Have you ever wondered about what equipment is being used when construction is being done? As a homeowner, knowledge about construction equipment is useful with regards to your own peace of mind when you have hired a company to do construction on your property. If you know what the different pieces of equipment are, you can supervise the project and know what the construction workers are doing. Whether you’re grading your yard with fill dirt, getting professionals to unload topsoil in an area where you plan to garden, or carrying out renovations to your home, it’s useful to find out as much as you can about the process. Here are three types of equipment used on heavy construction sites:
Earth Moving Equipment
Construction equipment is best understood when you think of it in terms of what it’s used for. These three sections contain many types of equipment depending on the task at hand. Earth moving equipment includes excavators, graders, loaders, bulldozers, trenchers, and scrapers. These are the types of equipment you would use if you need to have a truckload of dirt unloaded.
Excavators are the vehicles that have a long arm to reach into dirt and lift it up. They can carry large quantities of dirt from one place to another. Excavators have many uses including digging holes, trenches, and foundations, and handling materials.
Graders are used for smaller volumes of dirt than excavators, and are suitable for many purposes including creating sloped surfaces or drainage ditches. In appearance, graders look very similar to a tractor with a blade attachment.
Loaders are similar to excavators except for the fact that they also include a backhoe, and are mounted on a track. Bulldozers are used for demolishing things in their path, but are also perfect for pushing piles of fill dirt from one place to another. Bulldozers have a wide flat blade on the front. Trenchers and scrapers have more specialized uses. Trenchers are used for digging trenches where pipes are going to be positioned, so these are popular for commercial projects that involve pipework that circulates to many homes. Scrapers are very fast and powerful, so they are not suitable for all construction sites. They are used for cutting and filling fill dirt, and are best used in wide, open spaces.
Construction Vehicles
Another section of types of construction equipment, construction vehicles are used for transportation of materials. Construction vehicles include tippers, dumpers, trailers, and tankers. A tipper is a truck that has a large container at the back that can be tipped. This allows the load to be tipped and offloaded using natural gravity. A dumper is also a driven vehicle that includes a container, but its shape and appearance is different from a tipper. Unlike the tipper, the boxlike body extends over the driver’s seat.
Trailers are a common form of construction vehicle. A trailer is generally a vehicle without power that is hooked up to a vehicle with power. Many homeowners own trailers which they use for smaller home improvement projects. Finally, tankers are designed to carry liquid loads. These are the vehicles you see that carry home heating oil, for example. With regards to home construction projects using fill dirt, they are a lot less common due to the fact that construction projects transport solids more often than liquids.
Material Handling Equipment
Construction equipment for different purposes includes equipment specializing in the handling of material. The most common types of material handling equipment include cranes, conveyors, hoists, and forklifts. Cranes are generally used on very heavy construction sites, such as government or commercial projects. It is used for the lifting and transportation of very materials. There is usually an elevator on a crane that allows for access and maintenance when necessary.
Conveyors look very much like the conveyor belts you see at an airport when collecting luggage, only much bigger. Operating a conveyor allows the professional user to change the angle of the conveyor belt. This means that it can be angled downwards in order to pick up fill dirt, and then angled upwards in order to transport it to the desired area.
A hoist is used to raise or lower a load using a hoisting mechanism. The mechanism is usually powered by a drum or wheel with a rope or chain attached. The wheel is turned either manually or automatically depending on the type of hoist. The rope or chain then uses natural forces to act as the lifting device.
