Construction Equipment List & Uses


Heavy Construction Equipment

Every construction project involves earth-cutting, earth moving, hauling of excavated earth and other construction materials, concreting, and compaction equipment, etc. In small projects, manual labor with conventional implements is used.

But in large projects where works involved are large heavy construction equipment is used. It saves time. It also ensures speedy construction and completion of the project within time. In this article, we will discuss different types of heavy equipment used in construction.

Types Of Heavy Construction Equipment

1. Excavator

Excavators are important heavy equipment widely used in the construction industry. It has a long arm, with a digging bucket attached at the end and a cabin to operate the machine.

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Excavators are of two types: wheeled excavators and tracked excavators. The main purpose of this equipment is excavation, but it can also be used for heavy lifting, demolition, river dredging, cutting of trees, etc.

Excavator - Types Of Heavy Construction Equipment

2. Bull Dozer

Bulldozer is the most important equipment used in construction projects. It is a pushing machine. A bulldozer consists of a blade attached at its front, with the help of which soil is scraped and pushed.

The blade can be lowered or raised. The lower edge of the blade is sharpened to facilitate the cutting of the soil.

It is a multi-purpose machine used to perform various operations such as land clearing, hauling of soil, pushing soil and materials, preparing bank of canals, leveling land, earth working the roads and rail line formations, etc.

Bulldozer - Types Of Heavy Construction Equipment

3. Grader

Grader consists of a horizontal blade below a framework. The bale can be lowered, lifted, tilted, or rotated. There are mainly two types of graders i.e. towed graders and motor graders. A motor grader is a self-propulsive and fast-moving machine.

Grader is mainly used for leveling or finishing earthwork, removing snow or dirt from the road, making and maintaining road projects, construction of an airfield, and land reclamation.

Grader - Types Of Heavy Construction Equipment

4. Scraper

It is such a machine that digs and then picks it up in a bucket and transports the soil over the required distance. While discharging the soil, it keeps moving, and thus the soil is also spread automatically.

The wheels of the machine, which pass over the discharged soil, also compact it. Thus digging, carrying, and finishing are all accomplished with one machine.

5. Basic Shovel

Basic shovels are used for walking, swinging, and rig operations. Walking is the movement of the machine along with the work at the site.

Swinging is the revolving action of the machine. Basic shovels are of two types, crawler mounted and truck-mounted.

6. Drag Line

A dragline consists of a long boom and bucket. The bucket is loosely attached to the boom using cables. This machine is very useful for excavating, digging canals, making very high embankments, loading trucks by excavated soil, etc.

Dragline Construction Equipment

7. Back Hoe

A backhoe is another earth-moving equipment used in construction. The machine derives its name from the resemblance of the digging mechanism to an ordinary garden hoe.

The digging action results from the drag of the bucket toward the machine. Some of the uses of the backhoe are excavating trenches, digging, demolition, loading& unloading, etc.

Back Hoe Construction Equipment

8. Compactor

Compactors or Rollers are mainly used for compaction of soil or other materials. Different types of rollers are available for different compaction purposes.

Rubber tired roller is used for the compaction of loose soil. Sheep’s foot roller is used for deep compaction purposes.

9. Dumper Trucks

These are heavy-duty trucks with a strongly built body that is hinged at the back and is fitted with a hydraulic ram on the underside to lift the front on the body and tilt it backward into a dumping position. Dumper trucks are used for transporting rock material and pit-run material.

10. Trencher

Trenchers or trenching machines are mechanical equipment used to excavate and prepare trenches in the soil. Different types of trenchers are available for different work conditions.

They are selected depending on the width and depth required and the nature of the material to be cut. Trenches are mainly used for pipeline or cable laying, drainage purposes, etc.

Trencher Construction Equipment

11. Loader

Loaders are used to load different materials like excavated soil, raw materials, demolition wastes, etc., onto dumpers, trucks, etc. The loader consists of a large-sized bucket at its front with a shorter moving arm.

12. Paver

Paver is construction equipment used to lay asphalt on roads, bridges, parking lots, and other such places. It contains a feeding bucket in which asphalt is continuously loaded using a dump truck and simultaneously, the paver lays the asphalt evenly on the road surface with minor compaction.

Paver Construction Equipment

13. Tower Crane

Tower cranes are widely used for lifting operations in the construction of high-rise buildings. Heavy materials like steel trusses, precast concrete blocks, etc., can be easily lifted to the required height using this construction equipment. Tower cranes are also used to lift large tools and devices like motors, generators acetylene torches.

Tower crane Construction Equipment

14. Telehandlers

This piece of equipment is used to provide a construction platform for workers at greater heights and to lift heavy materials like a tower crane. It consists of a long telescopic boom that can be raised or lowered, or forwarded.

Telehandler Construction Equipment

Some Other Construction Equipment

1. Concrete Mixer

Concrete mixers are used to mix the ingredients of concrete to achieve concrete of specified consistency. Using this machine large volume of concrete with superior quality can be produced.

2. Pumpcrete

Pumpcrete or concrete pumps are important equipment used for transferring fresh concrete mass to the construction site. With the help of concrete pumps concreting tall buildings can be done easily and effortlessly.

3. Concrete Vibrator

Vibrators are used for the compaction of concrete after placement. There are two types of vibrators internal or needle vibrators and external vibrators.

Internal vibrators are used for mass concreting, whereas external vibrators are useful in the compaction of pavements, precast work, canal concrete lining, etc.

4. Crushers

Crushers are used to reduce the large rock or boulder sizes to smaller and uniform sizes acceptable for concrete mix. Common types of crushers are jaw crushers and hammer mill crushers.

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