There’s a kid in every Kindergarten classroom in the United States that can tell you exactly the name and purpose of each piece of equipment on a construction site. There are actually amusement parks where both young and old can experience what it’s like to utilize the equipment. Most of us, though, have no idea what those big, yellow thingamajigs are called or why they’re necessary.
Excavator
Among the larger and more recognizable pieces of equipment on the construction site is the excavator Boston MA. A cab for the operator attached to a long, scooping arm and bucket, the excavator has a number of uses including landscaping, digging trenches and holes, dismantling small buildings and lifting and placing big objects. An excavator is different from a backhoe in that a backhoe is smaller and used for jobs that take more precise work.
Backhoe
With an arm and bucket for scooping, the backhoe can do very similar things that the excavator can accomplish on a smaller scale. Digging trenches or large holes and small structure demolition are possible with the backhoe. You can also use the large bucket on the front of the machine to move things around.
Skid Steer Loader
This piece of equipment is among the smallest on the job site and gets its name from how it moves. With a fixed angle on the wheels, the skid steer can only move in one direction. Turning capability comes from working the sides of the vehicle independently to execute the turn. Skid steers usually have a bucket on the front and are typically used for demolition, snow and debris removal, digging and loading.
Dump Trucks
If there’s one piece of construction equipment you probably know, it’s the dump truck. They’re used for exactly what you think they are. A large truck with a huge, tall-sided cargo space on the back, a dump truck uses hydraulics to lift the cab-end of the cargo space to tip its contents out behind the truck. Those contents are usually loose materials like sand, gravel, ore, dirt and demolition waste in large amounts.
Drilling Rigs
While dump trucks are very recognizable, drilling rigs aren’t. Drilling rigs can be very large or rather compact depending on the job that needs to be accomplished. Some larger drilling rigs on a construction site are used to drill water wells or tap into natural gas extraction wells. Smaller drilling rigs are called augers. All have a tall shaft with a track to dig the hole and move the dirt to the surface.
Now that you know what some of those construction thingamajigs are named and used for, you can definitely impress your favorite Kindergartner.