By investigating the failures of disc cutter and scraping cutter of shield machine, this thesis analyzes the main failures of shield machine cutters and the causes, which provides basis for research on the improvements of wear resistant performance of shield machine cutters. An analysis and a study is also made to the wear form and wear mechanism of the shield machine cutters and several suggestions are put forward on the improvement of wear resistant performance of shield machine cutters based on the working mechanism and the current use of shield machine cutters.