Types of Heavy Construction Equipment

Every construction project requires cutting, moving and hauling of the ground as well as other building supplies and machinery for concrete and compaction. Small projects typically involve manual labour using standard tools.

However, huge projects with large amounts of work require the utilisation of heavy construction machinery. Additionally, it guarantees quick construction and on-time project completion.

 This blog will discuss many kinds of heavy machinery used in construction.

Excavators

Excavators are vital and frequently used machinery in the construction sector. Their primary usage is excavation, but they can be used for a variety of other tasks, including heavy lifting, demolition, river dredging, tree cutting, etc. A long arm and a cabinet can be found on excavators. Long arm digging has a bucket attached to the end, and the operator’s workspace is in a cabinet. The ability to rotate the entire cabin layout across 360 degrees makes operating easier. Both tracked and wheeled vehicles come in the form of excavators.

Bulldozers

Another sort of soil excavation tool used to remove the topsoil layer to a specific depth is the bulldozer. The sharp-edged large metal plate that is given at its front is used to remove soil. Hydraulic pistons can be used to raise and lower this plate. These are frequently used for lifting dirt, removing weak soil or rock strata, etc.

Backhoe

Another piece of earth-moving machinery used in construction is the Backhoe. The name of the device comes from how much the digging mechanism resembles a standard garden hoe.

The drag of the bucket towards the machine causes the digging movement. The Backhoe is used for a variety of tasks, including digging, demolition, loading and unloading, and trench excavation.

Dragline Excavator

Another piece of heavy equipment used in construction, dragline excavators are typically utilised for deeper excavations. It comprises a long boom, and a cable is used to suspend the digging bucket from the top of the boom. Dragline excavators can be used for port building, underwater excavations, silt removal from water bodies, etc.

Graders

Another type of equipment used in construction, particularly for the construction of roads, are graders, often known as motor graders. Its primary function is to level the soil’s surface. Between the front and back wheels, it has a horizontal blade that lowers into the ground while in use. On top of the rear axle arrangement is a working cabin. Motor Graders are also used to flatten the earth’s surface before laying an asphalt layer, remove extra soil from the ground, remove snow or dirt from roadways, etc.

Trenchers

To dig trenches in the soil, trenchers or trenching equipment are used. These ditches are typically used for drainage, cable installation, pipeline installation, etc. Chain trenchers and wheeled trenchers are the two types of trenching equipment that are available. Chain trenchers have a fixed long arm that has a digging chain attached to it. Wheeled trenchers have a metal wheel that is surrounded by digging teeth. Wheeled trenchers work better for digging through layers of hard soil. There are tracked and wheeled vehicle versions of both varieties of trenchers.

Wheel Tractors Scrapers

Wheel tractor scrapers are pieces of earth-moving machinery used to scrape the surface of the soil flat. A wheeled tractor vehicle is in the front, and a scrapping arrangement with a horizontal front blade, a conveyor belt, and a soil collection hopper is in the back area. When the vehicle is moved while the front blade is lowered to the ground, the blade begins to excavate the soil above the blade level, and the excavated soil is collected in a hopper by a conveyor belt. The rear portion of the hopper is raised off the ground when it is full, and its contents are then dumped at a soil dump yard.

Tower Cranes

Tower cranes are static cranes used to lift materials during the construction of towering constructions. Using this kind of equipment, heavy items such as pre-stressed concrete blocks, steel trusses, frames, etc. may be conveniently raised to the desired height. They include the mast, which is the crane’s vertical support tower, the jib, which is the arm used to operate the crane, the counter jib, which is the opposing arm used to carry the crane’s counterweight, and the operator cabin, from which the crane is controlled.

Loader

In a building site, loaders are used to load the material onto dumpers, trucks, etc. The components could be dirt from excavations, demolition debris, raw materials, etc. The front of a loader has a huge bucket and a short moving arm. A loader can be wheeled or tracked. While tracked or crawling loaders are utilised in locations where wheeled vehicles cannot access, wheeled loaders are frequently used on construction projects.

Compactors

The material or soil surface is compacted using rollers or compactors. For various compacting tasks, various types of compactors are available. Rollers with smooth wheels are used to compact thin layers of asphalt, soil, etc. Deep compaction is achieved with sheep-foot rollers. Fine-grained soils, asphalt layers, and other materials are compacted using pneumatic tyred rollers.

Paver

Equipment for laying pavement, often known as an asphalt paver, is used to build roads. The dump truck constantly loads asphalt into the paver’s feeding bucket, which is used to distribute the asphalt uniformly and lightly compact it onto the road surface. However, for optimal compaction, a roller is needed after placing the asphalt layer.

Telehandlers

Telehandlers are lifting tools used in construction to hoist heavy items to the necessary height or to provide a work platform for people at higher levels, among other things. It has a lengthy telescopic boom that may be moved forward, lifted, or lowered. Depending on the needs of the job, various arrangements, such as forklifts, buckets, cabins, lifting jibs, etc., can be mounted to the end of a telescopic boom.

Dump Trucks

On construction sites, dump trucks are used to transport bigger amounts of material from one site to another or to the dump yard. Large construction sites typically use off-road dump trucks. These off-road dump trucks have enormous wheels and a lot of material storage area, allowing them to carry a lot of material in a variety of ground conditions.

Pile Driving Equipment

Pile driving equipment is another piece of heavy equipment that is utilised on construction sites for building pile foundations. By raising the pile, holding it in place, and driving it into the earth to the necessary depth, this machinery rises the pile. There are several types of pile-driving equipment, including piling rigs, piling hammers, hammer guides, etc. In either instance, the pile is forced into the earth by hydraulically hammering or dumping the pile’s top.

Feller Bunchers

Feller bunchers are pieces of heavy machinery used to cut down huge trees for the building industry. They chop down the tree without falling, as well as assemble all the cut-down trees in a single spot to make the work of loaders and dump trucks easier.