Coal Mining Bucket Wheel Machine

This amateur video shows a bucket wheel excavator working at a coal mine in Western Germany. Bucket-wheel excavators (BWEs) are heavy equipment used in surface mining and civil engineering. The primary function of BWEs is to act as a continuous digging machine in large-scale open pit mining operations. What sets BWEs apart from other large-scale mining equipment, such as bucket chain excavators, is their use of a large wheel consisting of a continuous pattern of buckets used to scoop material as the wheel turns. They are among the largest vehicles ever constructed.