A trencher is a piece of construction equipment used to dig trenches, especially for laying pipes or electrical cables, for installing drainage, or in preparation for trench warfare. Trenchers may range in size from walk-behind models, to attachments for a skid loader or tractor, to very heavy tracked heavy equipment.
Trenchers come in different sizes and may use different digging implements, depending on the required width and depth of the trench and the hardness of the surface to be cut.
A wheel trencher or rockwheel has a toothed metal wheel. It is cheaper to operate and maintain than chain-type trenchers. It can work in hard or soft soils, either homogeneous (compact rocks, silts, sands) or heterogeneous (split or broken rock, alluvia, moraines). This is particularly true because a cutting wheel works by clearing the soil as a bucket-wheel does, rather than like a rasp (chain trencher). Consequently, it will be less sensitive to the presence of blocks in the soil. They are also used to cut pavement for road maintenance and to gain access to utilities under roads.
Due to its design the wheel may reach variable cutting depths with the same tool, and can keep a constant soil working angle with a relatively small wheel diameter (which reduces the weight and therefore the pressure to the ground, and the height of the unit for transport).
The cutting elements (6 to 8 depending on the diameter) are placed around the wheel, and bear the teeth which are more or less dense depending on the ground they will encounter. These tools can be easily changed manually, and adjusted to allow different cutting widths on the same wheel. The teeth are placed in a semi-spherical configuration to increase the removal of the materials from the trench. The teeth are made of high strength steel (HSLA steel, tool steel or high speed steel) or cemented carbide. When the machine is under heavy use, the teeth may need to be replaced frequently, even daily.
A system of spacers and ejectors allows the excavated materials to be moved away from the edges of the trench to avoid possible “recycling”.
Wheel trenchers may be mounted on tracks or rubber tires.
A chain trencher cuts with a digging chain or belt that is driven around a rounded metal frame, or boom. It resembles a giant chainsaw. This type of trencher can cut ground that is too hard to cut with a bucket-type excavator, and can also cut narrow and deep trenches. The angle of the boom can be adjusted to control the depth of the cut. To cut a trench, the boom is held at a fixed angle while the machine creeps slowly.
The chain trencher is used for digging wider trenches (telecommunication, electricity, drainage, water, gas, sanitation, etc.) especially in rural areas. The excavated materials can be removed by conveyor belt reversible either on the right or on the left side.
There are various methods for excavating trenches in rock – principally drill and blast, hydraulic breakers and chain trenchers. Selection of a trench excavation method must take into account a range of rock and machine properties. It is suggested that the advantages of using chain trenchers in suitable rock outweigh the limitations and may have cost benefits and fewer adverse environmental effects compared with alternative methods. [1]
A micro trencher is a "small rockwheel" specially designed for work in urban areas. It is fitted with a cutting wheel that cuts a microtrench with smaller dimensions than can be achieved with conventional trench digging equipment. Microtrench widths range from about 30 to 130 mm (1.2 to 5.1 in) with a depth of 500 mm (20 in) or less. These machines are sometimes radio-controlled.
With a micro trencher, the structure of the road is maintained and there is no associated damage to the road. Owing to the reduced trench size, the volume of waste material excavated is also reduced. Micro trenchers are used to minimize traffic or pedestrian disturbance during network laying. For this reason they are often used to install lines such as fiber optic cables in public spaces. A micro trencher can work on sidewalks or in narrow streets of cities, and can cut harder ground than a chain trencher, including cutting through solid stone. They are also used to cut pavement for road maintenance and to gain access to utilities under roads.
Landscapers and lawn care specialist may use a portable trencher to install landscape edging and irrigation lines. These machines are lightweight (around 200 pounds) and are easily maneuverable compared to other types of trenchers. The cutting implement may be a chain or a blade similar to a rotary lawn mower blade oriented so that it rotates in a vertical plane.
Another alternative are handheld trenchers that look similar to a chainsaw, weigh 20Kg (45lbs) or less, and can trench 0-700 mm (0-27 inches ) deep and a minimum of 50 mm (2 inches) wide.
A tractor-mount trencher is a trenching device which needs a creeping gear tractor to operate. This type of trenchers is another type of chain trencher. The tractor should be able to go as slowly as the trencher's trenching speed.
In August 2023, tractor-mounted trenchers were revealed to be in use by the Ukrainian Ground Forces to dig trenches at a rapid pace. The Ukrainians were reportedly using these to secure the territory they captured in their 2023 counteroffensive. [2]
A trencher may be combined with a drainage pipe or geotextile feeder unit and backfiller, so drain or textile may be placed and the trench filled in one pass.
A plough or (US) plow is a farm tool for loosening or turning the soil before sowing seed or planting. Ploughs were traditionally drawn by oxen and horses but in modern farms are drawn by tractors. A plough may have a wooden, iron or steel frame with a blade attached to cut and loosen the soil. It has been fundamental to farming for most of history. The earliest ploughs had no wheels; such a plough was known to the Romans as an aratrum. Celtic peoples first came to use wheeled ploughs in the Roman era.
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 skid loader, skid-steer loader (SSL), or skidsteer is any of a class of compact heavy equipment with lift arms that can attach to a wide variety of buckets and other labor-saving tools or attachments.
A trench is a type of excavation or depression in the ground that is generally deeper than it is wide, and narrow compared with its length.
Excavators are heavy construction equipment primarily consisting of a boom, dipper, bucket and cab on a rotating platform known as the "house" - although the largest form ever, the dragline excavator, eliminated the dipper in favor of a line and winch.
A hoe is an ancient and versatile agricultural and horticultural hand tool used to shape soil, remove weeds, clear soil, and harvest root crops. Shaping the soil includes piling soil around the base of plants (hilling), digging narrow furrows (drills) and shallow trenches for planting seeds or bulbs. Weeding with a hoe includes agitating the surface of the soil or cutting foliage from roots, and clearing the soil of old roots and crop residues. Hoes for digging and moving soil are used to harvest root crops such as potatoes.
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.
A dragline excavator is a heavy-duty excavator used in civil engineering and surface mining. It was invented in 1904, and presented an immediate challenge to the steam shovel and its diesel and electric powered descendant, the power shovel. Much more efficient than even the largest of the latter, it enjoyed a heyday in extreme size for most of the 20th century, first becoming challenged by more efficient rotary excavators in the 1950s, then superseded by them on the upper end from the 1970s on.
A bandsaw is a power saw with a long, sharp blade consisting of a continuous band of toothed metal stretched between two or more wheels to cut material. They are used principally in woodworking, metalworking, and lumbering, but may cut a variety of materials. Advantages include uniform cutting action as a result of an evenly distributed tooth load, and the ability to cut irregular or curved shapes like a jigsaw. The minimum radius of a curve is determined by the width of the band and its kerf. Most bandsaws have two wheels rotating in the same plane, one of which is powered, although some may have three or four to distribute the load. The blade itself can come in a variety of sizes and tooth pitches, which enables the machine to be highly versatile and able to cut a wide variety of materials including wood, metal and plastic. Band saw is recommended for use in cutting metal as it produces much less toxic fumes and particulates when compared with angle grinder and reciprocating saw.
A road roller is a compactor-type engineering vehicle used to compact soil, gravel, concrete, or asphalt in the construction of roads and foundations. Similar rollers are used also at landfills or in agriculture.
A bucket-wheel excavator (BWE) is a large heavy equipment machine used in surface mining.
Ditch Witch, a trade name of Charles Machine Works, is an American brand of underground utility construction equipment, principally trenchers, which has been in operation since 1949. It is the leading subsidiary of Charles Machine Works, headquartered in Perry, Oklahoma. Charles Machine Works is, since 2019, a subsidiary of Toro Company.
Landslide mitigation refers to several human-made activities on slopes with the goal of lessening the effect of landslides. Landslides can be triggered by many, sometimes concomitant causes. In addition to shallow erosion or reduction of shear strength caused by seasonal rainfall, landslides may be triggered by anthropic activities, such as adding excessive weight above the slope, digging at mid-slope or at the foot of the slope. Often, individual phenomena join to generate instability over time, which often does not allow a reconstruction of the evolution of a particular landslide. Therefore, landslide hazard mitigation measures are not generally classified according to the phenomenon that might cause a landslide. Instead, they are classified by the sort of slope stabilization method used:
A bucket is a specialized container attached to a machine, as compared to a bucket adapted for manual use by a human being. It is a bulk material handling component.
A stone picker is an implement to sieve through the top layer of soil to separate and collect rocks and soil debris from good topsoil. It is usually tractor-pulled. A stone picker is similar in function to a rock windrower ; a stone picker generally digs to greater depths to remove stones and rocks.
Marais or Groupe Marais, founded in 1962 in France, is a manufacturer of trenchers. The head office and workshop buildings have been located in Durtal since 2001. Marais society via its founder, Jacques Marais is in 1962 behind the trenching wheel and the mechanized laying of cables or flexible pipes process.
A bucket chain excavator (BCE) is a piece of heavy equipment used in surface mining and dredging. BCEs use buckets on a revolving chain to remove large quantities of material. They are similar to bucket-wheel excavators and trenchers. Bucket chain excavators remove material from below their plane of movement, which is useful if the pit floor is unstable or underwater.
Digging, also referred to as excavation, is the process of using some implement such as claws, hands, manual tools or heavy equipment, to remove material from a solid surface, usually soil, sand or rock on the surface of Earth. Digging is actually the combination of two processes, the first being the breaking or cutting of the surface, and the second being the removal and relocation of the material found there. In a simple digging situation, this may be accomplished in a single motion, with the digging implement being used to break the surface and immediately fling the material away from the hole or other structure being dug.
Tunnels are dug in types of materials varying from soft clay to hard rock. The method of tunnel construction depends on such factors as the ground conditions, the ground water conditions, the length and diameter of the tunnel drive, the depth of the tunnel, the logistics of supporting the tunnel excavation, the final use and shape of the tunnel and appropriate risk management. Tunnel construction is a subset of underground construction.
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