TAIL SEAL STRUCTURE OF SHIELD MACHINE

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable welding of a tail seal to easily and securely fix it by using a noncombustible sheet instead of combustible filter cloth to be caught by a wire brush when the tail seal is constituted of the wire brush. SOLUTION: A shield machine 10 is moved forward at the front end thereof while circularly excavating ground G and a segment 20 is assembled at the inner periphery of the rear end part and a backfill material 26 is charged between the segment 20 and the inner periphery of the excavation hole. The basal end part 28a of the tail seal 28 is fitted to the rear end of the shield machine 10 and the front end part 28b is brought into slidable contact with the outer periphery of the segment 20 to cut the backfill material off not to intrude in the shield machine 10. The tail seal 28 is chiefly constituted of a wire brush 30 and a noncombustible sheet 34 is put into the wire brush 30.