Madawalabu

University
Construction Equipment & Plant Management
COTM 4202

CHAPTER 2
TYPES OF CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENTS
AND THEIR USES

Lecture by: Andualem Endris (M.Sc)

andu0117@yahoo.com
School of Engineering,
Construction Technology & Management Department
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INTRODUCTION
 It is a common fact that we find a wide variety of construction
machines on every construction sites, which make the
construction jobs easy, safe and quicker.

 Depending on the application, construction machines are

classified into various categories which we are discussing here.

A. Earthwork (Earthmoving & Excavating) equipments

B. Hoisting equipments
C. Concreting equipments

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GROUP A : EARTHWORK EQUIPMENTS

*Earthwork equipment is used in the construction industry to :

- shift large amounts of earth,
- dig foundations and landscape areas.

*Types of earthmoving equipment include bulldozers, loaders,

graders, scrappers, trucks, …
* Types of excavating equipment include excavators, front shovel, …

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A1 : EXCAVATORS
 Excavators are heavy construction equipment consisting of a boom,
stick, bucket and cab on a rotating platform (known as the "house").

 Excavators are also called diggers

 Excavators are used in many ways:

 Digging of trenches, holes, foundations
 Material handling
 Forestry work
 Demolition
 Landscaping
 Heavy lift, e.g. lifting and placing of pipes
 Mining, especially, but not only open-pit mining
 River dredging
 Driving piles, in conjunction with a pile driver

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A1 : EXCAVATORS

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A2 : LOADERS
 A loader is a heavy
equipment often used in
construction, primarily used
to load material (such as
asphalt, demolition debris,
dirt, snow, gravel, raw
minerals, recycled material,
rock, sand, and woodchips)
into or onto another type of
machinery (such as a dump
truck, conveyor belt, or
railcar).

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A3 : SKID STEER LOADERS

 A skid loader or skid-steer
loader is a small rigid frame,
engine-powered machine with
lift arms used to attach a wide
variety of labor-saving tools or
attachments.
 Skid-steer loaders are typically
four-wheel vehicles with the
wheels mechanically locked in
synchronization on each side.

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A4 : GRADERS
 A grader, also commonly
referred to as a road grader,
a blade, a maintainer, or a
motor grader, is a
construction machine with a
long blade used to create a
flat surface.
 Typical models have three
axles, with the engine and
cab situated above the rear
axles at one end of the
vehicle and a third axle at
the front end of the vehicle,
with the blade in between.
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A4 : GRADERS
 In civil engineering, the grader's
purpose is to "finish grade" (refine,
set precisely) the "rough grading"
performed by heavy equipment or
engineering vehicles such as
scrapers and bulldozers.

 Graders are commonly used in the

construction and maintenance of
dirt roads and gravel roads.

 In the construction of paved roads

they are used to prepare the base
course to create a wide flat surface
for the asphalt to be placed on.
Graders are also used to set native
soil foundation pads to finish grade
prior to the construction of large
buildings.
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A5 : CRAWLER LOADERS
 The crawler loader
combines the stability of the
crawler tractor with the
abilities of a wheel loader.
 However, to construct a
reliable crawler loader it
requires more than simply
attaching a loader bucket
onto a crawler tractor. It
must be designed with its
specific purpose in mind to
ensure it has the strength to
withstand heavy excavating.
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A5 : CRAWLER LOADERS
 The introduction of hydraulic
excavators diminished the market
for the crawler loader because it
was unable to match the
excavator's lifting power and
flexibility.
 However, crawler loaders are
capable of moving across the
entire construction site under its
own power, whereas most
hydraulic excavators require
towing or transport. While crawler
tractors are still being
manufactured today for markets,
they reached their peak of
popularity in the 1960s.
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A6 : BACKHOE
 A backhoe, also called a rear
actor or back actor, is a piece
of excavating equipment or
digger consisting of a digging
bucket on the end of a two-
part articulated arm. They are
typically mounted on the
back of a tractor or front
loader.
 Generally used to excavate
trenches, pits for basements
and also for grading works.

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A6 : BACKHOE
 The section of the arm closest to
the vehicle is known as the boom,
and the section which carries the
bucket is known as the dipper or
dipper stick (the terms "boom"
and "dipper" having been used
previously on steam shovels). The
boom is attached to the vehicle
through a pivot known as the
kingpost, which allows the arm to
slew left and right, usually
through a total of around 200
degrees. Modern backhoes are
powered by hydraulics.

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A7 : BULLDOZERS
 A bulldozer is a crawler
(continuous tracked tractor)
equipped with a substantial
metal plate (known as a
blade) used to push large
quantities of soil, sand,
rubble, or other such
material during construction
or conversion work and
typically equipped at the
rear with a device (known as
a ripper) to loosen densely-
compacted materials.
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A8 : TRENCHERS
 Trenchers, or ditchers as
they are sometimes called,
are similar to excavators in
the sense that they
penetrate the earth,
breaking soil and rock, and
remove it from the ground.
They differ from excavators
in that the soil is removed in
one continuous movement.
Trenchers are specifically
used for digging trenches for
pipes, but other machines
have been improvised in the
past to serve this purpose.
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A8 : TRENCHERS
 Trenchers can come in two
types: ladder trenchers and
wheel trenchers, and can
dig trenches at speeds that
other machines cannot
compare to.

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A9 : SCRAPERS
 In civil engineering, a wheel
tractor-scraper is a piece of
heavy equipment used for
earthmoving.

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A10 : WHEELED LOADING SHOVELS

 A power shovel (also stripping
shovel or front shovel or electric
mining shovel) is a bucket-
equipped machine, usually
electrically powered, used for
digging and loading earth or
fragmented rock and for mineral
extraction.

 Power shovels are used principally

for excavation and removal of
overburden in open-cut mining
operations, though it may include
loading of minerals, such as coal.
They are the modern equivalent of
steam shovels, and operate in a
similar fashion.
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A10 : WHEELED LOADING SHOVELS

 A shovel's work cycle, or
digging cycle, consists of
four phases:

 digging
 swinging
 dumping
 returning

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A11 : DUMPERS
 A dumper is a vehicle
designed for carrying bulk
material, often on building
sites. Dumpers are
distinguished from dump
trucks by configuration: a
dumper is usually an open
4-wheeled vehicle with the
load skip in front of the
driver, while a dump truck
has its cab in front of the
load.

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A11 : DUMPERS
 Dumpers are normally
diesel powered.
 Modern dumpers have
payloads of up to 10 tones.

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A12 : TIPPERS
 A truck or lorry the rear
platform of which can be
raised at the front end to
enable the load to be
discharged by gravity also
called dump truck or tip
truck.

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A13 : TIPPERS
 Tippers are suited for the
rough and tumble of mining
& quarrying operations, as
well as for carrying bulk
loads in construction and
infrastructure industries.
Complete movement, high
performance and long-term
endurance are common to
all trucks, resulting in lower
operating costs.

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A14 : TRAILERS
 A trailer is generally an
unpowered vehicle pulled by
a powered vehicle.

 Commonly, the term trailer

refers to such vehicles used
for transport of goods and
materials.

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A15 : TRAILERS

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SELECTION CRITERIA FOR EARTHWORK EQUIPMENTS

The selection of excavating and earthmoving equipment is mainly

dependent on the following factors:
 Quantities of material to be moved

 The available time to complete the work and the job conditions

 The prevailing soil types, the swell and compaction factors, etc.

 The job conditions include factors such as availability of

loading and dumping area, accessibility of site, traffic flows and
weather conditions at site.

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In order to plan the number of Earthwork Equipment needed,

the planner first determines the following:
 The suitable class of equipment for earthwork-for example,
if the soil to be excavated is loose and marshy, and bulk
excavation is involved In the project, one may opt for a dragline.
 The appropriate model of equipment based on different
characteristics such as payload of bucket and speeds required.
 The number of equipment needed for the project to carry
out the given quantity.
 The number of associated equipment required to support
the main equipment

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GROUP B: HOISTING EQUIPMENTS

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B1 : CRANES
 A crane is a type of machine,
generally equipped with a
hoist, wire ropes or chains,
and sheaves, that can be
used both to lift and lower
materials and to move them
horizontally. It is mainly used
for lifting heavy things and
transporting them to other
places.

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B1 : CRANES
 It uses one or more simple
machines to create
mechanical advantage and
thus move loads beyond the
normal capability of a man.
Cranes are commonly
employed in the transport
industry for the loading and
unloading of freight, in the
construction industry for the
movement of materials and
in the manufacturing
industry for the assembling
of heavy equipment.
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B2 : CONVEYORS
 A conveyor system is a
common piece of mechanical
handling equipment that
moves materials from one
location to another. Conveyors
are especially useful in
applications involving the
transportation of heavy or
bulky materials. Conveyor
systems allow quick and
efficient transportation for a
wide variety of materials,
which make them very popular
in the material handling and
packaging industries

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B2 : CONVEYORS

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B3 : FORKLIFTS
 A forklift truck (also called a lift
truck, a fork truck, a forklift, or
a tow-motor) is a powered
industrial truck used to lift and
transport materials.

 Forklift trucks are available in

many variations and load
capacities. In a typical
warehouse setting most
forklifts used have load
capacities between one to five
tons. Larger machines, up to
50 tons lift capacity are used
for lifting heavier loads,
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B3 : FORKLIFTS

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B4 : HOISTS
 A hoist is a device used for
lifting or lowering a load by
means of a drum or lift-
wheel around which rope or
chain wraps. It may be
manually operated,
electrically or pneumatically
driven and may use chain,
fiber or wire rope as its
lifting medium. The load is
attached to the hoist by
means of a lifting hook

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B4 : HOISTS
 Also known as a Man-Lift,
Buckhoist, temporary elevator,
builder hoist, passenger hoist or
construction elevator, this type of
hoist is commonly used on large
scale construction projects, such
as high-rise buildings or major
hospitals. There are many other
uses for the construction elevator.
 Many other industries use the
buckhoist for full time operations.
The purpose is being to carry
personnel, materials, and
equipment quickly between the
ground and higher floors, or
between floors in the middle of a
structure.
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SELECTION CRITERIA FOR HOISTING EQUIPMENTS

Factors affecting the selection of hoisting equipments are:

1.Building Design 4.Economy

-Building Height
-Project Duration
2.Capability
-Power Supply
-Load lifting frequency
-Operators Visibility
3.Safety
-Initial Planning and
-Engineering
-Cost of move in, setup, and
move out
-Cost for rent
-Productivity
5.Site Conditions
-Soil Stability and ground
conditions
-Access road requirement
and site accessibility
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GROUP C: CONCRETING EQUIPMENTS

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C1 : TUNNELING AND HANDLING EQUIPMENTS

 A tunnel boring machine (TBM)

also known as a "mole", is a
machine used to excavate tunnels
with a circular cross section
through a variety of soil and rock
strata. They can bore through
anything from hard rock to sand.
Tunnel diameters can range from
a meter (done with micro-TBMs)
to 19.25 m to date. Tunnels of
less than a meter or so in
diameter are typically done using
trenchless construction methods
or horizontal directional drilling
rather than TBMs.

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C2 : CONCRETE MIXERS
 A concrete mixer (also commonly
called a cement mixer) is a device
that homogeneously combines
cement, aggregate such as sand
or gravel, and water to form
concrete. A typical concrete mixer
uses a revolving drum to mix the
components. For smaller volume
works portable concrete mixers
are often used so that the
concrete can be made at the
construction site, giving the
workers ample time to use the
concrete before it hardens.

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C2 : CONCRETE MIXERS
 Special concrete transport trucks
(in–transit mixers) are made to
transport and mix concrete up to
the construction site. They can be
charged with dry materials and
water, with the mixing occurring
during transport. With this
process, the material has already
been mixing. The concrete mixing
transport truck maintains the
material's liquid state through
agitation, or turning of the drum,
until delivery.

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C3 : COMPACTORS
 A compactor is a machine or
mechanism used to reduce the
size of waste material or soil
through compaction.

 In construction, there are three

main types of compactor: the
plate compactor, the "Jumping
Jack" and the road roller. The
roller type compactors are used
for compacting crushed rock as
the base layer underneath
concrete or stone foundations or
slabs.

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C3 : COMPACTORS
 The plate compactor has a large
vibrating base plate and is suited
for creating a level grade, while
the jumping jack compactor has a
smaller foot. The jumping jack
type is mainly used to compact
the backfill in narrow trenches for
water or gas supply pipes etc.
Road rollers may also have
vibrating rollers.

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C4 : PAVERS
 A paver (paver finisher, asphalt
finisher, paving machine) is an
engineering vehicle used to lay
asphalt on roadways. It is
normally fed by a dump truck.
A separate machine, a roller, is
then used to press the hot
asphalt mix, resulting a
smooth, even surface. The
sub-base being prepared by
use of a grader to trim crushed
stone to profile after rolling.

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C4 : PAVERS

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C5 : SPRAYING AND PLASTERING MACHINES

 Plaster spraying allows a plasterer

to skim a drywall more than five
times faster than using a hand
float to apply it. Although classic
gypsum-based plaster can be
sprayed if it is "spray grade," most
plaster sprayers prefer the
organic-based pre-mixed plaster
packaged in a plastic bag
because the plaster spraying
machine does not need to be
cleaned out after the job is
finished, providing that plaster is
kept moist.

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C5 : SPRAYING AND PLASTERING MACHINES

 Worm-drive pump
Most commonly, sprayers have a
worm-drive pump that pumps the
plaster up to a spray gun that has
a large nozzle, usually 4 to 8 mm,
that extrudes the plaster into a
chamber on the end of the gun
 Piston pump
Newer types of plaster sprayer
have a piston pump, which has
sufficient pressure to spray
smooth (untextured) plaster
without compressed air.

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C6 : ROAD ROLLER
 A road roller (sometimes
called a roller-compactor, or
just roller) is a compactor
type engineering vehicle
used to compact soil, gravel,
concrete, or asphalt in the
construction of roads and
foundations, similar rollers
are used also at landfills or
in agriculture.

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C7 : STONE CRUSHERS
 A crusher is a machine
designed to reduce large rocks
into smaller rocks, gravel, or
rock dust. Crushers may be
used to reduce the size, or
change the form, of waste
materials so they can be more
easily disposed of or recycled,
or to reduce the size of a solid
mix of raw materials (as in rock
ore), so that pieces of different
composition can be
differentiated.

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C7 : STONE CRUSHERS

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C8 : SLURRY&HEAVY DUTY PUMPS

 A Slurry pump is a type of
centrifugal pump in physics
principle that increases the
pressure of liquid and solid
particle mixture (aka slurry),
through centrifugal force (a
rotating impeller) and converts
electrical energy into slurry
potential and kinetic energy.
 A pump is a device used to
move fluids, such as liquids,
gases or slurries. A pump
displaces a volume by physical
or mechanical action.
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SELECTION CRITERIA FOR CONCRETING EQUIPMENTS

Selection of concreting equipment can be complicated and
difficult. The decision will involve many issues that have to be
analyzed. The following factors are noteworthy:
 Site characteristics such as boundary conditions, noise
limitations and other restrictions.
 Equipment availability-local availability of equipments, whether
the contractor owns that equipment
 Continuity of operation
 Effect of permanent work
 Weather conditions
 Temporary works
 Time restrictions
 Concrete specifications
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ASSIGNMENT 1
 The following activities are the four common earthmoving and
excavating work that require heavy construction equipments. List of
equipments that typically work together to perform this task are
needed. Each piece of equipment plays a specific role in the series of
activities required to perform the task efficiently and effectively.
Equipment packages will vary based on the volume of work, desired
productivity, equipment availability, and specific work conditions and
needs.
 Please assign and discuss the required equipments for the following
activities:
1. Site clearing
2. Trench excavation
3. Foundation excavation
4. Back fill
Submission date: April 03, 2015 53
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THANK YOU

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