Attachments of Excavator

By: Antbuildz Editorial Team

23 May, 2020

Attachments of Excavator

Attachments of Excavator

 

In Chinese, an excavator was called “神手”, the god of hand. The great name came from its versatility to perform so many tasks. Not only that, it’s designed to be able to change different types of hydraulic attachment to perform very specific tasks.

 

Once you choose the right excavator, you need to find the right attachment to aid your project. Of course, the most common attachment as you know is a bucket. However, the bucket is only one type of attachment, there are many more! Those attachments really bought excavators into the modern construction world. 

 

Learn What is Excavator in detail.

 

Let’s go through some of the attachments available. 

 

 

Source: Caterpillar

1. Buckets

Source: Caterpillar

 

The bucket is the most common attachment. Buckets are typically made of hard steel and have teeth on the digging edge, to have maximum power for digging and scooping. There are several types of buckets designed for various tasks. 

 

  • Digging Bucket

Most common excavator attachment. Normally, this standard bucket will come with every excavator. Digging buckets are well-designed “all-purpose” buckets and are used to plough through hard soil, rocks or even frost-covered soil. Available in various sizes they come with short blunt teeth which are perfect for classic topsoil excavations

 

  • V-Shap Bucket

It is believed to be the best attachment for the laying of pipes. V shape structure makes it easy to dig v-shaped long trenches. 

 

  • Rock Bucket

Used for the working environment which contains rocks. The buckets are equipped with fairly long and sharp teeth along with a narrow, V-shaped edge for cutting into the rock powerfully. The structure is sturdy therefore and is strengthened so that the equipment does not break under pressure.

 

  • Hardpan Bucket

Similar to rock bucket but additional ripper teeth at the back of the bucket. It functions to loosen the hard-packed soil while digging.

 

 

Source: Caterpillar

2. Hammers

 

Source: Caterpillar

 

Hammers make short work of your demolition, construction, quarry, and production breaking needs. Hammer or breaker is like jackhammers but is much larger in size. With the ability to provide up to 1000 pounds of impact energy, these attachments are used to break into tougher surfaces like stone and concrete.

 

 

Source: Caterpillar

3. Augers

Source: Caterpillar

Designed for digging postholes, footings, shrub, and tree plantings easily and efficiently. Augers used for boring holes through surfaces like soil, wood, ice, stone, rock, or pavement. You can use these tools for a wide variety of applications from digging a mere hole in soil to drilling deep into the earth through shale rock to boring a hole in the ice.

 

Augers have a helical screw blade called a flighting that acts as a conveyor, causing debris to move up and out of the newly drilled hole as the blade is rotated.

 

 

Source: Caterpillar

4. Compactors

 

Source: Caterpillar

 

The hydraulic compactors are designed for effectively compacting soil in trenching, ground levelling, embankment construction, driving in and pulling out posts, sheet piling, and other formworks. The Vibratory action and dynamic force provide excellent compaction in a compact size.

 

 

Source: Caterpillar

 

5. Couplers

 

 

Source: Caterpillar

 

Quick coupler is a component that offers other functions. Its primary use is to allow for the rapid change of attachments and tools on the respective machine or equipment. Quick couplers do not normally have a specific function themselves in that they do not carry out handling or digging operations, but when installed on a machine they become a part of the overall system. They are usually mounted on the machine by means of the pins that would otherwise be the mountings for the bucket or attachment. There are mechanical types as well as hydraulic types.

 

 

Source: Caterpillar

 

 

6. Multi-Processors

Source: Caterpillar

This is a multi-function demolition tool offering increased versatility via interchangeable jaw sets. Adding a multi-processor attachment will enable your excavator to do much more than digging. A multi-processor can perform tasks such as crushing, cutting, and pulverizing, depend on which of the interchangeable jaw sets used. With this attachment, you can obtain more productivity but with operation costs.

 

 

Source: Caterpillar

 

 

7. Rakes

Source: Caterpillar

The rake is designed for fast clean-ups, vegetation management, sifting soil/rocks, and removing unwanted shrubbery and overgrowth. Material can be sifted and sorted to clear out unwanted debris and leave good soil or material behind. The tines are thick and spaced so that there are no cross members to block the smaller debris from falling through. 

 

 

Source: Caterpillar

 

 

8. Ripper 

 

Source: Caterpillar

This type of attachment is designed to dig surfaces that have a hard structure like concrete with its sharp teeth that can rip through almost everything. Rippers are also used to carrying large boulders.

 

 

Source: Caterpillar

 

 

9. Grapples

 

Source: Caterpillar

 

With its particularly robust design, the grapple is suitable for sorting and loading of demolished material, as well as for demolishing light buildings like masonry or wooden structures.

 

 

Source: Caterpillar

 

 

10. Thumb

 

Source: Caterpillar

 

Total control on pick up and place objects. Excavator's thumbs are the essential tool for demolition, land clearing and all picking operations. There is not much you can't pick up when you use a thumb attachment.

 

 

Source: Caterpillar

 

 

The ability to change different type of attachment make excavator the most versatile equipment in the world. 

 

By understanding your work requirement, you can choose through an available excavator attachment to get the correct right one. Remember do not simply use a type of attachment to perform different tasks, as you may damage the attachment. It will cost you a lot of money.

 

We hope the article can help you to choose the right attachment for your work, and the most important is to work safely.

 

LEARN HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT EXCAVATOR

 

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