Bulldozers Parts in El Paso - A popular type of industrial equipment is a bulldozer. They are most often crawler tractors - that is, they operate on a continuous track, rather than wheels - although they can be wheeled tractors. The dozer blade is a large metal plate fixed to the front of the bulldozer. The dozer blade is used to push large volumes of material, such gravel or dirt, during construction and alteration projects. The back end of the bulldozer often has giant metal teeth used to break up hardpacked materials.
Specifics
The track system on a common bulldozer offers phenomenal maneuvering abilities and excellent traction on uneven ground and unstable or rough surfaces. The special transmission components let the machine function with increased traction. The track width evenly distributes the weight in unstable applications to prevent the industrial machine from sinking. Swamp tracks refer to tracks that have increased widths, suitable for specific applications. These capabilities make bulldozers very popular for use in road construction, clearing land, mining and many other jobs needing powerful but stable equipment to move material.
The dozers that rely on a wheeled system typically consist of four wheels that use a 4WD system combined with an articulated hydraulic steering mechanism. The bulldozer blade relies on a hydraulic system for operation instead of a mechanical system and is located in front of the articulation joint.
The bulldozer is easily recognized from other types of industrial equipment thanks to its main components, the ripper and the dozer blade.
The Dozer Blade
The dozer blade is a large, metal plate mounted at the front of the bulldozer. The dozer blade is utilized for pushing heavy materials and items including sand, aggregate and gravel. Gravel, dirt, snow and rubbish are commonly pushed into new locations with bulldozers. Typically, there are 3 different kinds of dozer blades including the straight blade, the semi-U blade and the universal blade.
The universal or U blade features large wings on the sides of the tall, curved blade to transport more material. The straight blade, or S blade, is short, has no lateral curve and no side wings and is also used for fine earth grading. The semi-U or SU blade features a shorter, slightly less curved blade with size wings that are smaller than those on the U blade. This blade is commonly used to move large rock and boulder piles.
Usually, the dozer blade attaches to the tractor on an angle or in a horizontal fashion. Dozer blade angles are capable of being adjusted via tilt cylinders. The dozer blade is sometimes sharpened to allow for cutting of objects, such as stumps or roots. Angledozer blades are pushed forward on one side (hence the name) to clear materials away from the path of the machine. Angledozers are commonly used for snow removal.
A bull blade is a common bulldozer attachment. A bull blade is a reinforced centre section of the bulldozer. This allows a bulldozer to push a scraper, which is another large, heavy piece of equipment used to move earth.
Dozer blades are also used on military vehicles. Numerous military vehicles can attach a dozer blade for strategic operations including battle tanks, artillery tractors and combat engineering vehicles. When mounted to a battle tank, the dozer blade allows the tank to push obstacles and mines and to dig shelters or create combat positions. The dozer blade can help create protective barriers against explosives and artillery.
The Dozer Ripper
A dozer ripper is the long, tooth-like tool, known as the shank, on the back of a bulldozer. Dozer rippers are available in multiple or single shank options. The giant ripper design or large single shank is commonly used for large and compact applications. The multi-shank options are called multi-shank rippers.
The shank’s tip, called the boot, is a metal, detachable piece. This allows for replacement of the boot when it becomes dull or broken, rather than replacement of the entire shank.
The dozer ripper breaks up concrete, rock, solid objects and dirt into smaller pieces to facilitate easier bulldozer transport. One machine that completes multiple tasks creates faster project completion on the job site.
In agricultural applications, the dozer ripper is used to break up the ground and rocks for planting and plowing. In certain locations in New Zealand and Italy, the dozer ripper helps to access ancient lava flows that are rich in nutrients and normally would not be able to be farmed due to the density of the ground. The top layer of lava rock is loosened up with the ripper to create farmable land.
Bulldozer Adaptations
The bulldozer has transformed over the years to become useful for a variety of applications that were not originally possible with the initial design.
For example, the original bulldozer was too large for work in small areas, such as mines. These limitations led to more compact bulldozer designs and models. Very small, light bulldozers are sometimes referred to as calfdozers.
A smaller and lighter version of the bulldozer is used in snow applications such as ski hills and prepping winter sports locations.
The loader tractor is another popular adaptation. This was created by replacing the dozer blade with a large bucket, raised and lowered with the use of hydraulic arms. This adapted bulldoze is now often referred to as a Drott, trackscavator or track loader and frequently used in loading rocks, gravel and earth into dump trucks.
A lesser-known bulldozer attachment is called the stump buster. The stump buster attachment is secured to the rear portion of the dozer. It is a single spike, protruding horizontally, used to split tree stumps for removal. Stump busters are commonly used by bulldozers to clear land. In those instances, the bulldozer is often also equipped with a brush-rake blade.
Despite the many adaptations available, bulldozers in their original form remain popular in deforestation, earthmoving, ground levelling, and road carving. Heavy bulldozers are primarily used to level terrain in preparation for construction. The construction is completed mostly by smaller bulldozers and loader tractors.
Origins
The initial bulldozer design was created when a draftsman, J. Earl McLeod teamed up with a farmer named James Cummings in 1923. The initial design created was the dozer blade made to plow fields by attaching to an existing tractor. They built the original bulldozer and it can be viewed in Kansas’ city park, Morrowville. McLeod and Cummings filed a US patent on the bulldozer attachment later that year and it was granted in 1925. It was normal for tractors to run on a track system at this time. It was this initial tractor version, complete with extreme maneuverability that helped contribute to the World War I armored tank.
A variety of custom and homemade attachments started to appear in 1929 on tracked and wheeled tractors. During the mid-‘30s, the bulldozer attachment started to gain popularity. Hydraulic cylinders were introduced before 1940 and the term bulldozer referred to the whole machine who’s popularity greatly expanded by the 1950s.
Bulldozers evolved to become stronger and bigger as their demand grew for small and large construction jobs. Numerous companies including Caterpillar and John Deer began making wheeled and tracked bulldozer lines. The manual transmission was replaced over time with automatic transmissions and electric motors and hydraulic cylinders eventually replaced cable winch systems. More effective and accurate control systems were introduced thanks to these upgrades. These days, GPS technology geared toward bulldozing tasks has added to improved grade control.
Bulldozers began as a tractor attachment for farming applications and have grown to become one of the most useful pieces of equipment for construction, civil engineering, building and maintenance applications, mining operations and military use.
