The Constructor

16 Types of Heavy Equipment Used in Construction

Sadanandam Anupoju 4 years ago

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.

Contents:

Types of Heavy Construction Equipment

1. Excavators
2. Backhoe
3. Dragline Excavator
4. Bulldozers
5. Graders
6. Wheel Tractor Scrapers
7. Trenchers
8. Loaders
9. Tower Cranes
10. Paver
11. Compactors
12. Telehandlers
13. Feller Bunchers
14. Dump Trucks
15. Pile Boring Equipment
16. Pile Driving Equipment

Types of Heavy Construction Equipment

Different types of heavy equipment commonly used in the construction
are as follows:

1. Excavators
2. Backhoe
3. Dragline Excavator
4. Bulldozers
5. Graders
6. Wheel Tractor Scraper
7. Trenchers
8. Loaders
9. Tower Cranes
10. Pavers
11. Compactors
12. Telehandlers
13. Feller Bunchers
14. Dump Trucks
15. Pile Boring Machine
16. Pile Driving Machine

1. Excavators

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.

Fig 1: Tracked Excavator

2. Backhoe

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.

Fig 2: Back Hoe

3. Dragline Excavator
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.

Fig 3: Drag line Excavator

4. Bulldozers

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.

Fig 4: Bulldozer
5. Graders

Graders also called as motor graders are another type of equipment used
in construction especially for the construction of roads. It is mainly used
to level the soil surface. It contains a horizontal blade in between front
and rear wheels and this blade is lowered in to the ground while
working.
Operating cabin is provided on the top of rear axle arrangement.

Motor Graders are also used to remove snow or dirt from the roads, to
flatten the surface of soil before laying asphalt layer, to remove unnecessary
soil layer from the ground etc.

Fig 5: Motor Grader

6. Wheel Tractor Scrapers

Wheel Tractor Scrapers are earth moving equipment used to provide

flatten soil surface through scrapping. Front part contains wheeled tractor
vehicle and rear part contain a scrapping arrangement such as horizontal
front blade, conveyor belt and soil collecting hopper.

When the front blade is lowered onto the ground and vehicle is moved, the
blade starts digging the soil above the blade level and the soil excavated is
collected in hopper through conveyor belt. When the hopper is full, the rear
part is raised from the ground and hopper is unloaded at soil dump yard.
Fig 6: Wheeled Tractor Scraper

7. Trenchers

Trenchers or Trenching machines are used to excavate trenches in soil.

These trenches are generally used for pipeline laying, cable laying, drainage
purposes etc. Trenching machines are available in two types namely chain
trenchers and wheeled trenchers.

Chain trenchers contains a fixed long arm around which digging chain is
provided. Wheeled trenchers contains a metal wheel with digging tooth
around it. To excavate hard soil layers, wheeled trenchers are more
suitable. Both types of trenchers are available in tracked as well as
wheeled vehicle forms.

Fig 7: Wheeled Trencher

8. Loaders
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.

Fig 8: Loader

9. Tower Cranes

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.
Fig 9: Tower Crane

10. Paver

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.

Fig 10: Asphalt Paver

11. Compactors

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.

Fig 11: Smooth Wheel Compactor

12. Telehandlers

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.
Fig 12: Telehandler

13. Feller Bunchers

Feller buncher is tree cutting heavy equipment used to remove large trees
in the construction field. They cut the tree and grab it without felling,
likewise gathers all the cut down trees at one place which makes job
easier for loaders and dump trucks.

Fig 13: Feller Buncher

14. Dump Trucks

Dump trucks are used in construction sites to carry the material in

larger quantities from one site to another site or to the dump yard.
Generally, in big construction site, off-road dump trucks are used.
These off-road dump trucks contains large wheels with huge space for
materials which enables them to carry huge quantity of material in any type
of ground conditions.

Fig 14: Off-Road Dump Truck

15. Pile Boring Equipment

Pile boring equipment is used to make bore holes in the construction site
to install precast piles.

Fig 15: Pile Boring machine

16. Pile Driving Equipment

Another heavy equipment used in construction site is pile driving
equipment in case of pile foundation construction. This equipment lifts the
pile and holds it in proper position and drives into the ground up to
required depth.

Different types of pile driving equipment are available namely, piling rigs,
piling hammer, hammer guides etc. in any case the pile is driven into the
ground by hammering the pile top which is done hydraulically or by
dropping.

Fig 16: Hydraulic Pile Driving

Categories: Construction Engineering & Management, Construction Equipments

Tags: construction equipment, Excavation, heavy equipment

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