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Concept
Excavator
Summary
Excavators are heavy construction equipment consisting of a boom, dipper (or stick), bucket and cab on a rotating platform known as the "house". The house sits atop an undercarriage with tracks or wheels. They are a natural progression from the steam shovels and often mistakenly called power shovels, as power shovels may have similar looking buckets. All movement and functions of a hydraulic excavator are accomplished through the use of hydraulic fluid, with hydraulic cylinders and hydraulic motors. Due to the linear actuation of hydraulic cylinders, their mode of operation is fundamentally different from cable-operated excavators which use winches and steel ropes to accomplish the movements.
Excavators are also called diggers, JCBs (a proprietary name, in an example of a generic trademark), mechanical shovels, or 360-degree excavators (sometimes abbreviated simply to "360"). Tracked excavators are sometimes called "trackhoes" by analogy to the backhoe. In the UK, wheeled excavators are sometimes known as "rubber ducks".
Excavators are used in many ways:
Digging of trenches, holes, foundations
Material handling
Brush cutting with hydraulic saw and mower attachments
Forestry work
Forestry mulching
Demolition with hydraulic claw, cutter and breaker attachments
Mining, especially, but not only open-pit mining
River dredging
Hydro excavation to access fragile underground infrastructure using high pressure water
Driving piles, in conjunction with a pile driver
Drilling shafts for footings and rock blasting, by use of an auger or hydraulic drill attachment
Snow removal with snowplow and snow blower attachments
Aircraft recycling
File:Old excavator.jpg|A cable-operated excavator under the Northwest (now [[Terex]]) name at the [[Pageant of Steam]] grounds.
File:Liebherr 314 excavator.JPG|Liebherr 314 wheeled excavator.
File:LinkBelt290X2Excavator.jpg|Link-Belt excavator trenching.
File:Caterpillar5230.jpg|CAT 5230 in coal mining operation.
File:L&T Komatsu Excavator.jpg|An L&T Komatsu excavator seen in [[India]].
Official source
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