Construction Machinery
On every construction site there is some kind of construction machinery, helping man to fullfill his construction work, making some jobs possible, easier, safer and more reliable.
Construction machinery is manifold, and there exist very common and well known machines like excavators and loaders as well as very special machines that are rarely seen. This page sorts, lists and describes construction machinery and links to even more detailed information about each machine.
Earthworks
digging machines
Excavator
The excavator is mainly used for digging holes like e.g. building pits. The most common usage is in combination with trucks, which get loaded by the excavator in several plays.
Excavators come in many different kinds of construction variants.
Loader
Loaders are fast moving diggers compared to excavators and face shovels. They are used for moving loose soil.
surface digging machines
Surface digging machines move and change the soil usually in order to prepare the surface for construction.
Dozer
A dozer pushes soil material in order to create a more or less flat surface which can be even more flattened by graders.
Grader
The grader is constructed in a way that it is able to do levellling jobs very thoroughly and used to prepare the surface for e.g. road construction projects.
Scraper
Scrapers are used to scrape a thin layer of material from the soil and move them to a point which is a few hundred meters off. They are used not often and only on large earthwork construction sites.
Compactor
In earthworks, compactors are used to compress and stabilize the soil in order to prepare it for further construction purposes.
Road construction
Milling machine
Milling machines remove a layer of material from e.g. roads. They are mainly used for repair jobs to prepare a road for the construction of a new layer of material.
Paver
A paver lays asphalt or concrete in a matter that it's surface is very planar. Asphalt pavers provide also some precompaction.
Compactor
Compactors are used for compacting asphalt after laying by the paver.
lifting machinery
Tower Crane
Tower Cranes come in many variants and are used mainly for lifting material at construction sites.
Portal Crane
Used mainly on storage sites and and trans-shipment centers, portal cranes can lift heavy loads.
Cable Crane
Not commonly used, cable cranes find their place e.g. at damn construction and construction sites that have a line layout. They can span huge distances and deep valleys and are able to carry heavy loads.
Tractor Crane
Similar to cable-operated excavators, these cranes have a similar use as tower cranes. Their advantage is the possiblity to move around on the construction site.
Truck-mounted Crane
These are cranes that can drive on roads. They are used for short-time lifting jobs and e.g. the construction of a tower crane.