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An 'excavator' is an engineering vehicle consisting of an articulated arm (boom, stick), bucket and cab mounted on a pivot (a rotating platform, like a Lazy Susan) atop an undercarriage with tracks or wheels. Their design is a natural progression from the steam shovel.

Contents

Usage

Configurations

Terminology

Education

Gallery

Major manufacturers

See also

Types of excavator

Other

External links

Usage

Excavators are used in many roles:

★ Digging of trenches, holes, foundations

★ Material handling

★ Brush cutting with hydraulic attachments

★

★ Demolition

★ General grading/landscaping

★ Heavy lift, e.g. lifting and placing of pipes

★ Mining, especially, but not only open-pit mining

★ River dredging

Configurations

Excavators come in a wide variety of sizes. The smaller ones are called a mini-excavator or compact excavator. One manufacturer's largest model weighs 84,980 kg (187,360 lb) and has a maximum bucket size of 4.5 m³ (5.9 yd³). The same manufacturer's smallest mini-excavator weighs 1470 kg (3240 lb), has a maximum bucket size of 0.036 m³ (0.048 yd³) and the width of its tracks can be adjusted to 89 cm (35 inches). Another company makes a mini excavator that will fit through a doorway with tracks that can be adjusted to only 70 cm (28 inches) wide.
In recent years, hydraulic excavator capabilities have expanded far beyond excavation tasks. With the advent of hydraulic powered attachments such as a breaker, a grapple or an auger, the excavator is frequently used in many applications other than excavation. Many excavators feature quick-attach mounting systems for simplified attachment mounting, dramatically increasing the machine's utilization on the jobsite. Excavators are usually employed together with loaders and bulldozers. Most wheeled versions, and smaller, compact excavators have a small backfill (or dozer-) blade. This is a horizontal bulldozer-like blade attached to the undercarriage and is used for pushing removed material back into a hole.

Terminology

Excavators are also called 'diggers' and '360-degree excavators', sometimes abbreviated simply to a '360'. Tracked excavators are sometimes called 'trackhoes' by analogy to the backhoe.
Even though the 'back' in backhoe refers to the action of the bucket (which pulls "back" toward the machine) and not the location of the shovel, excavators are also occasionally referred to as 'fronthoes' .

Education

The National Association of Heavy Equipment Training Schools (NAHETS), established 2002, uses excavator training schools and circuilum as a method to test and train users in the ability of excavator use.

Gallery

Major manufacturers

★ CNH website

★ New Holland

★ O&K

★ Ammann-Yanmar: website

★ Bobcat Company

★ Case CE

★ Caterpillar Inc.

★ Doosan Infracore (formerly Daewoo Heavy Industries & Machinery)

★ Hidromek

★ Hitachi Construction Machinery

★ Hydrema: website

★ Hyundai Heavy Industries

★ JCB

★ Kobelco

★ Komatsu

★ lbxco: website

★ Liebherr

★ The Manitowoc Company

★ Mitsubishi Heavy Industries

★ Mustang Manufacturing: website

★ Poclain

★ Terex Corporation

★ Volvo Construction Equipment

See also

Types of excavator

★ Backhoe loader

★ Bucket-wheel excavator

★ Compact excavator

★ Drag line excavator

★ Long reach excavator

★ Skid steer

★ Steam shovel

★ Suction excavator

Other

★ Bulldozer

★ Civil Engineering

★ Engineering Vehicles

★ National Association of Heavy Equipment Training Schools – US educational organisation

★ Mining Simulation

External links

★ Excavator Specifications and Comparisons

★ Excavator Specifications

★ VRML Simulation of an Excavator, Tower Crane, and Dumptruck

★ Configure a Hydraulic Excavator – from the official Caterpillar website

★ NIOSH Publication: Preventing Injuries When Working With Hydraulic Excavators and Backhoe Loaders

★ Excavator Simulation