cutterhead

1 7.2

A rotating part of a machine that holds blades to cut material

noun

Specialized

: cabezal

The toothed cutterhead will carve through about 900 feet of sandstone on the journey to West River Parkway.

Examples

As her 886-ton cutterhead revolves at about one rotation per minute, 260 spinning and stationary teeth chew the soil before her.
The required lengths and geologic conditions presented construction challenges for the contractors in the areas of machine guidance and navigation, slurry removal, cutter wear, and cutterhead design.

Academic text (1996)
The fine-grained sedimentary rock units were considered amenable to mechanical excavation using hardened pick or tooth-type cutterhead designs.

Academic text (1996)
Nozzles on her cutterhead spray saliva-like conditioners that transform the soil into the consistency of toothpaste.

Surface Forms

cutterhead singular

cutterheads plural

Morphology

cutterhead = cutter + head (transparent) = cutter + head

The compound clearly names a 'head' (part) that carries or relates to a 'cutter', so the meaning follows straightforwardly from its components.

Etymology

Cutterhead is simply a combination of cutter ('a tool or person that cuts') and head ('top part' or 'front'). So, a cutterhead is the top or rotating part of a machine that holds the blades to cut or shape material.