What heavy equipment to bring to a construction site depends on the type of work being done and the economy or size of the project. The right heavy equipment can make a job go much faster, and many pieces have multiple purposes. Many types of heavy equipment for construction are mentioned on this list, which most of us have seen before.
As technology advances, so will many of these pieces of heavy equipment. Here is a close look at the more common equipment you can expect to see on residential, commercial, and industrial job sites.
1. Backhoe
A backhoe is a widely used piece of construction equipment with multiple purposes. The home is on the vehicle’s backside, with a loading bucket at the front. A backhoe can be used to excavate trenches below machine level and to load, unload, and lift materials to and from different destinations.
2. Grader
A grader is used to level soil surface, typically to help construct roads. It contains a horizontal blade in between the front and rear wheels. Graders can remove snow or dirt from the road, flatten the soil surface before laying asphalt, remove unnecessary soil layers from the ground, and more.
3. Excavator
An excavator excavates, one might think. That’s true! But an excavator can also assist with heavy lifting, demolition, river dredging, tree cutting, and more. In an excavator, you will find a long arm and a cabinet. The entire cabin can typically be rotated up to 360 degrees and is available on both wheeled and vehicular tracks.
4. Dragline Excavator
A dragline excavator is designed for larger-depth excavations. It has a long-length boom and a digging bucket suspended from the top of the boom using a cable. Dragline excavators are employed when there is underwater excavation, for sediment removal in water bodies when a port needs to be constructed, and in similar situations.
5. Bulldozer
A bulldozer is also used to excavate the topsoil layer to a particular depth. This is done with a sharp-edged metal plate at the front of the equipment. This is lowered and raised with hydraulic pistons. Bulldozers are often construction contractors’ best instrument for removing weak soil or rock strata.
6. Loader
A loader is used on construction sites to move materials – like excavated soil, demolition waste, and raw materials – into trucks and other vehicles. This is all a loader does. A loader has a large-sized bucket at its front with a shorter moving arm and can be tracked or wheeled.
7. Paver
A paver is used in road construction to lay down pavement. It has a feeding bucket in which asphalt is continuously loaded by a dump truck. The paver distributes the asphalt evenly across the road surface, compacting it slightly. After the asphalt is laid, a roller must flatten it before the material dries.
8. Compactor
Compactors, aka rollers, compact material or earth surface. Many types of compacts exist, some for compacting shallow layers of soil or asphalt, others for deep compaction, and others for fine-grained soils or asphalt layers.
9. Tower Crane
A tower crane is used for hoisting to assist with constructing tall structures, such as condo developments and the like. Pre-stressed concrete blocks, steel trusses, and frames can be lifted high using tower cranes. A tower crane is built with a vertical supporting tower, a jib, a counter jib, and an operator cabin from which the heavy equipment is controlled.
10. Telehandler
Telehandlers are hoisting equipment used to lift heavy materials to a required height or provide a construction platform for workers to perform tasks at a greater height. A long telescopic boom that can be raised, lowered, or forwarded is what defines a telehandler. Based on the job, forklifts, buckets, cabins, lifting jibs, and other arrangements can be attached to the end of the telescopic boom.
11. Trencher
A trencher excavates trenches, usually done when laying pipe, cable, or building drainage. There are chain trenchers with a fixed long arm around which there is a digging chain. There are wheeled trenchers with a metal wheel with digging teeth around it. The latter is often preferred for hard soil excavation.
12. Wheel Tractor Scraper
A wheel tractor scraper can flatten soil through scrapping. The front has a wheeled tractor vehicle, and its rear has the scrapper, typically made up of a horizontal front blade, conveyor belt, and soil-collecting hopper. The blade digs into the soil and gets collected and excavated through the conveyor belt.
