Beliveinn Tech Excavation Drum

grabcad

The design leverages the fundamentals of extraction and excavation in a multidimensional manner. Normally, a reaction force from the surface is absent while collecting and extracting under such conditions. Radial forces acting upon the regolith fragment it into smaller drains, making it easier to gather through circular motion of the drum. The drum's design consists of multiple smaller parts or segments assembled together to form the drum. The design comprises three separate units working in tandem to collect regolith. Unit one: Helical cutters - The helical cutter operates on the principle of a knife or thread cutting through spiral blades. When the drum is rotated, the blade elements cut through the regolith, reducing the size of the particles and making them collectible. The cutter blades plow through the same material, collecting the regolith in the process. This enables the regolith to be crushed into smaller parts, and the blade pathway ensures maximum collection of regolith while minimizing losses during collection or operation. The helical cutter reduces regolith loss while depositing it back onto the belt system. Most of the regolith is fed onto the belt by straight cutters and suppliers. Unit two: Straight Deep cutters - The straight deep cutters are used for both collecting regolith and feeding it back from the drum to the belt system or extractor. The straight cutter allows a higher volume of regolith to leave the drum during reverse rotation. While the straight cutter loses material as dust and particles fall, it makes up for providing regolith onto the extractor. Unit three: Internal slide - The internal slide is used to push the regolith towards the straight cutter unit, minimizing loss from helical cutters and enabling efficient feeding of regolith by deep straight cutters onto the extraction unit. This reduces overall system losses. The internal slide pushes regolith towards the straight cutter in both directions of drum motion, further decreasing loss from the helical cutting unit. The combination of these three units provides the drum with specific features and better collecting efficiency. Furthermore, the design consists of smaller similar parts that can be assembled together to form a drum, making it easier to manufacture using simpler casting and sheet metal operations. Dimensions of the drum include: Length: 360 mm Maximum Diameter: 446.20 mm Volume of regolith captured by the drum: 38.94 litres Height of teeth for helical cutters: 21.56 mm (varying in width accordingly) Height of teeth for deep straight cutters: 40 mm Width of teeth for deep straight cutters: 82 mm