An overview of the different types of heavy equipment commonly used in construction 

Heavy equipment is a heavy-duty vehicle that is designed for construction work. They are used in various operations ranging from mining to road building. Heavy equipment is a mobile machine, which means it is movable. It helps in the erection of buildings, dams, roads, and many others.

The various types of heavy equipment have specific names depending on their designs, features, and usage. There are different types of heavy equipment used in construction work, each with their own benefits. In this article we will be discussing the list of heavy equipment used in construction.

Types of Heavy Equipment Used in Construction:

1. Excavator:

It is a type of excavating machine fitted with a bucket, arm, rotating cab mounted on movable tracks to give it superior digging capacity and mobility. Excavators are mainly used in building construction. The design of this heavy equipment allows it to dig trenches and holes, lift away waste, and excavate mines.

The excavator is used for a variety of industrial needs, including road construction, mining, building construction, and demolitions. Excavators have a cab that allows the operator to sit high above the ground, allowing the operator to see the work site as well as any hazards from a distance. Excavators come in both wheeled and tracked forms.

2. Bulldozer:

Bulldozers are powerful, heavy equipment used in construction. They are commonly used for digging and ditching, for transporting soil from trucks to a site, and for grading and leveling surfaces around loading equipment. Bulldozers are equipped with wide tracks which helps them to move easily through rough terrain.

Moreover, their weight is distributed across a wide footprint, allowing them to work on muddy, sandy, or any other type of sites. The blade attached to the front of the bulldozer is used for pushing or scraping soil, sand, and debris on construction sites. 

3. Backhoe:

A backhoe is another type of earth-moving equipment used in construction that has a loading bucket on the front and a digging apparatus on the back. It is one of the most versatile heavy equipment used in construction.

They have a wide variety of uses across the construction industry, including digging holes, breaking up concrete or asphalt, excavating, landscaping, and digging trenches. 

4. Dragline excavator:

Dragline excavator is a heavy equipment commonly utilized for civil engineering projects and surface mining. A drag rope is attached to a large bucket that can be used to drag materials at a far distance from the machine.

A dragline excavator consists of several parts, namely, drag rope, large bucket, boom, hoist rope, and driving motors.  They are used for a variety of purposes, including surface mining, road excavation, underwater excavation, etc. 

5. Grader:

Graders, often known as ‘motor graders’ are another type of equipment used in construction. Since they are primarily used to level the soil surface, they are mostly utilized for road works, civil construction, and mining sites. It has a horizontal blade positioned between the front and back wheels.

While in use, this blade is lowered to the ground. For the construction and maintenance of dirt and gravel roads, graders are commonly used. They’re utilized to make a smooth surface for the asphalt to be laid on. Moreover, graders are used for fine grading in civil engineering projects. 

6. Wheel tractor scraper:

It is a heavy equipment machinery that is used to level the surface of the soil through scraping. The front part of the machine contains a wheeled tractor, and the rear area is equipped with a horizontal front blade. When the vehicle moves, the front blade is lowered to the ground, and the blade begins to excavate soil above the blade level. 

It is used to remove or transport gravel, dust, coal, mud, and other unwanted materials from the surface of the ground. 

7. Trenchers:

It is a type of earthmoving equipment used in construction that uses a metal chain with a teeth like structure made of high-strength steel to cut into the ground like an axe might slice into a tree.

Manually digging a trench would require many workers and many hours to complete. A trencher can make this job easier by reducing the time and number of people required to complete this project.

8. Loader:

A loader is handy when you have to load or move materials like soil, rock, sand, and debris into another machine such as a dump truck, conveyor belt, or railroad car.

Loaders are of two types, namely, track loaders and wheel loaders. A track loader is used for the purposes of lifting, pushing, and moving. Their tracks allow them to equally disperse their weight across the surface they’re moving on, reducing the chances of the vehicle sinking into soft ground.

Wheel loaders can do the same job, except they have wheels. The wheels allow them to lift, push, and move more quickly than a track loader, but they also make them more likely to leave a mark on a construction site because the machine’s weight is distributed over four wheels rather than tracks. 

9. Paver:

A paver is a type of construction equipment that is used to put asphalt on roads, bridges, parking lots, and other similar locations. Before being compacted by a roller, it lays the asphalt and offers mild compaction. The paver is fitted with a feeding bucket to which asphalt is continuously loaded by the dump truck. 

10. Compactors: 

A compactor or road roller is a compactor-type engineering vehicle. These vehicles are used in the construction of roads and foundations to flatten soil, gravel, concrete, or asphalt. Road rollers are also used in agriculture and landfills to ensure that the ground is flattened completely so that materials, such as soil and rock, do not shift or break free.

11. Telehandlers:

It is a type of lifting equipment used in construction for the purpose of lifting heavy materials to a desired height. It is also used as a construction platform, enabling workers to work at greater heights. The telehandler is equipped with a long telescopic boom.

Equipment like forklifts, buckets, cabins, and lifting jibs can be attached to it depending on the job requirement. Telehandlers have many applications, including lifting, moving, and transferring different types of materials like construction supplies and cargo onto the truck. 

12. Feller bunchers:

A buncher is a heavy cutting machine used to remove large trees in the construction field.  It has the capability to hold more than one stem at a time. They remove the tree and grab it without felling it, and collect all the cut trees at one location to make loading and unloading easier.

13. Dump trucks:

On construction sites, dump trucks are typically used to transport materials such as dirt, gravel, or demolition waste. They are also known by different names, such as dumping truck, dump trailer or a dumper.

Most big construction sites require off-road dump trucks. These trucks have large wheels and are equipped with hydraulic lifts, which help them transport heavy material over any type of terrain.

14. Pile driving equipment:

In the case of pile foundation construction, a common heavy equipment employed on the job site is pile driving equipment. This machine raises the pile, keeps it in place, then drives it into the earth to the appropriate depth. The pile is forced into the ground by hydraulically hammering the pile top. 

Key takeaways:

Heavy equipment is an important part of all construction projects, as everything you build must eventually be moved and lifted. As there are several types of heavy equipment used in construction, choosing the right type of construction equipment that works best for your needs can be difficult.

KITES Equipment Rental, one of the top equipment rental suppliers in Saudi Arabia, helps customers choose heavy equipment based on their project needs and offers affordable rental services.

Want to rent equipment and begin construction work as quickly as possible? Thenreach out to your representatives right away — email us at sales@kitesgcc.com or call us now!