CRCHI Unveils Fully Hydraulic Heavy-Duty Robot for Automated TBM Cutter Replacem
November 05,2026
Fully Hydraulic Heavy-Duty Cutter-Changing Robot (animation)
In shield tunneling, cutter inspection and replacement can consume more than 30% of the overall construction schedule. The traditional method relies on workers entering the pressurized chamber to change cutters — an extremely hazardous operation, with nearly 70% of shield-tunneling safety accidents directly linked to manual cutter changes. Sending personnel into the chamber not only carries major safety risks and cumbersome procedures, but also directly constrains the continuous advance of the tunneling operation.
To address the high-risk cutter-changing conditions of large-diameter shields, CRCHI has introduced a fully hydraulic heavy-duty tool-changing robot. Composed of a heavy-duty robotic arm, a gripper, an integrated cutter seat, a storage bin, a tool-transfer system and a coordinated control system, the equipment is suited to shield machines of 9 meters in diameter and above, enabling machines to replace humans in cutter inspection and automatic replacement.
Entering the Cutter Seat
The robot can complete the entire standardized sequence — cutterhead positioning, pressure adjustment, chamber opening, in-chamber washing, old-cutter removal, tool transfer and new-cutter installation — without any personnel entering the high-risk excavation chamber, eliminating the safety risks of pressurized-chamber work at the source.
Fully Hydraulic Heavy-Duty Actuator
Equipped with a fully hydraulic heavy-duty robotic arm and a multi-point synchronized locking gripper, it delivers an end-load capacity of up to 400 kg, meeting the load requirements for disassembling and assembling heavy disc cutters.
Multi-Sensor High-Precision Positioning
Relying on multi-sensor fusion positioning technology, the end-effector achieves positioning accuracy of less than 1 mm, enabling precise alignment of cutter holes and ensuring reliable assembly and disassembly.
Tool-Grab Test
Efficient Automated Cutter Change
The equipment achieves a cutter-change coverage of up to 88%, compressing the replacement time for a single cutter to 30 minutes, greatly reducing downtime waiting for cutter changes and improving the continuity of shield tunneling.
Integrated Turnkey Operation Solution
Integrating pressure control, in-chamber washing, tool transfer and coordinated control, it can complete the full process of online cutter condition detection, in-chamber cleaning, and cutter assembly, disassembly and locking — supporting unmanned autonomous operation inside pressurized chambers.
The complete cutter-changing robot removes people from the high-pressure, dangerous shield excavation chamber, with the entire disassembly, transfer and assembly process running automatically, balancing operational safety and construction efficiency.
Walking Out of the Chamber
The first-generation cutter-changing robot has already been field-tested on the Guangzhou Haizhuwan Tunnel project, where the shield excavation diameter is 15.07 meters. A live test of the heavy-duty cutter-changing robot for super-large-diameter shields was completed in May 2023, fully validating the feasibility of in-chamber automated operation. Going forward, the second-generation cutter-changing robot will further verify the comprehensive performance of automated cutter changes in pressurized environments.
From workers risking pressurized-chamber entry to the robot performing autonomous in-chamber cutter changes, the fully hydraulic heavy-duty cutter-changing robot directly targets the high-risk pain points of shield construction, providing intelligent equipment support for the safe, continuous advance of super-large-diameter shields.
Source : www.51cm.org
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Tags : CRCHI cutter-changing robot TBM shield
