The biggest excavator in the world, what is it?

Excavator in his life saw almost everyone. Wheeled and caterpillar digging foundation pits, clearing areas for construction, doing other work.

Despite their impressive size, they are only Lilliputians compared to one giant, which this article will describe.

The world's largest excavator was built in Germany in 1978. Its dimensions are simply amazing, it is enough to say that its mass is 13,500 tons. For comparison: one medium car weighs about 1 ton.

It is called the largest excavator Bagger 288. For all its power, it really works and brings profit from year to year to its owners. And you need such a monster for many.

Its main activity is the development of deposits of coal, sand, clay. In addition, he can dig out special trenches and ditches for laying pipes, communication cables, create various bulk structures (dumps, embankments, dams).

A significant advantage of this excavator in the scope of work. For 1 day it is able to raise 240 thousand cubic meters of soil. It takes months to shovel this kind of rock to conventional excavators.

The main mechanism by which the largest excavator works in the world, It is a rotor, that is a huge shaft on which more than a dozen dozen buckets are fixed. The capacity of one bucket is about 7 cubic meters. When the rotor rotates, the buckets, rotating on it, lift the ground onto a special conveyor belt that moves the extracted rock to the loading point.

The design of the excavator is thought out in such a way that it is able to unload the extracted raw materials directly into the cars, if, of course, there is a railway nearby.

Among other advantages, the largest excavator is able to move at an average speed of about 1 km per hour. However, due to the width and the large number of tracks, the pressure of this machine on the ground does not exceed the pressure exerted by a conventional machine. Therefore, the monster moves easily, but in order to reach another quarry, it takes considerable time.

The most interesting is that for its maintenance the largest excavator requires only 4 people. This is an operator who, while in the cab, controls the device, his changer, the operator who manages the loading of the ground, and the team leader in charge of the machine as a whole.

The biggest excavator on electricity is working. To supply electricity, a special coil is developed, which, as the monster moves, bleeds the electrical cable.

A lot of trouble arises when moving the excavator from one place to another. This is a very spectacular event, which is going to gaze at hundreds of curious townspeople. And there really is something to look at, since its movement is a whole special operation. On the route of the movement, power lines are dismantled , above the iron and motor roads, special padding cushions are made, in some places the ground is strengthened, small rivers fall asleep.