address these issues and more, providing detailed insight into how excavator bucket designs will perform under a wide range of operating conditions.

Maximising Capacity

Increasing the bucket capacity requires an increase in size of the bucket, however a larger bucket will increase the weight and affect the machine efficiency and performance (slower cycle times, excess fuel consumption etc).

Rocky DEM allows for simulating material movement inside the bucket and can help optimise the bucket shape to maximise material capacity without increasing weight unnecessarily. By simulating the filling and emptying processes, you can identify the optimal bucket design for handling a certain volume of material while minimising excess weight that would put strain on the machine.

Understanding Operational Loads

Excavator buckets face tough operating conditions, including abrasive materials or wet, sticky materials. With varying bucket dimensions for each design and application, ensuring the bucket shape and construction is fit for purpose is extremely difficult, often leading to excessive bucket wear and premature failures.

Ansys Rocky has the ability to simulate the interaction between the bucket and a wide variety of materials (e.g., soil, sand, gravel, rock). By simulating how different materials behave when scooped up by the bucket, you can fine-tune the bucket’s shape and edge design to achieve better material retention, minimise spillage, and improve digging performance. It helps you assess how different geometries—such as the angle of the bucket or the curvature of the sides—affect material handling.

Predicting Wear Life

Traditionally, engineers have relied on in-field experience to attempt to design for wear life, however with the wide variety of bulk materials experienced in the field, coupled with non uniform operators, this method is prone to negative wear patterns and rogue operators modifying buckets. This can result in bucket failures, non specified power requirements and costly downtime.

Ansys Rocky can simulate the wear effects of different materials (e.g., abrasive materials like rock or hard clay) on the bucket’s surfaces. By simulating repeated interactions between the bucket and abrasive materials, you can identify areas that experience the most wear and tear. The simulation can also help determine the best placement for wear-resistant materials (such as hardened steel or other coatings) in high-stress areas.

Optimising Life Span

Excavator buckets are large and heavy with unique wear characteristics based on excavator type and bulk material. If wear plates are not specified correctly, it will lead to costly downtime, premature bucket failure and inefficient operation.

Ansys Rocky shear wear analysis will provide accurate prediction of wear plates and surface wear, allowing engineers to test multiple configurations and locations of wear plates. This will lead to reduced manufacturing cost, reduced downtime and higher operational efficiency for customers.

Drag Reduction

For optimal power draw the shape of the bucket should follow the engagement teeth through the material – designs that are not shaped correctly will cause increased power draw and excessive bucket wear on the heel.

Ansys Rocky enables engineers to accurately capture the bucket motion through various materials, providing qualitative data for critical design decisions prior to manufacture.

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