A tire or tyre is a ring-shaped component that surrounds a wheel's rim to transfer a vehicle's load from the axle through the wheel to the ground and to provide traction on the surface over which the wheel travels. Most tires, such as those for automobiles and bicycles, are pneumatically inflated structures, providing a flexible cushion that absorbs shock as the tire rolls over rough features on the surface. Tires provide a footprint, called a contact patch, designed to match the vehicle's weight and the bearing on the surface that it rolls over by exerting a pressure that will avoid deforming the surface.
Continuous track or tracked treads are a system of vehicle propulsion used in tracked vehicles, running on a continuous band of treads or track plates driven by two or more wheels. The large surface area of the tracks distributes the weight of the vehicle better than steel or rubber tyres on an equivalent vehicle, enabling continuous tracked vehicles to traverse soft ground with less likelihood of becoming stuck due to sinking.
A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or construction. Most commonly, the term is used to describe a farm vehicle that provides the power and traction to mechanize agricultural tasks, especially tillage, and now many more. Agricultural implements may be towed behind or mounted on the tractor, and the tractor may also provide a source of power if the implement is mechanised.
In agriculture, a harrow is a farm implement used for surface tillage. It is used after ploughing for breaking up and smoothing out the surface of the soil. The purpose of harrowing is to break up clods and to provide a soil structure, called tilth, that is suitable for planting seeds. Coarser harrowing may also be used to remove weeds and to cover seed after sowing.
A bicycle brake reduces the speed of a bicycle or prevents the wheels from moving. The two main types are: rim brakes and disc brakes. Drum brakes are less common on bicycles.
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.
A compactor is a machine or mechanism used to reduce the size of material such as waste material or bio mass through compaction. A trash compactor is often used by business and public places like hospitals to reduce the volume of trash they produce. A baler-wrapper compactor is often used for making compact and wrapped bales in order to improve logistics.
A traction engine is a steam-powered tractor used to move heavy loads on roads, plough ground or to provide power at a chosen location. The name derives from the Latin tractus, meaning 'drawn', since the prime function of any traction engine is to draw a load behind it. They are sometimes called road locomotives to distinguish them from railway locomotives – that is, steam engines that run on rails.
A steamroller is a form of road roller – a type of heavy construction machinery used for leveling surfaces, such as roads or airfields – that is powered by a steam engine. The leveling/flattening action is achieved through a combination of the size and weight of the vehicle and the rolls: the smooth wheels and the large cylinder or drum fitted in place of treaded road wheels.
A dump truck, known also as a dumping truck, dump trailer, dumper trailer, dump lorry or dumper lorry or a dumper for short, is used for transporting materials for construction as well as coal. A typical dump truck is equipped with an open-box bed, which is hinged at the rear and equipped with hydraulic rams to lift the front, allowing the material in the bed to be deposited ("dumped") on the ground behind the truck at the site of delivery. In the UK, Australia, South Africa and India the term applies to off-road construction plants only and the road vehicle is known as a tip lorry, tipper lorry, tipper truck, tip truck, tip trailer or tipper trailer or simply a tipper.
A sander is a power tool used to smooth surfaces by abrasion with sandpaper. Sanders have a means to attach the sandpaper and a mechanism to move it rapidly contained within a housing with means to handhold it or fix it to a workbench. Woodworking sanders are usually powered electrically, and those used in auto-body repair work are usually powered by compressed air. There are many different types of sanders for different purposes. Multipurpose power tools and electric drills may have sander attachments.
In geotechnical engineering, soil compaction is the process in which stress applied to a soil causes densification as air is displaced from the pores between the soil grains. When stress is applied that causes densification due to water being displaced from between the soil grains, then consolidation, not compaction, has occurred. Normally, compaction is the result of heavy machinery compressing the soil, but it can also occur due to the passage of, for example, animal feet.
A paver is a piece of construction equipment used to lay asphalt concrete or Portland cement concrete on roads, bridges, parking lots and other such places. It lays the material flat and provides minor compaction. This is typically followed by final compaction by a road roller.
Stone mastic asphalt (SMA), also called stone-matrix asphalt, was developed in Germany in the 1960s with the first SMA pavements being placed in 1968 near Kiel. It provides a deformation-resistant, durable surfacing material, suitable for heavily trafficked roads. SMA has found use in Europe, Australia, the United States, and Canada as a durable asphalt surfacing option for residential streets and highways. SMA has a high coarse aggregate content that interlocks to form a stone skeleton that resists permanent deformation. The stone skeleton is filled with a mastic of bitumen and filler to which fibres are added to provide adequate stability of bitumen and to prevent drainage of binder during transport and placement. Typical SMA composition consists of 70−80% coarse aggregate, 8−12% filler, 6.0−7.0% binder, and 0.3 per cent fibre.
Daniel Albone was an English inventor, manufacturer and cyclist. He invented the first successful light farm tractor, and the Ivel Safety bicycle.
A steam wagon is a steam-powered truck for carrying freight. It was the earliest form of lorry (truck) and came in two basic forms: overtype and undertype, the distinction being the position of the engine relative to the boiler. Manufacturers tended to concentrate on one form or the other.
JCB Vibromax, formerly known as Vibromax was a manufacturer of road rollers in West Germany. The former Vibromax was acquired by JCB in 2005 and rebranded as JCB Vibromax. In 2012, the Vibromax part of the brand was dropped, and in 2014 the Gatersleben factory was closed with production dispersed to other JCB facilities, marking the end of Vibromax as a distinct business unit.
Soil stabilizers and road recyclers are engineering vehicles that were once similar machines; however, they are now specialised pieces of road making machinery and have developed into different machines. Other terms that are sometimes used are: road profiler, road reclaimer, road miller, road planer and pavement profiler. They are used in the process of full depth recycling.
Bitelli was an engineering company located in Bologna, Italy - the largest and, perhaps best known, Italian construction machinery firm. Beppino Bitelli produced his first three wheel roller in 1933 although it was not until 1957 that the Bitelli Road Mechanics company was formed. Tandem rollers were soon added and In 1969 the first single drum rollers were manufactured. In 1978 Bitelli built its first paving machine and, during the 1980s, road profilers and soil stabilizers were added to the line of road machines.
Deforestation in Nigeria can be said to be the process of cutting down trees or clearing forests for either agricultural, commercial, residential, or industrial purposes. In Nigeria, it has become an increasingly important environmental concern as it has adverse effects on the ecosystem, including soil erosion.
