A backhoe excavator is an engineering machine which consists of the bucket, an articulated arm (which is the boom or a stick), tracks, wheels, undercarriage, and cab atop a rotating platform (or pivot). Backhoe excavators are also called as 360º excavators, diggers or just 360.
A backhoe excavator has many useful roles:
- It can be used to dig trenches, foundations and holes.
- A construction excavator can also be used in material handling.
- This machine could also be used in brush cutting with hydraulic attachments.
- It is useful in landscaping and grading.
- It is especially useful in mining activities.
- Construction excavators can also be used for river dredging.
Backhoe excavators come in many sizes. The smaller versions are called the compact excavators or mini-excavators. One of the largest recorded models of an excavator weighs more than 84,900 kilograms (about 187,300 pounds). This model has a bucket size of 4.5 cubic meters. One mini-excavator was recorded to have 1,470 kilograms of weight and a bucket size of 0.036 cubic meters. Some excavators have been made to fit though doorways with its tracks that can be adjusted to only 28 inches wide.
Backhoe Excavator Attachments
Recently, the use of hydraulics has made notable progress when it comes to excavating tasks that were used to be done only with buckets. Since there are now hydraulic-powered attachments such as grapples, augers, and breakers, a construction excavator can now be used for other purposes other than excavation.
Excavators are now employed along with bulldozers and loaders. Compact excavators have been attached with backfill which is a horizontal blade that is similar to that of the bulldozer’s. This backfill is mainly used for pushing back materials back into any hole.
Excavators in the UK
Nowadays, excavators are being employed to finish construction jobs more than any other type of construction equipment; more so since Japanese and European technologies have each given their share of knowledge to the development of the latest models of excavators.
The excavator market is an ever-growing market and there is no shortage to the number of designs or models that are being offered. For instance, Komatsu (also a recognized name in the UK) has at least 29 backhoe excavator models that customers can choose from. Kobelco’s models are numbered at 15; Caterpillar has 15 too; Hitachi has 13; Terex has 10 and Volvo has 9 models to offer.
Construction excavators would definitely continue to dominate the construction machinery market. This is true in North America and major parts of Europe (including the UK).