The Different Uses of Excavators

Excavator is a machine used mainly in civil engineering works. The main function of the excavator is to dig and move earth. Beside being used in construction sites, excavators are also commonly used in mining activities. It is comprised of a boom stick, which is a joined arm, a cab, which is fixed atop of the undercarriage equipped with tracks.

Different excavators are available in the market in different sizes. The smallest excavator is known as mini excavator. Mini excavator weighing near about 1470 kg or 3240 lb. The size of the bucket in this type of excavator is 0.036 cubic meter at most and the broadness of the track can accordingly be adjusted to 35 inches or 89 cm. From this mini size, the same company can also produce the largest excavator, which can weigh around 187,360lb or 84,980 kg. The size of the bucket is almost 4.5 cubic meters.

A modern excavator is a very verstile machine. As it has a powered hydraulic system, this can be adapted for many uses. Just by changing the attachment, instead of the bucket, the excavator function is changed. If it is to be used as a demolition excavator, a hydraulic power breaker or grapple is used.

An auger can be also attached and the excavator becomes a drilling machine. This is especially usefull where shallow excavation of a few meters are required. Example for foundation works or installation of poles.

A series of pictures below shows the different types of attachment and uses.

Here you can see an excavator is attached with an auger. The auger is hydraulic powered.
And when attached with a vibratory pile hammer, an excavator can be used to install sheetpiles.
Used in scrap yards, excavators are attached with electromagnets to sort out metals
In quarries or where breaking hard rocks are required, here an excavator is attached with a hydraulic rock breaker. The breaker is equally usefull for breaking concrete as in demolition works.
Broken rocks than can be removed using a rock grabber as shown here. A grabber is a versatile attachment with different designs.Beside rocks, it can be used to grab just about anything.

The above are just some of the different tools that can be attached to a modern hydraulic excavator. Take note that the types of attchment availble are not limited to the above only as there is a wide selection of attachment. Some can be custom built for a particular project or condition. But what is important in this article is that a modern hydraulic excavtor is a very usefull piece of equipment.