ACTIVITY 2

1. State the purpose of excavation.

Before you can start building, a lot of effort takes on behind the scenes in the construction
industry. Excavation is the very first phase in the construction process and one of the most
important stages. Excavation construction is employed in practically every structure's
construction. Excavation isn't always easy, and it's not a particularly inexpensive step in the
process, but it's vitally important. It's used to lay the foundation for homes, roads, and
buildings, as well as to create reservoirs such as lakes and pools, which host some of our
favorite summer pastimes. It is also used in the extraction of precious metals and minerals.
Excavation speeds up the construction process and allows us to build our critical structures to
their full potential by giving us more control over the job site. Trenching, digging, dredging,
and site development are some of the excavation processes. To get the work done correctly,
each of these procedures necessitates its own set of skills, tools, and machinery. The
procedures used will be determined by the structure that is created as a result of the
construction process.

2. Identify the uses and types of excavation equipment.

The types of excavation equipment to be used in an excavation project depend on the scope of
work and construction site. The excavation equipment to be used can either be utilized for
some situations or can be a particular type which meets the requirements of the given project.
POWER SHOVEL
It is used to excavate the earth and to load the trucks, capable of excavating all types of earth
except hard rock, size varies from 0.375m3 to 5m3. Basics parts of power shovel including the
track system, cabin, cables, rack, stick, boom foot-pin, saddle block, boom, boom point sheaves
and bucket. Suitable for close range of work, capable of digging very hard materials, can
remove big sized boulders. It is used in various types of jobs such as digging in gravel banks,
clay pits, digging cuts in road works, road-side berms, etc.
TRACTOR
It is an important equipment for earth movement. It converts engine energy into tractive energy.
Tractors are usually worked by diesel engines.

BULL DOZER
You can think of this piece of machinery as the monster of the excavation industry. It is one of
the strongest and most reliable tools in construction. Powerful and extremely heavy, it runs on
treads and has a wide, flat blade in the front. It normally used pushes large piles of dirt or breaks
up huge boulders among other duties.
ANGLE DOZER
In angle dozers, blades are attached to the front side of the tractor at an angle other than 90
degrees to the longitudinal axis of the tractor. They are used for pushing the material to side,
right or left.
SCRAPER
It is a self-sufficient machine which can dig, load, haul, and discharge the material in uniformly
thick layers
DRAG LINE
The drag line is so name because of its prominent operation of dragging the bucket against the
material to be dug, Unlike the shovel, it has a long light crane boom and the bucket is loosely
attached to the boom through cables. Because of this construction, a dragline can dig and dump
over larger distances than a shovel can do. Drag lines are useful for digging below its track level
and handling softer materials. The basic parts of a drag line including the boom, hoist cable, drag
cable, hoist chain, drag chain and bucket. It is the most suitable machine for dragging softer
material and below its track level. It is very useful for excavating trenches when the sides are
permitted to establish their angle of repose without shoring. It has long reaches. It is mostly used
in the excavation for canals and depositing on the embankment without hauling units.
CLAM SHELL
This is so named due to resemblance of its bucket to a clam which is like a shell-fish with hinged
double shell. The front end is essentially a crane boom with a specially designed bucket loosely
attached at the end through cables as in a drag line. The capacity of a clam shell bucket is usually
given in cubic meters. The basic parts of clam shell bucket are the closing line, hoist line,
sheaves, brackets, tagline, shell and hinge. Used for handling loose material such as crushed
stone, sand, gravel, coal etc. •Main feature is vertical lifting of material from one location to
another. Mainly used for removing material from coffer dam, sewer main holes, well foundations
etc.
BACKHOE
Also known as hoe, back shovel and pull shovel. It is used to excavate below the natural surface
on which it rests. Generally used to excavate trenches, pits for basements and also for grading
works, which requires precise control of depths. The basic parts are boom, Jack boom, Boom
foot drum, Boom sheave, Stick sheave, Stick, Bucket and Bucket sheave. It is the most suitable
machine for digging below the machine level, such as, trenches, footings, basements etc. It can
be efficiently used to dress or trim the surface avoiding the use of manual effort for dressing the
excavated the surface.
DREDGERS
These are the equipment used for excavation of the river, lake or sea for the purpose of
deepening.
RIPPER
Ripper is used for ripping of rock which is an alternative to the costly and time-consuming
drilling and blasting process. The ripper can be wheel mounted or towed type which is pulled by
one tractor and paused by another.
MOTOR GRADER
This is used for levelling and finishing earthwork. They can be either towed type or motorized
type.
CRAWLER LOADER
Combining the track mounted power of an excavator with the bucket capability of a backhoe;
this machine is most helpful for moving materials off-site. You may often see them loading
material into a truck or taking soil to a different location.
EXCAVATOR
This is the machine most often associated with excavation projects. It has a long bucket arm
attached to a cab where the operator sits and can rotate 360 degrees. Running on tracks, this is a
large piece of equipment used for big jobs. It is typically used to dig trenches, demolition, snow
and forestry removal, lift pipes and heavy objects, and grade the ground. You can also use
different attachments for them, such as a clamshell attachment to pick up dirt and debris. There
are several types of excavators, including:
Spider excavator – designed to work on all types of terrain, such as steep inclines and narrow
ditches, it moves on “legs” instead of tracks.
Swamp excavator – specially made for jobs near water, it has a special kind of track that makes
it perfect for dredging projects.
Zero swing excavators – this machine has an arm that can only swing within its own width,
making it the perfect piece of excavation equipment for confined spaces.
Skid-steer loader - simple to operate, these machines are quite flexible with a tight turning
radius like a military tank. This makes it ideal for small spaces and in areas with numerous
structures around or other completed excavation projects. It has wheels for better traction in mud
and snow and reduced soil compaction.
Trencher - It operates with a conveyor system that takes the excavated material and moves it to
an area next to the trench. There are different digging tools, depending on the type of excavation
required and how hard the excavated material will be. You can find both wheeled and chain
trenchers. For example, a professional might use it to dig up pavement or asphalt. They are most
often used for drainage purposes or laying pipes and cable. The right excavation equipment can
prevent dangers like cave-ins.