Image Credit: Bobcat Company

Construction and demolition attachments are specialized implements that are attached to and used with heavy machinery to perform a task.

Applications

Construction and demolition attachments are designed for use with construction, mining, forestry, and recycling machinery such as:

• Backhoes
• Bulldozers
• Compactors
• Excavators
• Motor graders
• Loaders
• Scrapers
• Skid steers
• Tractors
• Logging equipment
• Quarry equipment

Additional applications for heavy equipment attachments include coal, mulch, rock, scrap, trash and woodchip handling; earth moving and snow removal; and metal recycling and reclamation.

Types of Construction and Demolition Attachments

There are many different types of construction and demolition attachments.

• Buckets are designed for heavy-duty digging. They vary in terms of width, but often have replaceable teeth.
• Bucket takes are similar to buckets, but have a progressive-link thumb.
• Grapples provide 360-degree continuous rotation and full articulation. Categories include rock grapples and clamshells.
• Hydraulic thumbs are designed for gripping and are capable of 135-140 degrees of rotation.
• Quick couplers permit rapid changeovers from one type of heavy equipment attachment to another.
• Slope packers are heavy equipment attachments for packing and roughening slopes.
• Claws are designed for grabbing and may include a hydraulic check valve to prevent accidental release.
• Boom attachments are used with forklifts and can perform some of the same functions as jib cranes.
• Brush cutters, stump grinders, and stirrers are excavator attachments used with landscaping equipment.
• Forks, pallet forks, and fork attachments are used with agricultural loaders and skidders.
• Hay handlers are used with farming equipment during haying operations.
• Root rakes are towed behind tractors, but are designed to remove roots and stumps.
• Rock rakes are heavy equipment attachments that collect rocks into a basket and allow soil to sift back through.
• Grading blades are designed for use on skid steers and may feature a hydraulic side-shift and end-wing kit.

Additiional types of construction and demolition attachments include:

• Rippers
• Saws
• Scarifiers
• Snow blades
• Snow removal devices
• Squeezes
• Sweepers
• Tree shears
• Single tooth rippers
• Compaction wheels
• Tilt buckets
• Clearing rakes
• Skeleton buckets
• Bell-hole grave buckets

Standards

BS 7747 - FORESTRY MACHINERY - PORTABLE BRUSH CUTTERS AND GRASS TRIMMERS - CUTTING ATTACHMENT GUARD STRENGTH