The Excavator: Everything You Need To Know

Introduce

Excavators are an essential piece of heavy equipment for most construction projects. Often referred to as diggers, excavators are used for all kinds of jobs like material handling, landscaping, demolition, mining projects, trenching, river dredging, and construction.

Types of excavator

1. Crawler excavators

Also known as general-purpose excavators, they have a bucket, boom, and arm to the front of the machine. This kind comes in a variety of sizes. It’s an all-around excavator which means it can be used to dig sites, demolish structures and surfaces, carry out trenching, and lift heavy objects.

     2.Wheeled excavators

Wheeled excavators are general-purpose excavators. The main difference is that instead of running on tracks, they run on wheels. An advantage of a wheeled excavator is that it can be driven from one job site to another even on a road, while crawler excavators running on tracks are usually carried on a trailer for long-distance travel.

     3. Mini excavators

A mini excavator, also known as a compact excavator, is a versatile piece of heavy equipment characterized by its small size and maneuverability. These machines typically weigh between 1,000 and 20,000 pounds, making them ideal for navigating tight spaces and performing tasks in confined areas. Mini excavators are commonly used in urban construction projects, landscaping, and utility installations due to their compact nature.

Usage

Excavators are used in many ways:

1. Digging of trenches, holes, foundations
2. Material handling
3. Brush cutting with hydraulic saw, mower, and stump removal attachments
4. Forestry work
5. Forestry mulching
6. Demolition with hydraulic claw, cutter and breaker attachments
7. Mining, especially, but not only open-pit mining
8. River dredging
9. Hydro excavation to access fragile underground infrastructure using high pressure water
10. Driving piles, in conjunction with a pile driver
11. Drilling shafts for footings and rock blasting, by use of an auger or hydraulic drill attachment
12. Snow removal with snowplow and snow blower attachments

Let's take a look at the video below to see how the excavator works.