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An excavator is an engineering vehicle consisting of a backhoe and cab mounted on a pivot (turntable is a more apt description) atop an undercarriage with tracks or wheels.
Note: the term excavator is sometimes used as a general term for any piece of digging equipment. Tracked excavators are sometimes called trackhoes.
Excavators are used in many roles:
- Digging of trenches, holes, foundations etc.
- Demolition
- General grading/landscaping
- Heavy lift, e.g. lifting and placing of pipes
- River dredging etc.
They come in a wide variety of sizes. The smaller ones are called "mini-excavators" or "compact excavators". One manufacturer's largest model weighs 79200 kg (174,600 lb) and has a maximum bucket size of 4.5 m³ (5.9 yd³). The same manufacturer's smallest mini-excavator weighs 1470 kg (3240 lb), has a maximum bucket size of 0.036 m³ (0.048 yd³) and the width of its tracks can be adjusted to 89 cm (35 inches). Another company makes a mini excavator that will fit through a doorway with tracks that can be adjusted to only 70 cm (28 inches) wide.
Often the bucket can be replaced with other tools like a breaker, a grapple or an auger. Excavators are usually employed together with loaders and bulldozers.
Most smaller excavators have a small backfill blade. It's a horizontal bulldozer like blade attached to the undercarriage and is used for pushing removed material back into a hole.
Most excavators travel on tracks but others have wheels.
See also
External links
Major manufacturers
General information
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