The brief introduction to cutter suction dredgers

Cutter suction dredgers are widely used in port, waterway, and reclamation projects. The distance from the dredging to the mud discharge field of the cutter suction dredger is generally shorter than that of the trailing suction dredger. The biggest advantage of using a suction dredger is the ability to obtain an accurate digging profile.

Cutter suction dredgers are basically suitable for digging various types of soil, of course, it also depends on the purchase of cutting power. Suction dredgers are available in a wide range of types and sizes, and the cutterhead power can range from a minimum of 20 KW to a maximum of about 4000 KW. However, the dredging depth is generally limited, the maximum dredging depth is 25~30m, and the minimum dredging depth usually depends on the draft of the hull (flat-bottomed boat).

The cutter suction dredger originated in the United States. In 1884, the first cutter suction dredger was used in Oakland, a port city in western California, USA. This cutter suction dredger is equipped with hydraulic cutter heads and is used to dredge sand and rock. The diameter of the mud delivery pipe is 500 mm, and the diameter of the mud pump blade is 1.8m. The main disadvantage of its design is that the reamer head is prone to jamming. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, cutter suction dredgers were developed. For example, the Beta cutter suction dredger was built for the Chicago Dredging Company in 1896. With a draft of 1.95 meters and a beam length of 12 meters, this dredger was the largest cutter suction dredger at that time. The Beta has two independent dredge pumps and is fitted with 850 mm diameter suction pipes, each divided into three 500 mm-diameter pipe sections. A reamer head with a diameter of 1500 mm is installed vertically at each nozzle. The rotation speed of the cutter head is 12 r/min.

After the dredger was working on the Mississippi River for 2 years, the cutter head was replaced with a water exciter. At that time, this method was often used in the design of cutter suction dredgers. The cutter suction dredger became the main force in the dredging industry in the United States, just as the chain bucket dredger played the same role in Europe at that time.