Three Generations for Excavator Development History

Excavator, also known as excavating machinery (excavating machinery), is an earthmoving machine that uses a bucket to excavate materials above or below the surface of the bearer and loads them into a transport vehicle or unloads them into a stockyard.

The materials excavated by the excavator are mainly soil, coal, sediment, and soil and rock after pre-packing. From the point of view of the development of engineering machinery in recent years, the development of excavators is relatively fast, and excavators have become one of the most important engineering machinery in engineering construction. The three most important parameters of an excavator: operating weight (mass), engine power and bucket capacity.

The original excavator was manual, from invention to 2013 has been more than one hundred and thirty years, during the period of time through the steam-driven bucket rotary excavator to electric drive and internal combustion engine driven rotary excavator, the application of mechatronics technology of fully automated hydraulic excavator step-by-step development process.

The first hydraulic excavator was successfully invented by the French factory. Due to the application of hydraulic technology, in the 1940s, there is a tractor equipped with a hydraulic backhoe suspended excavator. 1951, the first fully hydraulic backhoe excavator is located in France, thus creating a whole new space in the field of technological development of the excavator, in the early and mid-1950s, the tractor-type full rotary hydraulic excavator and the crawler-type fully hydraulic excavator were developed successively.

The early and mid-1950s saw the development of the dragline full-swing hydraulic excavator and the tracked full-hydraulic excavator. At the beginning, the trial production of hydraulic excavators was based on the hydraulic technology of aircraft and machine tools, and there was a lack of hydraulic components suitable for various working conditions of excavators, and the manufacturing quality was not stable enough, and the supporting parts were not complete. From the 1960s, the hydraulic excavator into the promotion and vigorous development stage, the countries excavator manufacturers and varieties increase very quickly, the output soared. 1968-1970, hydraulic excavator production has accounted for 83% of the total output of excavators, has been close to 100%.

The first generation of excavators: the emergence of electric motors, internal combustion engines, so that the excavator has an advanced and appropriate electric device, so a variety of excavator products were born. 1899, the first electric excavator appeared. After the First World War, diesel engines are also used in excavators, this diesel engine (or electric motor) driven mechanical excavator is the first generation of excavators.

The second generation of excavators: with the extensive use of hydraulic technology, so that the excavator has a more scientific and applicable transmission device, hydraulic transmission instead of mechanical transmission is a big leap in excavator technology. 1950 Germany's first hydraulic excavator was born. Mechanical transmission hydraulic is the second generation of excavators.

The third generation of excavators: electronic technology, especially the wide application of computer technology, so that the excavator has an automated control system, but also to make the excavator to high-performance, automation and intelligent direction. The germ of mechatronics occurred around 1965, and the adoption of mechatronics technology in mass-produced hydraulic excavators was around 1985, when the main purpose was to save energy. Excavator electrification is the hallmark of the third generation of excavators.