Abstract
The relevance of the work is due to the need of the design departments involved in the design of hydraulic excavators in techniques that reduce the mass of excavators while providing the required technological capabilities. Existing methods are aimed at determining the size of working equipment on the condition of providing a given working area. The methods are based on an algorithm for calculating the boundaries of the working area for the input dimensions of the boom, stick and bucket, if the obtained boundaries do not correspond to the specified ones, then the dimen-sions of the equipment are adjusted and the calculations are repeated. The boundaries of the working zone determined by these algorithms do not take into account the power capabilities - the bucket can be at a given point, but the realized forces on the teeth do not ensure separation of the rock. The article discusses the methodology in which possible digging efforts are calculated at all points where the bucket can be located. Results. For a hydraulic excavator with working equipment “direct shov-el”, a mathematical model for calculating digging forces, an algorithm and a program in algorithmic language have been developed to determine possible forces in the elements of the working equipment.