Types of Diggers Available in Construction

The type of digger that you will need for a construction project will depend on various factors. Usually a digger is required when the amount of man-hours required to dig the necessary hole is excessive. Renting or buying a digger may well at times save you money and do the job more effectively. The size of digger you need will clearly be dependent on the nature of the job and equally importantly what size access to the site is available and how smooth or not the land is.

Diggers and mini diggers are often described in a more technical way as excavators. Each size of excavator then has its own categories and sub-categories, as there are constantly new developments and innovations in response to the wide range of different jobs that diggers are required for.

Compact excavators or mini diggers are generally between two and six tonnes in weight and are more powerful than is at first obvious. This is especially true of the more modern versions, which come with advanced hydraulic systems to increase their strength. Another of their valuable features is their adaptability and mobility in comparison to their larger counterparts. Most models of mini digger excavator can rotate around 360 degrees giving maximum freedom to the operator and often saving time and money, as many jobs will be quicker due to not having to constantly reposition the excavator.

The size and mobility of mini diggers also means they are ideal for smaller sites, perhaps with limited access and where you may have to work in a tight space. Mini diggers are ideal for jobs such as digging ditches, setting up pools or ponds, trenching for pipes and cables, digging foundations for extensions and general landscaping jobs.

There are many good reasons for picking a mini digger over a larger one when practicable such as: lower purchase or renting costs, lower maintenance costs, easier controls and simpler attachments of accessories. Highly regarded brand names include JCB, Komatsu, Caterpillar, Hitachi, Volvo and Kubota.

Many of the larger categories of excavator perform the same roles as their more compact siblings but on larger scale and where the access is unbridled. There are though some specialised larger diggers such as those known as long reach excavators. As the name suggests these vehicles have extra long arms allowing them to fulfil tasks such as demolition or reaching to the higher floors of tall building sites. Old-style demolition with huge balls on the end of cables can clearly be somewhat haphazard in terms of how the building actually comes down. A long reach excavator has much more finesse as it can reach to the upper floors of buildings and dismantle them in a safer and more refined way.

Other larger excavators are used for work such as road building, road maintenance and larger construction jobs. They are often equipped with a hammer, a shovel and other accessories. They often have names such as dredger excavators, trench diggers and foundation excavators, dependant on the primary intention of the design.

The monsters in the field are often known as dragline excavators and bucket wheel excavators and are often used for larger construction projects, civil engineering and mining. The dragline excavator operates a large bucket by a system of ropes, cables and chains. Bucket wheel excavators consist of a large wheel with bucket and scoop attachments designed to collect earth and deliver it usually to some kind of conveyor belt or grader. Some of these machines weigh as much as 13,000 tonnes and can take as long as five years to make. Digger designs are always evolving so check out the latest developments if you are considering buying or renting one.