Big Brutus

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Rear view with 2 people and a normal size excavator in the background
Side view with excavators of normal size
Front view in back light

Big Brutus is the nickname of the Bucyrus-Erie 1850-B, the world's second largest backhoe at the time it was built . It is unique, a local industrial monument half a kilometer south of West Mineral in the US state of Kansas , and the largest cable excavator with a shovel that can still be viewed.

Construction and operation

The Pittsburg and Midway Coal Mining Company (P&M) , now part of the Chevron Corporation , commissioned the Bucyrus Erie Company to build the 1850-B electric shovel excavator in 1962 . The order value at the time was 6.5 million US dollars . The individual parts weighing up to 109 t (120 tn sh. ) Were produced in the Bucyrus Erie factory in Milwaukee and transported to Hallowell in 150 railroad cars. When the assembly started in June 1962, up to 52 workers were employed for 11 months. Operations began in May 1963 at Pittsburg and Midway Mine 19 . At that time it was the world's second largest backhoe in operation. The machine was named Big Brutus by Emil Sandeen, the manager of Mine 19.

The electric backhoe was designed to remove overburden six to 21 m (20-69 ft) thick over a relatively thin seam of bituminous coal in the open pit . With one "bite" it moved 69 m³ (90 cu yd ) or about 122 t (135 to sh. ). One work cycle (fill - swivel - unload - swivel back) lasted 50 seconds. He could work an area of ​​about 2.6 km² (1 mi²) per year. The three-phase current supplied was supplied by the Empire District Electric Company's own transformer station via long connection cables. There was a rotating converter in the electric rope excavator and the motors - as was common at the time - operated with direct current. The main drive consisted of two DC motors , each with an output of 2,610 kW (3,500 hp ). The energy efficiency has been increased because the eight direct current motors for the bucket, each with an output of 373 kW (500 hp), fed back the braking energy during the downward movement of the bucket. The operating team consisted of three people: the excavator operator at the front right corner of the machine, the oiler who supervised the automatic lubrication, and the “groundsman”. The latter operated the four crawler tracks from a lower platform and also made sure that the route was unobstructed. He received his instructions from the excavator operator by phone or horn signal. For automatic level compensation in the event of unevenness, so that the superstructure was always level, the crawler units are each connected to the substructure via a hydraulic cylinder with a stroke of 168 cm (66 in). Between the mobile substructure and the swiveling superstructure there is a roller ring with a diameter of 13.7 m (45 ft), the 90 cylindrical rollers of which have a diameter of 40.64 cm (16 in). The backhoe excavator was mainly in use 24 hours a day, seven days a week and was operated in three shifts. After the spoil was removed, the coal was recovered from two 46 and 53 cm (18 and 21 in) thick seams with smaller equipment. This was then used in a local power plant to generate electricity. With the removed overburden, the pit was then backfilled and the surface renatured.

End of duty and museum

Although the electric boom excavator was designed for a service life of 25 years, operation was discontinued after just 11 years in April 1974. The operation had become unprofitable and the environmental regulations were stricter. Between 1963 and 1974 he had removed an estimated 8 million t (9 million tn sh.) Of coal. The electricity bill for the last month of operation was US $ 27,000. Attempts to sell the excavator to other mines failed. To move the excavator as a whole to another location, it was too big and dismantling and rebuilding at another location would have been too expensive. Electrical parts were sold to other mining companies.

In 1983, the Pittsburg and Midway Coal Mining Company donated the excavator and 6.5 hectares of land around the excavator in West Mineral to the non-profit Big Brutus Incorporated , which is maintaining the excavator for posterity. Thousands of hours were spent by volunteers to restore the excavator, which was rusting ten years ago, to a handsome condition. In 2006 the next complete painting was carried out in orange and black. In the past, people aged 13 and over could climb the boom in suitable weather, but this has been prohibited for safety reasons since 2004. Smaller opencast mining machines are set up around Big Brutus . A small mining museum was built at the entrance to the machine park, where you can see more information and photos and a film from earlier times, as well as models of other mining machines. The museum has around 35,000 to 40,000 visitors annually, with the main season between Memorial Day (May 30th) and Labor Day (1st Monday in September). The opening times vary according to the season. During the year there are various events and festivals, such as a meeting of former miners on the first weekend in June ( Miner's Day Reunion ). Big Brutus can be seen from afar in the vast Kansas plain . The last working pit is now a lake in the immediate vicinity of Big Brutus . In 1987 it was declared a local technical landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) . Since the start of the ASME Mechanical Engineering Landmark Program in 1971, it was the tenth local attraction to be included in the program, along with 88 national and 23 international attractions.

To this day, the Bucyrus – Erie 1850-B is the sixth or seventh largest excavator in the world. Marion Power Shovel's largest backhoe excavator ever, Marion 6360 , called "Captain", was scrapped in 1992. It had a bucket capacity of 140 m³. Dragline excavators with walking gear and bucket wheel excavators are even larger .

Technical specifications

description Metric US
Administrative matters
Manufacturer Bucyrus-Erie Company
model 1850-B
Number produced 1
Operating team 3 persons
construction time June 1962 – May 1963
Planned duration of use 25 years
Actual usage time May 1963 – April 1974 (age 11)
price 6.5 million USD (1962)
Excavator
Working weight ~ 4,990 t ~ 11,000,000 lb
Total height 49 m 160 ft
boom 46 m 150 ft
Shovel handle 27 m 88 ft
Maximum pouring distance 46 m 150 ft
Maximum dumping height 31 m 101 ft
Maximum depth 21 m 69 ft
Base frame of the superstructure 17.6 m × 24.2 m 58 ft × 79 ft 6 in
Roller bearing diameter
(between superstructure and substructure) 		13.7 m 45 ft
Cylindrical rollers 90 pieces, D = 40.64 cm 90 pieces; D = 16 in
spoon
capacity 69 m³ 90 cu yd
corresponds roughly to ( overburden ) 122 t 135 to sh.
Spoon holder Four 8.89 cm thick ropes 4 x 3½ inches
Spoon cycle time 50 s
landing gear
Level regulation 4 hydraulic cylinders
Cylinder diameter 106.7 cm 42 in
Cylinder stroke 167.6 cm 66 in
Hydraulic oil for the cylinders 12,113 l 3,200 gal-u
landing gear 4 pairs of chains
Chain width 1.67 m 5 ft 6 in
Weight of a drive 911, kg 2,008 lb
Maximum speed 0.35 km / h (5.9 m / min) 0.22 mph
Electrical equipment
tension 7,200 V
Amperage 1,200 A
Power consumption (normal operation) 5,593 kW 7,500 hp
Power consumption (peak value) 11,185 kW 15,000 hp
Main engines
(output power) 		2 × 2,610 kW DC motor (= 5,220 kW) 2 × 3,500 hp
Bucket motor-generators
(output power) 		8 × 373 kW DC motor (= 2,984 kW) 8 × 500 hp
Landing gear motors
(output power) 		4 × 186 kW (= 744 kW) 4 × 250 hp

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Kansas City Section: BIG BRUTUS - Regional Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark - West Mineral, Kansas ( Memento of July 3, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 438 kB), September 1987, asme.org
  2. ↑ 1850-B Information Hi-Lights , worldslargestthings.com, Version: August 25, 2004

Web links

Commons : Big Brutus  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 37 ° 16 '24.7 "  N , 94 ° 56' 17.4"  W.