Georgia Excavator Parts - Excavators are instrumental for completing building projects on time and on budget. They are extremely efficient in moving and transporting heavy loads within minutes. This industrial equipment is used in many industries including road work, bridge building, landscaping, construction and architecture. Excavators go by many names including diggers, mechanical shovels, 360-degree excavators and tracked models are often called trackhoes. Excavators can be equipped with numerous attachments to facilitate a range of jobs including grading and landscaping, demolition with a cutter, breaker and hydraulic saw attachments, material handling, river dredging, forestry, construction, open-pit mining, regular mining, driving piles when working with a pile driver, digging holes, foundations and trenches, snow removal with snowplow and snowblower attachments, drilling for rock blasting and footings with hydraulic auger attachment or drill, mulching for forestry and more.
An excavator is a popular kind of heavy construction equipment made up of particular parts. The dipper, boom, cab and bucket are situated on top of a rotating platform called the house. The house is situated on top of an undercarriage that has tracks or wheels. Excavators have evolved from steam shovels of yesteryear. Today’s hydraulic excavating models use hydraulic fluid to complete all functions and movement. The hydraulic cylinders feature linear actuation making them different from excavators that are cable-operated, relying on steel ropes and winches instead.
Excavator Models
Hydraulic excavators come in a variety of different models and sizes. Compact and tiny models weigh in around two thousand pounds. The largest models conversely fall into the two million pound category.
Modern hydraulic excavators rely on engine power to operate three hydraulic pumps as opposed to mechanical drivetrain operations. Two of the pumps supply high-pressure oil for the track motors, swing motor, arms and accessories. The third low-pressure pump supplies power for pilot control of the spool valves. This design offers less required physical effort for operating the controls. The three pumps that are in an excavator are often the two variable displacement piston pumps and the gear pump. These three pumps can be found in the excavator in numerous configurations depending on different manufacturer models.
The House and the Undercarriage
The house and the undercarriage make up the two main portions of the machine. The undercarriage is comprised of the tracks, track frame, the gears and the hydraulic motor that operates the blade tracks. The house features the engine, hydraulic oil tanks fuel, counterweight and the operator cab. A center pin connects the undercarriage to the house. High-pressure oils are supplied to the tracks on the hydraulic motor via a pin axis found on the hydraulic swivel. This design allows the excavator to move freely in 360 degrees.
The house is available in a variety of configurations and is attached to the main boom. The most common type of booms are the mono booms. This type features zero movement besides straight up and down. A knuckle boom is another option which allows it to move right and left in line with the machine. Typically an option on compact excavators, the booms’ base has a hinge option that enables it to pivot one-hundred and eighty degrees independently to the house. Triple articulated booms are also on the market.
At the end of the boom, the stick or dipper arm is located. This apparatus provides the required digging force to drag the bucket through the ground. The stick length is optional depending on if reach or breakout power is needed. Longer stick models are utilized for reach applications, while shorter sticks are used for breakout power situations. A bucket is typically attached to the end of the stick. A mud bucket refers to a wide bucket that has a straight cutting edge for cleanup applications and leveling and where teeth are not required. General-purpose bucket designs commonly are used to break up hard ground and difficult rocks, with their side cutters and hardened teeth that are typically smaller and stronger. There are different buckets available in numerous sizes for a variety of applications. Numerous attachments can be used for ripping, lifting, cutting, boring, crushing, and more.
Before the 1990s, the excavating machines were outfitted with a conventional counterweight that was located at the back of the equipment. This was in place to add more lifting capacity and digging force. This design was not ideal for working in confined locations. The counterweight of modern machines today is designed to stay in the width of the tracks making it much safer and more user-friendly within confined spaces.
In excavators, there are two main kinds of control configuration to operate the bucket and the boom called the ISO and the SAE. These types of control configuration disperse the four top digging controls between two different x-y joysticks, enabling an experienced operator to have simultaneous control of all four functions. Some models have switches that enable the operator to choose which configuration they prefer.
Hydraulic excavator jobs have surpassed bucket and excavation tasks. Many attachments including an auger, a grapple or a breaker have become common hydraulic powered attachments. There are models that offer a quick coupler feature to simplify attachment mounting and increase efficiency. Excavators commonly work alongside bulldozers and loaders. The majority of medium and compact sized wheeled models have a dozer blade or a backfill blade. The horizontal dozer blade attaches to the machines’ undercarriage. It is commonly employed for leveling and pushing items into a hole.
8 Main Excavator Types
There are eight main kinds of excavators including the dragline, long reach, crawler, bucket wheel, backhoe, steam shovel, skid steer and suction.
Steam Shovel
Steam shovels are one of the original types of excavators. They relied on steam energy while today’s models use electric or diesel motors. Steam shovels are similar to backhoes with the bucket or shovel facing away from the machine instead of facing it. This design allows the operator to push dirt away from the unit instead of pulling the earth towards it. Steam shovels are used for digging around objects that may interfere with a typical backhoe.
Backhoe
One of the most well-known types of excavators is backhoes. This equipment consists of a wheeled track base and large bucket that extends from an arm or boom above the ground. The operator can scoop earth toward the machine as the design has the bucket facing the operator’s cab. There are many kinds of excavators and sizes including heavy-duty applications such as dredging water and bridge construction to compact residential models ideal for backyard landscaping. The smaller models enable operators to work in tiny spaces; however, this translates to approximately a 200-degree swiveling capacity for digging close to the machine.
Dragline Excavator
Dragline excavators are designed similarly to a backhoe and include numerous lines and cables to support the bucket pulling motion. The dragline allows operators to reach farther and dig deeper in comparison to a regular backhoe. The boom and cables allow users to work over unstable or wet ground and where a traditional backhoe would not work.
Skid Steer Excavators
Skid steers are designed with their booms and buckets facing away from the operator. This design allows attachments to reach over the cab as opposed to around it. This design makes skid steers useful for negotiating tight turns and narrow locations. These machines often complete residential jobs such a digging pools, site cleaning and working in limited surroundings while removing debris.
Suction Excavator
Resembling a modern dump truck, these special excavators enable operators to use a large hose and vacuum technology to suck rocks and earth out of the ground. The material is moved back to the truck. This machine makes it safer to dig around underground pipes and equipment compared to regular backhoes.
Crawler Excavators
Crawlers run on two tracks and not wheels. They are popular in the mining and construction industries. Crawlers are also known as compact excavators. They lift heavy debris and soil by using hydraulic power components. The machine can travel down hills thanks to the chain wheel configuration that makes these machines excellent for difficult and hilly terrain. Crawlers are slower in comparison to other models but offer better stability, flexibility and balance.
Long Reach Excavators
The long reach excavator showcases lengthier boom and arm components. Long reach excavators are excellent for hard-to-reach locations. This machine offers over one hundred feet of horizontal reach. These machines are often used for demolition in applications working over a body of water. Numerous attachments can be attached to the arm to complete jobs including shearing, crushing and cutting.
Bucket Wheel Excavator
These excavators function with a large front wheel with built-in buckets and shovels. Dirt and rocks are scooped up within the buckets as the wheel rotates. Materials are transferred onto a conveyor belt that makes up a portion of the machine. The belt carries the material into a bin that may be part of the model or separate.