Analytical Study on Influence of Shape of Bucket Cutting Edge of a Wheel Loader on Performance Parameters and Load Transfer

The World has witnessed many groundbreaking innovations in the field of electronics, information technology, agriculture, finance and construction. Construction is an important area where a nation generates a major portion of its revenue. The construction machines like wheel loader, backhoe, excavator and articulated dump truck play a major role in keeping the work sight running and productive. Productivity is the most significant factor in business and every machine plays an important role in it. A wheel loader is mainly used for truck-loading material in a construction site. Apart from that, a loader is also used for operations like grading and front-back dragging. Some operations like corner pry and grading, impose extreme loads on underlying structures like lift arms and linkage. In these operations, cutting edge of the bucket is very crucial as it is highly involved. Cutting edge is welded at the front/bottom part of the bucket. With different shapes and types, the cutting edge contributes to overall capacity of the bucket. Bucket volumes vary with different shapes of cutting edges as per ISO-7546. This paper focuses on the study of influence of different shape of cutting edge on some of the important performance parameters of a wheel loader like breakout force, tip load and lift capacity. Additionally, shape of the cutting edge also contributes to the durability of other structures. Depending on the type of bucket cutting edge deployed, there is a significant impact on load transfer into the underlying structures. This study is also intended towards establishing an analytical correlation of the shape of cutting edge with various loads during adverse operations like grading, dragging and corner pry through reaction force analyses and Creo simulation. The objective of this study is to achieve an optimized design of a cutting edge based on its impact on performance parameters and load transfer.