Excavators are fundamental within the sphere of construction which ranges from building structures, landscaping, and earth moving and mining among others. The versatility of excavators is attributed to the ability of these machines to accommodate a wide variety of different types of hydraulic attachments which are also generally available as an accessory to an excavator hire service.
It is mainly due to these attachments that excavators are deemed as the workhorses of the industry. These attachments are the reason that a single excavator may be used to dig, lift, demolish, grade, compact earth, drill and even move debris and other materials from one point to another. This article will present brief overviews of some of the more popular attachments that are frequently used by those associated with the construction industry.
Hydraulic Rock Breakers
This attachment is a powerful tool that is fitted to an excavator via hydraulic coupling links to break up hard material such as rocks, concrete and bricks among others. In general rock breakers are used for demolition and quarrying work. Rock breakers in essence deliver high-impact blows to target surfaces in order to break these targets into much smaller pieces which make the destroyed targets more manageable.
Hydraulic Augers
Augers are basically high-powered big drills that are used for drilling holes into surfaces that can be anything from soft earth to concrete pavements or asphalt. The attachment is designed with a rotating helical screw blade coupled with a ‘flight’ design that enables the material from the drill target to be moved upwards. Augers are used for various purposes among which include fence post installation, tree planting, foundation drilling and foe even soil sampling.
Super Long Reach Hydraulic Attachment
This excavator attachment basically extends the excavator’s reach. In other words, this particular attachment allows and excavator to reach areas that the machine would be unable to reach with standard length arms. Normally, in most case scenarios, this attachment is used for deep excavation, riverbank maintenance and dredging.
Clamshell Buckets Attachments
The clamshell bucket is among the most versatile excavator attachments that are commonly used for material handling and as well as excavation. The design of the bucket is based on two hinged buckets that act like ‘jaws’ or clamshells which ensures secure grip of whatever material that it is tasked to handle. The buckets are designed in such a way that they may be independently operated or synchronised which enables operators to have optimal control when it comes to digging especially in tight spots. These buckets are also regularly used for loading and unloading when conventional buckets become a little impractical.
Quick Couplers
The reason as to why most excavators are deemed as versatile is because of this particular attachment which in fact is a system that excavators use in order to enable quick changes of attachments. The quick coupler in essence allows connecting and disconnecting the various tools mentioned above (augers, long reach, rock breakers and grapplers among others) without the need for assistance of manual labour or tools.
This basically means that the operator of the excavator is able to easily engage or disengage any hydraulic attachment within seconds using the coupler’s hydraulic system which is a critical element towards improving productivity and avoiding unnecessary downtime.