What's the world's first excavator? - PowerTrack
What's the world's first excavator? - PowerTrack
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In , the two brothers, Carlo and Mario Bruneri, started repairing and manufacturing tipping trucks, tractors and later building machines in the Turin suburbs, specifically wheel excavators and hydraulic crawlers.
It was in , at the end of the Second World War, a period of economic and industrial recovery, that they designed and built the first prototype of an excavator with a pump and hydraulic jacks: a product for which later, in September , the brothers obtained a patent for the invention of what we now know most commonly as the first hydraulic excavator in the world.
While the front-loading shovels with traditional rope movement were slow, tiring to use and "cumbersome", the new prototype of the Bruneri hydraulic excavator, deprived of clutches, brakes, winches, ropes, drums, rope reels and reversing boxes, was much lighter and slimmer, convenient in terms of production costs and undoubtedly more performing than its mechanical predecessor.
On the new construction vehicle, the management of wear and tear also improved considerably, thus adding another positive aspect to the list of advantages of the machine, which also began to interest the French on the other side of the border. It was the French company Sicam that obtained the patent of the Turin brothers in , thus starting the marketing in France of the 100% hydraulic excavator Yumbo.
If the Italian market was not very inclined to innovations in the engineering-mechanical field, in the rest of the world the project was appreciated and demanded in Turin loudly: so much so that the same hydraulic excavator Bruneri was produced in several countries by different companies such as the company Drott in the U.S.A., Mitsubishi in Japan, Priestman in England and Tusa in Spain.
In , the engineering brothers demolished the wall of the hydraulic excavators produced in their factories and, thanks to the experience passed on to the French manufacturer, contributed to the worldwide diffusion of the hydraulic excavator branded Yumbo.
All Bruneri excavators were equipped with tires and steel tracks, only with the years and new engineering studies the most recent manufacturers of construction equipment have offered the public the mini excavators with rubber tracks: practical to use in small construction sites and closed areas as houses, they are much smaller and more practical than the first excavators. Read our article about the European smallest mini-excavator and the new ecological technologies applied to mini excavators with rubber tracks.
The two brothers Bruneri interrupt their collaboration by closing the first and historic company, giving rise to the new company Hydromac, which is founded by Carlo Bruneri and in which his brother will not take part, as he is committed to carrying on the company Simit founded by him and later acquired by Fiat group.
Despite the interruption of collaboration between the two brothers, the Bruneri hydraulic excavator is to be considered the first 100% hydraulic excavator in the world, an all-Italian pride.
On the occasion of the world day of historic motoring, we want to offer you some photographs of Bruneri and Hydromac construction vehicles, rubberized and tracked of the time:
Sources: https://www.hydromac.it/
Excavator
Excavators are heavy construction equipment primarily consisting of a boom, dipper (or stick), bucket, and cab on a rotating platform known as the "house"[1] - although the largest form ever, the dragline excavator, eliminated the dipper in favor of a line and winch.
The modern excavator's house sits atop an undercarriage with tracks or wheels, being an evolution of the steam shovel (which itself evolved into the power shovel when steam was replaced by diesel and electric power). All excavation-related movement and functions of a hydraulic excavator are accomplished through the use of hydraulic fluid, with hydraulic cylinders and hydraulic motors,[2] which replaced winches, chains, and steel ropes.[3] Another principle change was the direction of the digging action, with modern excavators pulling their buckets toward them like a dragline rather than pushing them away to fill them the way the first powered shovels did.
Terminology
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Excavators are also called diggers, scoopers, mechanical shovels, or 360-degree excavators (sometimes abbreviated simply to "360"). Tracked excavators are sometimes called "trackhoes" by analogy to the backhoe.[4] In the UK, wheeled excavators are sometimes known as "rubber ducks".[5]
Usage
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House demolition by an excavator in Invermere, British ColumbiaExcavators are used in many ways:
Configurations
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Modern hydraulic excavators come in a wide variety of sizes. The smaller ones are called mini or compact excavators.[7] For example, Caterpillar's smallest mini-excavator weighs 2,060 pounds (930 kg) and has 13 hp;[8] their largest model is the largest excavator available (developed and produced by the Orenstein & Koppel, Germany, until the takeover by Caterpillar, named »RH400«), the CAT , which weighs in excess of 2,160,510 pounds (979,990 kg), has hp, and a bucket as large as 52.0 m3.
Hydraulic excavators usually couple engine power to (commonly) three hydraulic pumps rather than to mechanical drivetrains. The two main pumps supply oil at high pressure (up to psi, 345 bar) for the arms, swing motor, track motors and accessories while the third is a lower pressure (&#;700 psi, 48 bar) pump for pilot control of the spool valves; this third circuit allows for reduced physical effort when operating the controls. Generally, the 3 pumps used in excavators consist of 2 variable displacement piston pumps and a gear pump. The arrangement of the pumps in the excavator unit changes with different manufacturers using different formats.
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The three main sections of an excavator are the undercarriage, the house and the arm. The boom, the front part that is attached to the cab itself and holds the arm, is also used. The undercarriage includes tracks, track frame, and final drives, which have a hydraulic motor and gearing providing the drive to the individual tracks. Undercarriage can also have blade similar to that of a bulldozer. The house includes the operator cab, counterweight, engine, fuel and hydraulic oil tanks. The house attaches to the undercarriage by way of a center pin. High-pressure oil is supplied to the tracks' hydraulic motors through a hydraulic swivel at the axis of the pin, allowing the machine to slew 360° unhindered and thus provides the left-and-right movement.[9] The arm provides the up-and-down and closer-and-further (or digging movement) movements. Arms typically consist of a boom, stick and bucket with three joints between them and the house.
The principle of a hydraulic excavatorThe boom attaches to the house and provides the up-and-down movement. It can be one of several different configurations:
- Most common are mono booms; these have no movement apart from straight up and down.
- Some others have a knuckle boom which can also move left and right in line with the machine.[
clarification needed
] - Another option is a hinge at the base of the boom allowing it to hydraulically pivot up to 180° independent to the house; however, this is generally available only to compact excavators.
- Variable angle booms have additional joint in the middle of the boom to change the curvature of the boom. These are also called triple-articulated booms (TAB) or 3 piece booms.
Attached to the end of the boom is the stick (or dipper arm). The stick provides the digging movement needed to pull the bucket through the ground. The stick length is optional depending whether reach (longer stick) or break-out power (shorter stick) is required. Most common is mono stick but there are also, for example, telescopic sticks.
On the end of the stick is usually a bucket. A wide, large capacity (mud) bucket with a straight cutting edge is used for cleanup and levelling or where the material to be dug is soft, and teeth are not required. A general purpose (GP) bucket is generally smaller, stronger, and has hardened side cutters and teeth used to break through hard ground and rocks. Buckets have numerous shapes and sizes for various applications. There are also many other attachments that are available to be attached to the excavator for boring, ripping, crushing, cutting, lifting, etc. Attachments can be attached with pins similar to other parts of the arm or with some variety of quick coupler. Excavators in Scandinavia often feature a tiltrotator which allows attachments rotate 360 degrees and tilt +/- 45 degrees, in order to increase the flexibility and precision of the excavator.
Before the s, all excavators had a long or conventional counterweight that hung off the rear of the machine to provide more digging force and lifting capacity. This became a nuisance when working in confined areas. In Yanmar launched the world's first Zero Tail Swing excavator,[10] which allows the counterweight to stay inside the width of the tracks as it slews, thus being safer and more user friendly when used in a confined space. This type of machine is now widely used throughout the world.
Hydraulic excavator controls illustration, color of the control matches the moving partThere are two main types of control configuration used in excavators to control the boom and bucket, each distributing the four primary digging functions across two x-y joysticks. This allows a skilled operator to control all four functions simultaneously. The most popular configuration in the US is the SAE controls configuration while in other parts of the world, the ISO control configuration is more common. Some manufacturers such as Takeuchi have switches that allow the operator to select which control configuration to use.
Excavator attachments
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Excavator with grappleHydraulic excavators now perform tasks well beyond bucket excavation. With the advent of hydraulic-powered attachments such as a breaker, a cutter, a grapple or an auger,a crusher and screening buckets[11] the excavator is frequently used in many applications other than excavation. Many excavators feature a quick coupler for simplified attachment mounting, increasing the machine's utilization on the jobsite. Excavators are usually employed together with loaders and bulldozers. Most wheeled, compact and some medium-sized (11 to 18-tonne) excavators have a backfill (or dozer) blade. This is a horizontal bulldozer-like blade attached to the undercarriage and is used for leveling and pushing removed material back into a hole.
Notable manufacturers
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Current manufacturers
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As of July , current excavator manufacturers include:
See also
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Types of excavator
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Other
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References
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- Excavators at Wikimedia Commons
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