Excavators are essential equipment mainly found in the construction field. They have also expanded their importance to weather control, environment maintenance, archeology, mining, and forestry. An excavator looks like a combination of a bucket, a handle, the driver’s cabin, and a movable track.
Understanding the various types of excavators would be essential before proceeding to their purposes. There are seven main types of excavators, each tasked with unique uses and structure, while some share the same characteristics. These include mini, long reach, skid steer, suction, dragline, wheeled, and crawler excavators.
Now, let’s discover the primary uses of excavators.
1. Clearing Land for Establishing Projects
Excavators are known for clearing land for construction and other projects. This construction equipment removes unwanted objects, including large trees and stones. While such tasks may be complex for other machinery, excavators can undertake them effortlessly. However, this purpose is more effective when an expert drives the excavator.
2. Handling Materials at the Site
You’ll likely find excavators handling various materials at the site. When connected to a clamp, this equipment can carry different materials, including heavy-weight ones, from one area to another. The clamp is usually designed with finger-like tools, allowing it to grab and secure various materials. These materials include large tree logs, garbage, boulders, and heavy pipes.
3. Demolition of Buildings
It’s nearly impossible to miss an excavator at the demolition site. These pieces of machinery can take the most prominent buildings in minutes. However, they should be handled cautiously due to the high risk of the issue. Excavators used for demolition are attached to a special breaker, not the traditional general-purpose one, to manage larger and heavier structures.
4. Digging and Earthmoving
Excavators are the most ideal diggers and earthmovers. They have a bucket attachment with fork-like edges, enabling them to dig the earth and scoop the materials. You will likely find excavators being used to dig trenches for wire installation, foundations, or pipes.
Excavators can dig trenches quicker and more deeply than any other equipment, regarding earthmoving, excavators grade surfaces to achieve a levelled one in preparation for construction and other projects.
5. Mining of Minerals
Excavators play a vital role in the mining industry. Besides their ability to extract minerals or ore from the mining site, this equipment has a bucket-like structure that helps remove excess rocks, soil, or other materials that may inhibit the mining process.
Excavator conveyors also help to transport mining materials from one location to another. Additionally, miners use excavators to reclaim land after the mining is over. These machinery can refill a mined area with various materials and level it to a safer terrain.
6. Debris Removal at Sites
You might have passed near a construction site and wondered how they’ll eliminate all the debris and unnecessary materials once they’re done. Well, that is what an excavator does. This highly versatile equipment uses a shovel-like structure to scoop and fill trucks with debris until the area is clean. Besides construction, excavators can remove debris in mining areas, forestry, roadside cleaning, demotion, and waste management.
7. Snow Removal
Excavators are the most commonly used equipment in snow removal due to their strength to break and lift large blocks of ice. Thanks to their snow buckets and plows, regions that experience heavy snowing use excavators to eliminate snow across parking lots and roads.
Being heavy machinery, excavators can push, scoop, and shift snow away from residential areas for melting through the trucks. Their long and extendable handles allow them to remove snow from high points such as rooftops.
8. Underwater Projects
Another significant use of excavators is their ability to tackle underwater projects more confidently than other machinery. They are attached to other equipment, such as suction pumps and dredgers, to undertake projects near large water bodies such as lakes, oceans, and rivers.
When there’s an underwater construction, professionals use excavators to install foundations, cables, or pipelines in preparation for the major construction. Excavators can also be employed to maintain and repair underwater structures and pipelines.
9. Underground Excavation
Did you know that excavators can be used to dig deep holes and foundations besides the standard trenches? Underground excavation, also known as tunnelling, is whereby excavators establish underground routes by digging through.
To facilitate this, the excavators are attached to other diggers, such as drills, to travel underground with constant digging. Even so, not all excavators can handle underground excavation, especially the small ones. Therefore, you must consider the purpose for which you intend to use the excavator before purchasing.
Excavators are one of the most multi-purpose equipment. The list of how you can use this piece of machinery is endless. To enjoy the full functionality of excavators, you should get the one specially designed for your desired project. Other factors to consider when acquiring an excavator include size, capacity, fuel efficiency, regulations, budget, maintenance cost, and compatible attachments.
