Dust suppression arrangement for heavy excavation equipment

摘要

Abstract An off-road excavation apparatus comprises a chassis having a length that extends from a front end to a rear end of the off-road excavation apparatus. The chassis also has a width oriented perpendicular to the length. A cutting component is carried by the chassis, the cutting component including a drum on which a plurality of teeth are mounted. The drum is configured to rotate about a central axis. The off-road excavation apparatus also includes a dust suppression arrangement for reducing the amount of dust emitted by the off-road excavation apparatus during mining operations. The dust suppression arrangement includes a vacuum for drawing dust laden air from a region adjacent to the drum, an air cleaner for removing dust from the air drawn from the region adjacent the drum by the vacuum, and a flexible dust barrier extending along at least a portion of the drum. The flexible dust barrier has a construction that is pervious to debris generated by the cutting component. The flexible dust barrier has an upper end and a free lower end configured to extend to a location near a ground surface when the cutting component is in an excavating position. The flexible dust barrier has a height of at least 15 inches (approximately 381mm) between the upper end and the free lower end.