A bulldozer or dozer is a large, motorized machine equipped with a metal blade to the front for pushing material: soil, sand, snow, rubble, or rock during construction work. It travels most commonly on continuous tracks, though specialized models riding on large off-road tires are also produced. Its most popular accessory is a ripper, a large hook-like device mounted singly or in multiples in the rear to loosen dense materials.
A loader is a heavy equipment machine used in construction to move or load materials such as soil, rock, sand, demolition debris, etc. into or onto another type of machinery.
Heavy equipment, heavy machinery, earthmovers, construction vehicles, or construction equipment, refers to heavy-duty vehicles specially designed to execute construction tasks, most frequently involving earthwork operations or other large construction tasks. Heavy equipment usually comprises five equipment systems: the implement, traction, structure, power train, and control/information.
Komatsu Ltd. or Komatsu (コマツ) is a Japanese multinational corporation that manufactures construction, mining, forestry and military equipment, as well as diesel engines and industrial equipment like press machines, lasers and thermoelectric generators. Its headquarters are in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The corporation was named after the city of Komatsu, Ishikawa Prefecture, where the company was founded in 1921. Worldwide, the Komatsu Group consists of Komatsu Ltd. and 258 other companies.
In the 1950s, LeTourneau Inc. developed several overland trains, essentially oversized semi-trailer trucks that could travel over almost any terrain. Their intention was to be able to handle logistics needs without being dependent on local road or rail systems, allowing them to operate in back-country areas. The US Army had three experimental units built, the largest reaching almost 600 feet (183 m) long, which holds the record for the longest off-road vehicle. Road trains are in use in certain roles today, but the US Army examples and a few derivatives appear to be the only off-road examples built.
Robert Gilmour LeTourneau, born in Richford, Vermont, was a prolific inventor of earthmoving machinery and the founder of LeTourneau Technologies, Inc. His factories supplied machinery which represented nearly 70 percent of the earthmoving equipment and engineering vehicles used by the Allied forces during World War II, and more than half of the 1,500-mile (2,414 km) Alcan Highway in Canada was built with LeTourneau equipment. Over the course of his life he secured nearly 300 patents relating to earthmoving equipment, manufacturing processes and machine tools.
In civil engineering, a wheel tractor-scraper is a type of heavy equipment used for earthmoving. It has a pan/hopper for loading and carrying material. The pan has a tapered horizontal front cutting edge that cuts into the soil like a carpenter's plane or cheese slicer and fills the hopper which has a movable ejection system. The horsepower of the machine, depth of the cut, type of material, and slope of the cut area affect how quickly the pan is filled.
The Westinghouse Air Brake Company was founded on September 28, 1869 by George Westinghouse in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Earlier in the year he had invented the railway air brake in New York state.
The P&H L-2350 Wheel Loader is a loader used for surface mining. It is manufactured by Komatsu Limited. It holds the Guinness World Record for Biggest Earth Mover. Designed to center-load haul trucks with capacities of up to 360 tonnes, the L-2350 provides an operating payload of 73 tonnes, a 7.03 metres (23.1 ft) lift height, and an 3.5 metres (11.5 ft) reach.
The Euclid Company of Ohio was a company that specialized in heavy equipment for earthmoving, namely dump trucks, loaders and wheel tractor-scrapers. It operated in the US from the 1920s to the 1950s, when it was purchased by General Motors. It was later purchased by Hitachi Construction Machinery.
An articulated hauler, articulated dump truck (ADT), or sometimes a dump hauler, is a very large heavy-duty type of dump truck used to transport loads over rough terrain, and occasionally on public roads. The vehicle usually has all-wheel drive and consists of two basic units: the front section, generally called the tractor, and the rear section that contains the dump body, called the hauler or trailer section. Steering is made by pivoting the front in relation to the back by hydraulic rams. This way, all wheels follow the same path, making it an excellent off-road vehicle.
Galion Iron Works is the original name of the company that built the Galion brand of construction equipment. Known for their graders, it also manufactured rollers, cranes, asphalt millers and even riding squeegees among other machines.
Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation, commonly known as Wabtec, is an American company formed by the merger of the Westinghouse Air Brake Company (WABCO) and MotivePower Industries Corporation in 1999. It is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Haul trucks are off-highway, rigid dump trucks specifically engineered for use in high-production mining and heavy-duty construction environments. Haul trucks are also used for transporting construction equipment from job site to job site. Some are multi-axle in order to support the equipment that is being hauled.
P&H Mining Equipment designs, builds and supports a line of drilling and material handling machinery marketed under the "P&H" trademark and applied to minerals and energy surface mining operations worldwide. The firm is an operating subsidiary of Joy Global Inc. In 2017 Joy Global Inc. was acquired by Komatsu Limited of Tokyo, Japan, and is now known as Komatsu Mining Corporation and operates as a subsidiary of Komatsu.
Joy Global Inc. was a company that manufactured and serviced heavy equipment used in the extraction and haulage of coal and minerals in both underground and surface mining. The company had manufacturing facilities in Alabama, Pennsylvania, Texas, Wisconsin, Australia, Canada, China, France, South Africa, Poland and the United Kingdom. In 2017, Joy Global was acquired by Komatsu Limited and was renamed Komatsu Mining Corp.
WABCO was a U.S.-based provider of electronic braking, stability, suspension, and transmission automation systems for heavy-duty commercial vehicles. In 2007, the Vehicle Control Systems was spun off as WABCO Holdings, Inc., an American provider of electronic braking, stability, suspension and transmission automation systems for heavy duty commercial vehicles. Their products are present in many commercial vehicles as truck, bus, trailer and off-highway vehicles, but only fill niche roles. WABCO was acquired by ZF Friedrichshafen in May 2020.
J.D. Adams & Company was founded in 1885 by Joseph D Adams who invented the first leaning-wheel pull grader and was based in Indianapolis. The company manufactured construction machinery including sheepsfoot rollers, dozers and graders from its factory. The company catalogues also listed products by Acme Road Machinery Company though the association is unknown beyond the product listings. In 1955 LeTourneau-Westinghouse purchased J.D. Adams & Co and continued to operate under the name until 1960.
Unit Rig was a manufacturer of haul trucks, sold under the brand name Lectra Haul.
LeTourneau Technologies, Inc. was an American manufacturer of heavy construction equipment founded by R. G. LeTourneau. In 2011, the company was acquired by Joy Global.
