Abstract: A tunneling machine intended to stably carry out gripper replacement by restricting the load imposed on gripper jacks for the main gripper as much as possible during excavation of an inclined shaft. Such a tunneling machine comprises (1) a main beam that extends along a tunnel wall, (2) a nose gripper disposed in front of the main beam for gripping the main beam against the wall of a pilot shaft and a main gripper disposed behind the main beam for gripping the main beam against the wall of a reamed shaft, (3) a main frame supported by the main beam so as to be slidable back and forth and supporting a cutter head at the front portion thereof, (4) a holding gripper (composed of a roof support, side support, vertical support) for gripping the main frame against the wall of the reamed shaft, (5) thrust jacks coupling the main frame to gripper shoes for the main gripper, and (6) retaining jacks coupling the main frame to a carrier.

Abstract: A cutterhead is supported at the front part of a main frame so as to incline at a specified angle with respect to a vertical plane. The main frame includes (i) a roof support disposed at a position corresponding to where a reaction force acts in the direction of the periphery of a tunnel against a force caused by rotation of the cutterhead, and (ii) a pusher for pushing the roof support toward the cutterhead resisting the reaction force.

Abstract: A device for fixing a disk cutter to the cutter head of a shield excavator, wherein a plurality of cylindrical cases (2) are provided on the face plate (1a) of the cutter head (1) rotatably disposed on the front part of the shield proper, bosses (3) are disposed to project face-to-face in each of said cases (2), U-shaped grooves (4a) of retainers (4) provided on both ends of a shaft (7) rotatably supporting the cutter proper (5) are fitted on the bosses (3) so that the cutter proper (5) is turned around the shaft (7) together with the retainer (4); a key block (10) is fixed to the open side of the U-shaped groove (4a) formed on said retainer (4); and the proper (5) is fixed to the case (2) with the boss (3) clamped by the key block (10) and the retainer (4). In this way, the cutter proper can be fixed to the case without forming insertion grooves therein.

Abstract: A shield type tunneling apparatus comprises: a shield body having in its front portion a cutter-head compartment for digging a tunnel through bedrock, the cutter-head compartment being rotatably driven by a driving unit; and a transporting means for discharging rock debris produced by the cutter-head compartment from a front area thereof to a rear area of the shield body. The tunneling apparatus is characterized in that: the cutter-head compartment is filled with water which buoys up the rock debris in the cutter-head compartment to enable the rock debris to easily enter the transporting means under the influence of rotational movement of the cutter-head compartment.