New Mexico Bulldozers Parts - 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. Alteration projects and construction sites rely on dozer blades to transport gravel, dirt and other materials. The back end of the bulldozer often has giant metal teeth used to break up hardpacked materials.
Specifics
The tracks of a typical bulldozer give it superior traction and maneuvering capabilities on rough, uneven or unstable ground and the specialized transmission system allows the bulldozer to operate with increased tractive force. 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. Bulldozers are often utilized in land clearing applications, road construction, mining operations and other jobs that require stable and powerful equipment to transport large volumes of 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 dozer blade is mounted in front of the articulation joint and is operated on a hydraulic system, rather than mechanical.
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 bulldozer blade consists of a sizeable metal plate that is situated at the front of the machine. The dozer blade is utilized for pushing heavy materials and items including sand, aggregate and gravel. This could be anything from dirt, rubbish, sand, gravel or even snow. There are typically three types of dozer blades available. They are:
1. the universal blade;
2. the straight blade; and
3. the semi-U blade.
The U blade, aka the universal blade, is curved and tall with sizeable wings on the sides to enable more material to be easily transported. The straight or S blade is much shorter than the U blade and has no wings on the side or lateral curve, making it ideal for earth grading jobs. 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. Generally, the semi-U blade is used to push large rock piles or boulders into place.
Usually, the dozer blade attaches to the tractor on an angle or in a horizontal fashion. Tilt cylinders can adjust the dozer blade angle. Sharpened dozer blades may be utilized for cutting items including tree roots and stumps. The blade on an angledozer is pushed forward on one side to allow material to be pushed out of the dozer’s path. Angledozers are commonly used for snow removal.
A variety of bulldozers are equipped with a bull blade. 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.
Military vehicles also utilize dozer blades. Several military vehicles are designed to allow a dozer blade to be affixed to the front of the vehicle, such as combat engineering vehicles, artillery tractors and battle tanks. Mounting a dozer blade on a battle tank enables it to push mines and obstacles out of the way or create combat positions by digging shelters. It also helps create a protective barrier against artillery and explosives.
The Dozer Ripper
The shank or dozer ripper is the substantial tool situated on the bulldozers’ back with long teeth. Dozer rippers are available in multiple or single shank options. The single shank design is also known as a giant ripper and is preferred for large, very dense projects. Multi-shank rippers refer to multi-shank designs.
The boot refers to the tip of the shank and consists of a detachable metal piece. This enables the boot to be easily replaced when it becomes broken or worn down instead of having to completely change the shank.
The dozer ripper is used to break up rock, concrete, earth or other solid objects and material into smaller pieces which are then easier for the bulldozer to move using the dozer blade. This allows for quicker project completion.
In farming, a dozer ripper is used to break up rock and very dense earth to allow for ploughing and planting. In some areas of Italy and New Zealand, for example, this is especially useful as the nutrient-rich, old lava flows would otherwise not be farmable given their denseness. The ripper loosens the top lava rock layer to initiate farming applications.
Bulldozer Adaptations
Over time, the bulldozer has been adapted to allow for uses that were not possible with its original design.
For example, the original bulldozer was too large for work in small areas, such as mines. These size limitations lead to smaller unit designs to enable more maneuverability in tighter locations. Calfdozers refer to small, lighter bulldozer models.
A smaller and lighter version of the bulldozer is used in snow applications such as ski hills and prepping winter sports locations.
More common bulldozer adaptations resulted in the loader tractor. The loader tractor consists of replacing the dozer blade with a sizeable bucket and using hydraulic arms for raising and lowering. The new bulldozer is commonly called a Drott, track loader or trackscavator and used for loading dump trucks with earth, gravel and rocks.
A less common bulldozer attachment is a stumpbuster. A stump buster is attached at the back of the bulldozer. It is a single spike, protruding horizontally, used to split tree stumps for removal. These attachments are often used for land clearing applications. A brush-rake blade is also commonly used with the bulldozer in these situations.
Even with numerous bulldozer adaptations on the market, the original form of the machine is still popular in road carving, ground leveling, earthmoving and deforestation projects. Large bulldozers are mainly used to flatten terrain for construction preparation. The construction is completed mostly by smaller bulldozers and loader tractors.
Origins
In 1923, the first bulldozer was designed when farmer James Cummings joined forces with a draftsman named J. Earl McLeod. Their design was actually what is now known as the dozer blade and was meant to be attached to an existing farm tractor, used to plow fields. They built the original bulldozer and it can be viewed in Kansas’ city park, Morrowville. Later that year, Cummings and McLeod filed for a US patent on their bulldozer attachment which was granted in January 1925. It was normal for tractors to run on a track system at this time. The creation of the armored tank in World War I was largely due in part to this early version of the super maneuverable tractor.
By 1929, home-made or custom-manufactured attachments began to appear on wheeled and tracked tractors alike. The bulldozer attachment did not gain popularity until the middle of the 1930s. Prior to 1940, hydraulic cylinders were added and by the ‘50s, bulldozer popularity began to grow with the term bulldozer referring to the whole machine.
Becoming popular for all types of construction applications, bulldozers grew into a variety of different stronger and larger models. Over time, large companies including Caterpillar and John Deer started manufacturing wheeled and tracked bulldozer models. With time, manual transmission was replaced with automatic transmission and cable winch systems were replaced with hydraulic cylinders and electric motors. These technological upgrades created more effective and accurate control systems. Upgrades with GPS technology have been added to enhance bulldozing tasks with improved grade control.
What began as a tractor attachment to be used for farming jobs has transformed into one of the most versatile machines in civil engineering, mining, construction, military operations and building maintenance.
