Heavy construction equipment are used for various purposes in large projects. Selection of different types of heavy equipment depends on the size of the work and economy of the project. These make construction process easier and faster.
Different types of heavy equipment commonly used in the construction are as follows:
Excavators are important and widely used equipment in construction industry. Their general purpose is to excavation but other than that they are also used for many purposes like heavy lifting, demolition, river dredging, cutting of trees etc.
Excavators contains a long arm and a cabinet. At the end of long arm digging bucket is provided and cabinet is the place provided for machine operator. This whole cabin arrangement can be rotatable up to 360o which eases the operation. Excavators are available in both wheeled and tracked forms of vehicles.
Backhoe is another widely used equipment which is suitable for multiple purposes. The name itself telling that the hoe arrangement is provided on the back side of vehicle while loading bucket is provided in the front.
This is well useful for excavating trenches below the machine level and using front bucket loading, unloading and lifting of materials can be done.
Dragline excavator is another heavy equipment used in construction which is generally used for larger depth excavations. It consists a long length boom and digging bucket is suspended from the top of the boom using cable.
For the construction of ports, for excavations under water, sediment removal in water bodies etc. can be done by dragline excavator.
Bulldozers are another type of soil excavating equipment which are used to remove the topsoil layer up to particular depth. The removal of soil is done by the sharp edged wide metal plate provided at its front. This plate can be lowered and raised using hydraulic pistons.
These are widely used for the removal of weak soil or rock strata, lifting of soil etc.
Loaders are used in construction site to load the material onto dumpers, trucks etc. The materials may be excavated soil, demolition waste, raw materials, etc. A loader contain large sized bucket at its front with shorter moving arm.
Loader may be either tracked or wheeled. Wheeled loaders are widely used in sites while tracked or crawled loaders are used in sites where wheeled vehicles cannot reach.
Tower cranes are fixed cranes which are used for hoisting purposes in construction of tall structures. Heavy materials like pre-stressed concrete blocks, steel trusses, frames etc. can be easily lifted to required height using this type of equipment.
They consists mast which is the vertical supporting tower, Jib which is operating arm of crane, counter jib which is the other arm carries counter weight on rear side of crane and an operator cabin from which the crane can be operated.
Paver or Asphalt paver is pavement laying equipment which is used in road construction. Paver contains a feeding bucket in which asphalt is continuously loaded by the dump truck and paver distributes the asphalt evenly on the road surface with slight compaction. However a roller is required after laying asphalt layer for perfect compaction.
Compactors or Rollers are used to compact the material or earth surface. Different types of compactors are available for different compacting purposes.
Smooth wheel rollers are used for compacting shallow layers of soil or asphalt etc. sheep-foot rollers are used for deep compaction purposes. Pneumatic tyred rollers are used for compacting fine grained soils, asphalt layers etc.
Telehandlers are hoisting equipment used in construction to lift heavy materials up to required height or to provide construction platform for workers at greater heights etc. It contains a long telescopic boom which can be raised or lowered or forwarded.
Different types of arrangements like forklifts, buckets, cabin, lifting jibs etc. can be attached to the end of telescopic boom based on the requirement of job.
