Construction and Transportation Heavy Equipment Types

1. Construction and Transportation Heavy Equipment Types

2. Heavy construction equipment is used for various purposes on large projects. The selection of different types of heavy equipment depends on the size of the job and the economics of the project. These make the building process easier and faster. • Types of Heavy Construction Equipment

3. 1. Excavators • Excavators are important and widely used equipment in the construction industry. Their general purpose is excavation, but other than that, they are also used for many purposes such as weight lifting, demolition, river dredging, tree cutting, etc. Excavators contain a long arm and a cabinet. A digging bucket is provided at the end of the long arm and the cabinet is the place provided for the machine operator. This entire cabin arrangement can be rotated up to 360o, which makes operation easy. Excavators are available in wheeled and tracked vehicles.

4. 2. Backhoe • The backhoe is another widely used equipment that is suitable for multiple purposes. The name itself says that the hoe arrangement is provided at the rear of the vehicle, while the loading bucket is provided at the front. This is very useful for digging trenches below machine level and loading, unloading and lifting of materials can be done with a front bucket.

5. 3. Dragline Excavator • The dragline excavator is another heavy equipment used in construction that is generally used for deeper excavations. It consists of a long boom and a digging bucket suspended from the top of the boom by a cable. For the construction of ports, for underwater excavations, the removal of sediments in bodies of water, etc. can be done with dragline excavator.

6. 4. Bulldozers • Bulldozers are another type of soil excavation equipment that is used to remove topsoil down to a specified depth. Dirt removal is done by the wide, sharp-edged metal plate on its front. This plate can be lowered and raised by hydraulic pistons. These are widely used for the removal of weak soils or rock strata, soil survey, etc.

7. 5. Graders • Motor graders also called motor graders are another type of equipment used in construction especially for road construction. It is mainly used to level the surface of the ground. It contains a horizontal blade between the front and rear wheels and this blade is lowered to the ground while working. The operating cab is provided on top of the rear axle arrangement. Motor graders are also used to remove snow or dirt from roads, to flatten the ground surface before laying the asphalt layer, to remove unnecessary soil layer from the ground, etc.

8. 6. Wheel scrapers • Wheel tractor scrapers are earth moving equipment used to flatten the soil surface by scrapping. The front contains a wheeled towing vehicle and the rear contains a scrapping arrangement, such as a horizontal front blade, a conveyor belt, and a dirt collection hopper. When the front blade is lowered to the ground and the vehicle moves, the blade begins to excavate the soil above the blade level and the excavated soil is collected into the hopper via the conveyor belt. When the hopper is full, the rear is lifted off the ground and the hopper is discharged into the earth chute.

9. 7. Trenchers • Trenchers or trenching machines are used to dig trenches in the ground and this is one of the construction and transportation heavy equipment types. These trenches are generally used for pipe laying, cable laying, drainage, etc. Trenching machines are available in two types, namely chain trenchers and wheel trenchers. Chain trenchers contain a fixed long arm around which the digging chain is provided. Wheeled trenchers contain a metal wheel with a digging tooth around it. For digging layers of hard soil, wheel trenchers are more suitable. Both types of trenchers are available in tracked and wheeled vehicle forms.

10. 8. Loaders • Loaders are used on the construction site to load the material onto dump trucks, trucks, etc. Materials can be excavated earth, demolition debris, raw materials, etc. A loader contains a large bucket at the front with a shorter swing arm. The loader may have tracks or wheels. Wheel loaders are widely used in sites, while crawler or crawler loaders are used in sites where wheeled vehicles cannot reach.