Manufacturers and Market
Few companies are willing or able to manufacture the massive, expensive gears required for BWEs. Unex, Czech Republic, still has the original casting forms, and is still able to manufacture BWEs. However, these machines were built to last indefinitely under continuous heavy use, and strip mining is now ecologically unpopular, so there is little demand for new machines. The manufacturers of BWEs and similar mining systems now receive some revenue from maintenance and refurbishing projects, but also produce large steel parts for other purposes. Current use of bucket-wheel excavators is mainly focused in the area of lignite (brown coal) mining for the production of electricity, mostly in Germany and East/Southeastern Europe. Unex has also made a BWE for extraction of diamonds from the Siberian permafrost. There are other manufacturers as well, Sandvik Mining and Construction, can offer systems for open pit mining.
Read more about this topic: Bucket-wheel Excavator
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