Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
A mini excavator or compact excavator is used for digging or demolition works in construction projects or as a part of repair and maintenance. Mini excavators are specially manufactured for comparatively smaller projects but these machineries need expert hands for flawless and safe operation. Mini excavators are available with different attachments meant for digging and demolition. A mini excavator comes with a small cab where the controller sits comfortably for driving and controlling the machine. These days, highly sophisticated electronics devices are used for maneuvering and controlling the machine. Mini excavators either have wheels or tracks.
What kinds of jobs require mini excavators?
A mini or compact excavator can accomplish a multiple of tasks, some of which are as follows:
-
- Digging Holes on the ground, walls, or hills
- Digging ponds, or reservoirs
- Demolishing a small structure
- Removing concrete or natural obstacles
- Removing snow from the road or garden
- Creating trenches
- Removing debris
- Digging irrigation channels
- Cleaning drains
- Flattening uneven landscape
Mini excavator models possess different benefits and they are specialized in handling different types of projects. Before, buying or hiring such machinery, the user needs to think about the availability of space, and type of job where the machine will be employed.
Types of mini excavators
Two types of mini excavators are available in the market:
Tail swing excavators – These excavators are popular for their greater lifting capacity, and arm breakout force, comfortable cabs, and easy to control option. The rear counterweight is specially designed to provide more stability to the whole system while excavating or lifting theweight. The machine requires some extra space for movement, so it is not suitable for a narrow area.
Zero-tail swing excavators – As the name suggest, this machine is just suitable for a narrow area. Its counterweight moves within the width of the excavator making it adjustable in a small space and keeping thefocus of the operator just on the job. The maintenance expenses of this excavator are also lower than tail swing excavators.
Zero-tail swing excavators have become more demanding than the traditional mini excavators as they are easily operable in urban and populated areas. As the counterweight radius is minimized within the width of the machines there remains less chance of damage to other properties.
Attachments for mini excavators
These machinery are extremely useful as the users can apply these in different works with different kinds of attachments like buckets, chuck blades, rippers, blades, grippers, grapples, and much more. Again, each of these attachments has different specifications which are used in different situations. For example, buckets have a multiple of categories like digging buckets, tilting buckets, tilting buckets, rotary tilting buckets, etc. and grapples have categories like rotating lock grapples, rock grapples, wood processing grapples, etc.
For an efficient use of a mini excavator, the operator needs to be trained on this machine. Otherwise, work hour and quality of work may be lost and damage of property or other kinds of accidents may occur. Mini excavators are optimally expert in multiple jobs where promptness and expenses matter a lot.