Abstract
The common design of the bucket wheel drive mechanism in some bucket wheel excavators (BWE) consists of a gearbox and a hollow shaft, while the bucket wheel is supported by the axle passing through the hollow shaft. Improper maintenance and inadequate elimination of axis misalignment of the hollow shaft and the bucket wheel axle are the main causes of excavator failure and axle fracture. The paper examines the causes of bucket wheel axle fractures. Experimental testing of the chemical composition and mechanical properties of the material used to make the bucket wheel axle and metallographic inspections of the fracture surfaces in the bucket wheel axle by means of electronic and light microscope carried out in the first part of the paper have shown that there are no significant inhomogeneities and errors in the material of the axle. The second part of the paper presents the FEM analysis of influences of disturbances on the manner of support of the bucket wheel axle on the fracture. It shows that the negative influences of support of the axle reflected through the increase in the stress concentration and occurence of the initial crack are the main causes of the axle fracture.
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