What is Earth work and earth work equipments?

• In case of huge construction projects.
• Proper use of appropriate equipment contribute to economy, quality, safety, speed and timely completion of a project.
• Equipment are used for highway projects, irrigation, buildings and power projects etc…
• 15-30% of total project cost has been accounted towards equipment and machinery.

 

Classification of Equipments

• Earth-moving equipment
• Hauling equipment
• Conveying equipment
• Aggregate and concrete production equipment
• Pile-driving equipment
• Tunneling and rock drilling equipment
• Pumping and dewatering equipment

 

Types of Earth Work Equipments

• Tractor
• Motor Graders
• Scraper
• Power Shovel
• Back Hoe
• Drag Line
• Clam Shell
• Trenching Machine
• Bull Dozer

 

Tractor

• Tractors have many uses as construction equipment.
• While their primary purpose may be to pull or push loads.
• They are also used as mounts for many types of accessories, such as front-end shovels, bulldozers and others.
• There are types and sizes to fit almost any job for which they are usable.

Types of tractor

• Crawler Tractors
• Wheel Tractors

 

Motor Graders

• A grader, also commonly referred to as a road grader a motor grader.
• It is a construction machine with a long blade used to create a flat surface during the grading process.

Uses

• The construction and maintenance of dirt roads and gravel roads.
• Paved roads they are used to prepare the base course.
• To set native soil foundation pads to finish grade prior to the construction of large buildings.

 

Scraper

• Unique machine for digging and long-distance hauling of plough able materials.
• Self-operating machine.
• It is not dependent on other equipment.
• Wheels of machine cause some compaction.
• The basic parts of scraper are the bowl, apron and tail gate or ejector.

Uses

• To remove wet soil from the surface.
• Moving or removing dirt, gravel and any other unnecessary material from the surface.
• Specialized for scraping and it is the most efficient machine for that task.
• The scraper is capable to dig, load, haul and dump.

 

Power Shovel

• To excavated the earth and to load the trucks.
• Cable of excavating all the types of earth except hard rock.
• Basic parts of power shovel including the track system, cabin, rack, stick, boom, boom point, shaves and bucket.

Factors affecting output of Power Shovel

• Class of materials
• Depth of cutting
• Angle of swing
• Job condition
• Management condition
• Size of the hauling units
• Skill of the operator
• Physical condition of the shovel

 

Back Hoe

• Also known as hoe, back shovel and pull shovel.
• It is used to excavate below the natural surface on which it is rest.
• Generally used to excavate trench, pits for basement and also for grading work, which requires precise control of depth.
• The basic parts are boom, jack boom, boom foot drum, boom sheave, stick, bucket sheave.

Application

• It is the most suitable machine for digging below the machine level such as trenches, footing, basement, etc….
• It can be efficient used to dress or trim the surface avoiding the use of manual effort for dressing the excavated the surface.

 

Drag Line

• The drag line is so name because of its prominent operation of dragging the bucket against the material to be dug.
• Unlike the shovel, it has a long light crane boom and the bucket is loosely attached to the boom through cables.
• Because of this construction, a dragline can dig and dump over larger distance than a shovel can do.
• The basic parts of a drag line including the boom, hoist cable, drag cable, hoist chain and bucket.

Application

• It is the most suitable machine for dragging softer material and below its track level.
• It is very useful for excavating trenches when the sides are permitted to establish their angle of repose without shorting.
• It has long reaches.

Clam Shell

• This is no named due to resemblance of its bucket to a clam which is like a shell-fish with hinged double shell.
• The front end is essentially a crane boom with a specially designed bucket loosely attached at the end trough cables as in a drag line.
• The capacity of a clam shell bucket is usually given in cubic meters.

Application

• Used for handling loose materials such as crushed stone, and, gravel, coal, etc…
• Main feature is vertical lifting of material from one location to another.
• Mainly used for removing material from coffer dam, sewer main holes, well foundation.

Bull Dozer

• The heavy blade attached to the tractor pushes, the material from one place to another.
• The tractor can be of the crawler or the wheeled type.
• Classification of bull dozer:

1. Position of Blade
2. Based on Mounting
3. Based on the control

Application

• For spreading the earth fill.
• Clearing construction sites.
• Maintaining haul roads.
• Clearing land from the trees and stump.