Hi all,

I had read that when there were news around for the rebirth of The Robbins Company, the management had mentioned a rectangular tunnel boring machine.

I think later there were news posted about trials in some mine.

Finally I have seen something about this at the website of Robbins. It is named "Mine Development Machine". Although it still talks about tunnelling:

"The Mine Development Machine (MDM) is a type of non-circular tunnel boring machine (TBM) developed for use in underground mining in rock up to 200 MPa UCS, particularly for long access tunnels and development drifts. Unlike traditional rock TBMs that bore a circular cross section tunnel, the MDM utilizes a reciprocating cutterhead to bore a rectangular cross section tunnel with a flat invert."

The machine uses the model number MDM5000. To me, it looks like more a mining machine than a tunnel boring machine intended to excavate transportation and utility tunnels.

What do you think?

https://www.robbinstbm.com/products/mining-machines/mine-development-machine/