The term bulldozer is often used to describe a variety of heavy site machinery but the bulldozer is a very powerful crawler, equipped with a blade. The term actually refers to a tractor that is fitted with a dozer blade.
Bulldozers are large and powerful tracked vehicles. The tracks give them incredible mobility as well as a sturdy ‘foot’ through some of the toughest terrain. Wide tracks help to distribute the weight of the dozer over large areas and therefore prevent the dozer from sinking into sandy or muddy excavation sites.
Bulldozers have more than great mobility however. They also employ a torque divider, designed to convert the power of the engine into a dragging ability. This power conversion allows the bulldozer to use its own weight while pushing or removing heavy objects.
Take, for instance, the Caterpillar D9. It easily tows tanks weighing more than 70 tons. Due to these attributes,
bulldozers are used to clear obstacles, shrubbery, and remains of structures and buildings – especially helpful for excavation work after a house or building fire.
The bulldozer’s blade is the heavy piece of metal plate found on the front of the machine. The blade comes in a few common varieties. The straight blade – short and without lateral curve, no side wings, and is often used for fine grading. The universal blade, or U blade – tall and curved, and featuring large side wings to carry more material around. And the combination blade – a shorter, less curvatious blade with smaller side wings.
Throughout the years, bulldozers have been modified to evolve into new machines, capable of so much more than the original dozers. One fine example of the progression of this excavation equipment is the loader tractors. Created by removing the
blade and substituting a large volume bucket with hydraulic arms. The arms raise and lower the bucket, therefore making it useful for scooping up earth or debris and loading it into dump trucks for removal.
Other modifications to the original bulldozer include making it smaller to where it can operate in small working areas where movement is restricted such as smaller lots, mining caves, and tunnels. Very small bulldozers are tagged as calfdozers.
