The Importance of Hydraulic Excavator in Construction Industry

Before I start my article on the importance of Hydraulic Excavator with regards to construction industry, let's roll back to the time where this heavy equipment is still not yet invented or present. Imagine how long it would take the foundations of the large building or how many manpower it would take to dig thousands of cubic meters. And also try to think how hard it is to dig thousands of miles of earth for the drainage, water, electrical or sewerline. If there were no inventors or engineers that designed the heavy equipments then who knows what would happen to construction industry. Let us give our gratitude to Sir W.G. Armstrong & Co. for pioneering the Idea of a hydraulic shovel. The world needed not only industrious people that just do the jobs using brute strength but also people that dedicated their live for world changing inventions.

What is a Hydraulic Excavator?

It is a heavy equipment that is intended to use in construction for the purpose of digging soil and rocks. But did you know that hydraulic excavators can be also used for breaking concrete, drilling holes in the ground or even cutting steels because it has many attachments. Prior to what uses I've said earlier it also uses in laying gravel to paving and also mowing landscapes. Hydraulic Excavators are superstrong because they can manage operation weight with a minimum of 20,000 pounds or even higher. This heavy construction equipment consists of the following parts a dipper or stick, boom, bucket and cab that is attached in a rotating platform also called as "house". The undercarriage with wheels or sometimes tracks carries then the house. By using the hydraulic's: fluid, cylinders and motors all the the functions of this heavy equipment can now be accomplished.

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THE FEATURES AND HOW IT WORKS

First let us the determine the function of the "arm" or the arm of the vehicle to be precise. The arm have two important parts a boom and a bucket. Just like how our arm function the hydraulic excavator's arm also have a wrist and elbow. You will find at the inner part of the cylinder/hydraulic cylinder is a rod and at the end part is called piston and through the assistance or help of the oil it enables the arm to function or move. I usually don't like to explain every details so now let's move on to the next part the "engine". The engine is the one that produces energy or hydraulic power, because the machine needed alot of force to function it is very necessary to have an engine. The next feature or function of the hydraulic excavator is turn into or to face different directions. The "swing" is the one that is responsible for this function. Imagine if the hydraulic excavator doesnt have this feature its like a person that have a stiff neck but much worst. Another part of the hydraulic excavator is the "cab" as what you usually known what a cab is, yes just like an ordinary cab this is the part where the operator or driver's seat is located. Also inside the cab are the controls or handles to operate the machine. And lastly the "feet" or the base which can be differentiate into two types some uses wheel and others uses tracks. For me the advantage of tracks is for the muddy and sandy surfaces which is unstable if using wheel types. And the advantage of wheel type ones is for hard surfaces such as gravel or concrete path.

The image above showing the body parts of today's hydraulic excavator though not very detailed.

EARLIEST RECORDED HYDRAULIC EXCAVATORS

The earliest recorded hydraulic shovel was made and produced in 1882 by a British company named Sir WG Armstrong and Co.. But in 1897 the company Kilgore Machine Co. of Minneapolis in Minessota make an attempt and patented this shovel as well.

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The Importance of Hydraulic Excavators

The picture above was the one that Kilgore Machine Co. made, I dont want to dig down how this equipment developed through the course of time. It might take years to dig its history, the purpose of this article is to tell you how important it is having hydraulic excavators specially in today's industry. Engineering companies always thrive to make development of structures, bridges, roads and other infrastructures faster and easier. And designing a heavy equipment like hydraulic excavators give way for the growing construction industry. The importance of hydraulic excavators relieves humans effort in digging hard soil stratas, man can't even easily break boulders even using shovels. This heavy equipment also lessen the the time of work a human can produce because there is limits to human's stamina and strength.

Scientists dream about doing great things. Engineers do them.

Not to disrespect Scientists because they do out of this world inventions that we never thought are possible. But engineers designs and analyze materials or equipments needed to do greater things.

Engineering is an activity other than purely manual and physical work which brings about the utilization of the materials and laws of nature for the good of humanity. - R.E. Hellmund (1929)

LARGEST HYDRAULIC EXCAVATOR

Just imagine how can this humongous hyrdaulic excavator can do the work much faster than man using shovels.

Like what Hellmund said, Engineers tries to simplify things for human's sake. Imagine if this hydraulic excavator wasn't designed or nothing tried to craft a machine like this what would happen. Human's strength have limitations but machines can be designed or engineered thousands of times stronger. But human's ability to think and analyze things is almost limitless as we go through the evolutions of technologies and ideas up until now. Ofcourse machines or equipment can not be made just like how trees or different bacterias evolved, it is made through the use of our analytical minds. The search of mankind for the more efficient, more productive and less time effort for works like this benefitted all of us to reach this kind of invention. The never ending human curiosity of what are the purposes of each resources given by God and how to use it to its maximum potential.

IMAGE & VIDEO SOURCES: 1,2,3,4,5,6

REFERENCE/SOURCE: http://www.ritchiewiki.com/wiki/index.php/Hydraulic_Excavator

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