Excavators Explained

Excavators are vehicles used in the professions of construction, industrial and manufacturing. They are often referred to as a digger or a 360, which is an abbreviation of a 360 degree excavator. The undercarriage usually has wheels or tracks which allows movement. The cab is mounted on a pivot that rotates 360 degrees. There is an articulated arm (which consists of a boom) and a stick and also a bucket. They are considered to be the next generation of steam shovels of the past.

There are many types of excavators such as compact, dragline, steam, power, suction and long reach. They have many uses which includes: to dredge rivers, in mining, to do heavy lifting, for landscaping, in the demolition of houses or other buildings, in material handling, and to dig trenches and ditches. They come in various sizes, and the smallest are called compact or mini excavators. Tracked excavators are referred to as track hoes. The largest weigh over 185,000 lbs. while the smallest weigh a little more than 3,000 lbs. In the market today, there are excavators that can fit through a door in your home.

The basic structure in simplest terms is as follows. The cab is attached to the deck by pins which hold the gears that operate the tracks. The boom is also attached to the cab by large pins. The boom is attached to the stick, and the stick is attached to the bucket. Some excavators also come with a thumb that attaches to the bucket but it is not necessary for most jobs. Hydraulic cylinders are used to create lift for the boom and some booms are equipped with a swivel so it can operate independently of the cab. The stick provides length for the boom. Buckets are used for various reasons. Wide buckets are used to smooth out surfaces and make them even by filling dirt in the ground. Dig buckets have teeth on it to break into the ground. Buckets with the V shape are made with the sole purpose to penetrate frozen ground.

Recently, the capabilities of excavators have grown greatly beyond simple excavation tasks with a bucket. The inventions of hydraulic powered attachments such as the grapple, the auger and the breaker have expanded the utilization of excavators. On the jobsite, these excavators are usually used with bulldozers and loaders. Most of the smaller excavators come equipped with a small backfill blade which is connected to the undercarriage. It is used to push material that has been removed back into the hole. Before 1990, excavators had a hang-over counterweight that would hang off the back of the vehicle that would help provide more lifting power and force that would enable it to dig. This became aggravating and would restrict the vehicle from turning a full radius. However, in 1990 the Komatsu Engineering Company blueprinted a new excavator that removed the counterweight from its design. This became the world's first tight-tail swing excavator and is the most widely used model throughout the world today.