Heavy equipment or heavy machinery refers to heavy-duty vehicles, specially designed for executing construction tasks, most frequently ones involving earthwork operations or other large construction tasks. Heavy equipment usually comprises five equipment systems: implementation, traction, structure, power train, control and information.
History
The use of heavy equipment has a long history; the ancient Roman engineer Vitruvius (1st century BCE) gave descriptions of heavy equipment and cranes in ancient Rome in his treatise De architectura. The pile driver was invented around 1500. The first tunnelling shield was patented by Marc Isambard Brunel in 1818.
Types
These subdivisions, in this order, are the standard heavy equipment categorization.
Track-type
- Agricultural tractors
- Bulldozer
- Snowcat
- Track skidder
- Track-type tractors (Bulldozer)
- Tractor
- Military engineering vehicles
Grader
- Grader
SkidSteer
- Skid steer loader
Excavator
- Amphibious excavator
- Compact excavator
- Dragline excavator
- Dredging
- Bucket-wheel excavator
- Excavator (digger)
- Front shovel
- Long reach excavator
- Power shovel
- Reclaimer
- Steam shovel
- Suction excavator
- Walking Excavator
- Trencher (machine)
- Yarder
Backhoe
- Backhoe loader, Backhoe
Timber
- Feller buncher
- Harvester
- Skidder
- Track harvester
- Wheel forwarder
- Wheel skidder
Pipelayer
- Pipelayer (sideboom)
Scraper
- Fresno scraper
- Scraper
- Wheel tractor-scraper
Mining
- Construction & mining tractor
- Construction & mining trucks
Articulated
- Articulated hauler
- Articulated truck
Compactor
- Wheel dozers – soil compactors
- Soil stabilizer
Loader
- Loader
- Skip loader (skippy)
- Wheel loader (front loader, integrated tool carrier)
Track Loader
- Track loader
Material Handler
- Aerial work platform / Lift table
- Cherry picker
- Crane
- Forklift
- Knuckleboom loader (trailer mount) & Knuckleboom loader (trailer mount)
- Straddle carrier
- Reach stacker
- Telescopic handlers
Paving
- Asphalt paver
- Asphalt plant
- Cold planer
- Cure rig
- Paver
- Pavement milling
- Pneumatic tire compactor
- Roller (road roller or roller compactor)
- Slipform paver
- Vibratory compactor, Compactor
Underground
- Roadheader
- Tunnel boring machine
- Underground mining equipment
Hydromatic Tool
- Ballast tamper
- Attachments
- Drilling machine
- Pile driver
- Rotary tiller (rototiller, rotovator)
Highway
- Dump truck
- Highway 10 yard rear dump
- Highway bottom dump (stiff), pup (belly train), triple
- Highway end dump and side dump
- Highway transfer, Transfer train
- Highway transit-mixer
- Lowboy (trailer)
- Street sweeper
Implements and Hydromechanical Work Tools
- auger
- backhoe
- bale spear
- broom
- bulldozer blade
- clam shell bucket
- cold plane
- demolition shears
- equipment bucket
- excavator bucket
- forks
- grapple
- hydraulic hammer, hoe ram
- hydraulics
- hydraulic tilting bucket (4-in-1)
- landscape tiller
- material handling arm
- mechanical pulverizer, crusher
- multi processor
- pavement removal bucket
- pile driver
- power take-off (PTO)
- quick coupler
- rake
- ripper
- rotating grab
- sheep's foot compactor
- skeleton bucket
- snow blower
- stump grinder
- stump shear
- thumb
- tiltrotator
- trencher
- vibratory plate compactor
- wheel saw