Effect of pick working angle on the cutting performance of a cutting head

During the excavation of a roadway, the drilling speed of a cutting head is low and the cutting load is excessive. To solve these problems, a spatial mechanical model of a pick was established. Then, the drilling process and rock breaking mechanism of the pick were analyzed using the numerical simulation software LS-DYNA. By investigating the relationship between the pick working angle and the cutting load, a reasonable range for the working angle was obtained. Based on this range, the pick lacing arrangements and working angle of the cutting head were optimized, and a cutting experiment was carried out to assess that optimization. The results show that the cutting force of the pick and the cutting force change value both increase with increasing elevation and inclination angles. In contrast, the feeding force of the pick and the feeding change value increase with increasing elevation angle, but decrease with the increasing inclination angle. It can be concluded that the reasonable choice ranges for the elevation and inclination angle are 40–50° and 20–40°, respectively. Meanwhile, a contrastive analysis was performed for the cutting load of the cutting head with un-optimized and optimized pick working angles. The cutting torque and feeding force for the optimized cutting head were reduced by 8.2 and 16.08%, respectively, and the wear on the pick was significantly reduced.