What are the 7 common heavy machinery types? Heavy machinery (also known as heavy equipment) refers to the heavy-duty machines used in the construction, forestry, agriculture, and mining industries. These machines are used to transport earth and other heavy materials and they may also drill, lift, grade, suction, pave, and compact.
Heavy Equipment’s History
Because heavy machinery is typically driven by gasoline, one may believe that construction machinery is a modern innovation. Heavy equipment, on the other hand, has been around since at least the first century. According to reports, the ancient Romans utilized cranes and other sorts of heavy machinery.
However, until the nineteenth century, most large machinery relied on human or animal power. The combine harvester and tractor were redesigned to use steam power with the invention of the portable steam-power engine. Later, heavy machinery used kerosene and ethanol engines, which were subsequently supplanted by diesel fuel or electric power.
Have you ever wondered why a bulldozer has tracks rather than wheels? This dates back to WWI, when tracked tanks used in the military.
Heavy Equipment Classification
Every day, hundreds of pieces of equipment power the construction, mining, and agricultural industries.
They are as follows:
- Tractors
- Loaders with skid steers
- Loaders for backhoes
- bunchers of fellers
- Harvesters
- Scrapers
- Haulers with articulation
- Pavers
- Drilling equipment
- Trenchers
- Cranes
- Planers for cold weather
- Draglines
- Rope shovels powered by electricity
- Mining shovels using hydraulics
- and a lot more
1. Excavators
Excavators are made up of a cab, a boom, a stick, and a bucket and other attachment. The cab is mounted on a rotating platform and has a track or wheeled undercarriage. Hydraulic excavators are available in a variety of sizes, with the smallest weighing slightly more than 2,000 pounds and the largest weighing more than two million pounds. Excavators are provided with buckets, but they can also be outfitted with hydraulic-powered attachments such as breakers, grapples, or augers.
Excavators perform a wide range of tasks, including:
- Digging
- Demolition
- Material movement
- Mulching
- Dredging of rivers
- Landscaping
- Mining in open pits
- removing brush
- Drilling
- removing snow
- and much more
2. Bulldozers
A bulldozer (also known as a crawler) is a continuous tracked tractor equipped with a metal plate known as a blade. The blade is use to propel enormous quantities of material, such as soil, sand, boulders, garbage, or even snow. There are three classification of blade: “S blades”, “U blades”, and “S-U blades. Since it is short and no side wings or lateral bend, the S-blade (straight blade) is use for precise grading. Because it is tall, curved, and has big side wings, the U blade (universal blade) can handle more material. The S-U (semi-u blade) is a combination of blades uses for pushing huge rocks. It is short, like the S blade, but unlike the S blade, it has a curve and side wings. However, the blade is less curved and the wings are smaller than the U blade. S-U blades are commonly in quarries.
Uses of a bulldozers:
- Construction
- Mining
- Forestry
- Clearing of land
- Road construction
- and much more
3. Graders with motors
The long blade of a motor grader (also known as a road grader or a grader) is use to grade (flatten and smooth) a road or surface.
And then, the motor grader, like the bulldozer, can be equipped with a rear attachment. Rippers, compactors, blades, and scarifiers are examples of attachments.
Graders are use for the following:
- Upkeep of dirt roads
- preparing roads for paving
- preparing soil or gravel surfaces for a construction foundation
4. Telehandlers
A telehandler (also known as a reach forklift or boom lift) is similar to a forklift but has a boom (Telescopic cylinder). The telehandler’s boom may extend forward and upward, offering it more adaptability than a forklift. At the end of the bottom, a telehandlers are equip with attachments such as pallet fork, muck grab, bucket or winch.
Telehandlers are use for:
- Moving material from the ground or a trailer to a point where a forklift cannot reach, such as the top of a roof.
- When a crane is not accessible or appropriate for the job.
5. dumping trucks
A dump truck (also known as a dumper truck, tipper truck, or rock truck) is a vehicle use to transport materials from one site to another. Moreover, it is distinguished by its open-box bed, which is located at the back of the truck and is fitted with hydraulic rams that elevate the front of the bed to dump the material into the ground behind the truck.
Dump trucks are use for the following purposes:
- Definitely by moving and disposing of sand, pebbles, or demolition debris.
6. Compactors
In addition, there are three types of compactors: first (1) plate, second (2) “jumping jack’, lastly (3) road roller. A level grade requires the use of both the plate compactor (also known as a vibratory rammer) and the jumping jack. The jumping jack, on the other hand, has a smaller foot and may be use in narrow gaps. Road roller compactors are use to level the ground before laying stone or concrete foundation slabs.
7. Loader
Finally, a loader is a machine that scoops up and transports things like boulders, logs, snow, raw minerals, and demolition waste from one site to another (or to a dump truck or conveyor belt).
- Front-loading washer and dryer
- Loader with a bucket
- The front-end loader
- Payloader, and finally the
- The wheel loader
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