The design of most general excavator is pretty standard as the basic design of an excavator allows these particularly popular machines within the construction industry to serve a wide variety of purposes. Their versatility simply just cannot be ignored. Most excavators have a hydraulic cylinder, a boom, arms and couplers or attachments that allow them to dig, grab, smash, crunch and hold materials just to name a few of their functionalities. Then there is the house-like cab which is the position from where the operators work the machine.
The cab is generally able to rotate allowing the operators to work around them from a parked position if it is needed. Excavators also generally come with wheels or chained tracks for mobility (moving from one point to another within the project site on their own). Apart from these basic mechanisms that provide mobility and rotating cabs and sophisticated controls, what truly makes an excavator a construction job site must are the wide variety of hydraulic attachments that they are capable of accommodating.
Each of these attachments serves different purposes. This read will break down the basic components of a standard excavator one by one in the following sequence: bucket, auger, breaker, clam and quick coupler.
The Standard Bucket
Buckets would be the most notable feature of the excavator and is in fact the most common attachment an excavator is fitted with, and for good reason, the bucket is imperative to excavation or moving earth. Buckets in general have jagged teeth-like edges that enable the machine to dig, scoop and scrape tough surfaces. Even buckets for that matter come in various sizes and types with the most commonly bucket used being what is often referred to as ditching buckets that are specifically designed for grading surfaces and stones. Another common bucket attachment is known as trenching buckets which are designed to dig trenches effectively and efficiently. The shape, size and power of the buckets against the surface the work on depend on the excavator itself.
The Auger & the Breaker
The function of an auger after being attached to an excavator is to bore into the ground or hard surfaces. Augers, much like most other extended excavator attachments are powered by hydraulic circuits. Augers are helical attachments that are capable of being extended over objects and drill holes that are deep. Augers generally come in a wide variety of specifications which determine the size and depth of the hole. Augers could be as small as 4 inches and the bigger ones can reach up to 6 feet or more in length. Breakers on the other hand are quite similar to jackhammers only much larger. These heavy pounders are capable of delivering up to 1000 PSI and are usually used for breaking up tough surfaces such as concrete or hard rock.
Clamps & Couplers
Clamps are as their label suggests components that are able to pick up large pieces of debris or material that are too big to fit into the standard excavator bucket. For example, after cutting down trees (forest clearing), clamps are used instead of the bucket to pick up tree stumps and trunks to move them from one area to another. Clamp like attachments are used with buckets sometimes or as a component of a grapple and are easy to attach or detach thanks to the couplers.
The coupler is basically the component that allows the various extended tools that have been developed over the last two decades to be attached and removed from excavators with ease. The coupler has been cited as one of the greatest developments that makes the otherwise rigid excavator versatile allowing a single excavator hire in Melbourne to perform the task of a dozen other machines. Augers, much like excavators are also usually given for hire at separate rates.
excavators out there to buy all of them, which is a logistic advantage to say the least.