Bulldozers or simply dozer is a machine that is mainly used for digging, pushing, excavating, and for leveling the different materials like soils, coarse aggregate for roads and removal of debris at work site. Different types of bulldozer with varying sizes are available in the market.
Among the most common types of heavy equipment used in United States; bulldozer is quite common. The term bulldozer is given to this heavy equipment because of the blade attachment that goes along the front of the machine.
The right size of bulldozer blade for your construction job depends upon the nature and requirement of work. A bulldozer blade goes along the front of the dozer that pushes material. Some bulldozers are available with modifications like rippers in the rear to help breakdown tough ground.
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Bulldozer uses
Bulldozers are heavy equipment used in United States for helping in digging, excavating, leveling, and pushing soil and debris at work site. Here’re some applications and uses of bulldozers in construction and other industries:
- Demolition Projects – It is a quite useful heavy machine for demolition projects. Because of its massive size and claw-like extension; you can use it for small and large size demolition projects. It can knock a house over, saving the trouble of deconstructing one piece at a time.
- Road Construction – The large flat blade on the front is pretty helpful in spreading road fill material during construction of highways and pavements. In fact, the most common use of bulldozer is in road construction and road building. You can use it from clearing and rubbing, removing topsoil – that’s full of moisture and organic material, to filling gravel and cleaning fill. Bulldozer can easily help you achieve a flat and smooth subgrade for road construction.
- Earthmoving – Because of the heavy nature of the equipment, it is pretty helpful in earthmoving. Be it a small size earth soil or a heap of debris, it can quickly push or lift it to a spoil area. Together with backhoes and other digging machine, it makes you an ideal solution for all your earthmoving needs.
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Construction Bulldozer parts and functions
Besides bulldozer blade, some important parts of a typical dozer include:
- Ripper
- Final drive
- Cab
- Tracks/Tires
- Engine
- Push Frame
- Blade
Let’s now elaborate each of the part one by one with their function:
Functions of Parts
Ripper
A ripper is an attachment on the back side of bulldozer that looks like a claw. Rippers are mostly used for agricultural purposes. Rippers are used to break up the land mass and change it in soil particles. This is normally done for agriculture for growing of crops. But it is also used in construction site for removal of debris from roots. There are two types of rippers one single shank rippers and other is multi shank rippers depending upon the type of work.
Final Drive
A Final drive is most important part of bulldozer which is most used while using and most replaced during life of bulldozer. Modern final drive function is to distribute the load over multiple gear teeth and lift the drive motor away.
Cab
A cab is also one of the most important part of bulldozer and it is a part where driver sits to control the whole machine. There are different features of cabs which increase the safety and level of comfort. The features are selected by checking whether sound of machine in cab reduces or not or it able to absorb shock or impact when using bulldozer on site.
Tracks/Tires
Tracks and Tires are used for moving the machine from one place to another. The selection of track or tires affect dozer mobility. Tracks are preferred for non-uniform and slope terrain. It is also used for hard land as well While tires are preferred for soft soils and land. One should prefer to use tire dozer in area where there is sensitive soil to prevent from any kind of issue.
Engine
Engine is one of the important parts of bulldozer machine. The efficiency and power of any machine depends upon its engine. There are different types of engines depending upon the type of equipment and power requirement. With the passage of time the power of engine starts decreasing. The Engine required by bulldozers should be highly powered as they need to move itself which is heavy and then the large amount of heavy material at work site.
Push Frame
A push frame is necessary while positioning materials for different works. This bulldozer part of machine is responsible for moving the blade.
Bulldozer Blade
A blade is a sharp metal plate attached at the front of the bulldozer. The main purpose of the blade is to push and remove the debris type material. It is also used to remove the topsoil from construction site and get a clean land and then using the land for construction purposes and storage of material as well.
The blade used for dozer depending upon nature of work and function of blade. These are:
- S-blade: It is a straight metal plate and short, without any wings.
- U-blade: Universal blades are tall and curved. U-blade have large wings on the sides which carry more material. These are the most commonly fitted blades.
- SU-blade: A semi-universal blade is smaller and shorter than the u-blades but still have some curvature.
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Types of Bulldozers
Different types of bulldozers are available and criteria for selection of bulldozer depends upon nature of project, type of terrain one is working on, and other are some key factors to consider while selecting a bulldozer.
The choosing of right type of machine is more important for efficiency, safety and economy of project. Some important types are explained below:
Crawler Bulldozer
A crawler bulldozer is also known as track bulldozer because its look like a tractor. This heavy machine is good for moving heavy materials from one place to another. This type of bulldozer is not only common for construction purposes, but it is also used for faming nowadays. This crawler is ideal for irregular and traversing dense terrain because it gives a good traction. Some large crawlers have rippers that helps in crushing and clearing dense terrain.
Wheeled Dozer
This type of dozers is also used in construction site, and it is more preferred when mobility is more important than power. These dozers are mounted on four wheels instead of tracks. This type of dozers has hydraulic, articulated system. The blade is mounted forward of articulation and hydraulically actuated. They are capable of handling hard surfaces and uneven sites. So that why they can also be used for rocky construction site. This dozer is best for sensitive and soft ground because the tires are softer than tracks. The four wheels provided does little to no damage to roads that’s why they are mostly seen in urban areas. But due to their low traction they are not good for pushing and scraping.
Mini Dozer
This type of smaller bulldozers is also known as compact bulldozers. These small bulldozers are able to move quickly and easily because of their small size and compact builds. These dozers are seen in building construction sites, these dozers come handy in performing quick, light soil or debris-moving jobs. Because of their small size and easy moveability mini dozer is also called calfdozer instead of bulldozer.
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Loaded Tractors
A loaded tractor is also a type of bulldozer with some modification. When front blade of bulldozer is removed, and large volume bucket is attached for material placing in dumpers etc. then this type is called loaded tractor. The hydraulic system in dozer helps in lifting and tilting bucket.it is mostly used for removing soil or debris from ground and transferring to a dumper.
