tunnel boring machine

English

A tunnel boring machine used to excavate the Gotthard Base Tunnel, the world's longest rail tunnel

A tunnel boring machine that was used at Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository

Noun

tunnel boring machine (plural tunnel boring machines)

1. (engineering) A large machine used to excavate tunnels with a circular cross section.
   • 2020 June 3, “Network News: Vote now to choose names of HS2 Tunnel Boring Machines”, in Rail, page 11:

     Images of the first two Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) under construction for HS2 were released on May 26.
     Each TBM is 170 metres long and weighs around 2,000 tonnes. Once in use, they will run non-stop for three and a half years, stopping only for Christmas and Bank Holidays.

Synonyms

• TBM
• tunneling machine

Related terms

• (tunnelling) shield

Translations

a large machine used to excavate tunnels with a circular cross section

• Bengali: টানেল বোরিং মেশিন (ṭanel bōriṅ meśin)
• Burmese: ဥမင်တူးဖောက်စက် (u.mangtu:hpaukcak)
• Catalan: tuneladora f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 潛盾機／潜盾机 (qiándùnjī), 盾構機／盾构机 (dùngòujī)

• Dutch: tunnelboormachine (nl) f, TBM f
• French: tunnelier (fr) m
• Galician: tuneladora f
• German: Tunnelbohrmaschine (de) f, TBM f
• Italian: fresa meccanica a piena sezione f, talpa (it) f, talpa meccanica f
• Japanese: 全断面トンネル掘進機 (ぜんだんめんトンネルくっしんき, zentanmen tonneru kusshinki)
• Kazakh: тоннел үңгілей қазу кешені (tonnel üñgılei qazu keşenı)
• Korean: 터널굴착기 (teoneolgulchakgi), 터널 전단면 굴착기 (teoneol jeondanmyeon gulchakgi)
• Persian: دستگاه حفاری تونل
• Portuguese: tuneladora f, tatuzão m (Brasil)
• Spanish: tuneladora f