Hello everyone!
I’m here at the Tarmac Quarry to meet an AMAZING digger called an EXCAVATOR!
Excavators are the perfect vehicles for digging up loose rock.
Instead of wheels, excavators run on caterpillar tracks, which are really good at gripping
onto all sorts of surfaces so the excavator doesn’t slip.
That means they can climb up really steep, rocky surfaces like this!!
Here on this quarry, they are mining for Limestone rock, but to break the huge rock faces into
smaller pieces, the team from Tarmac plant explosives into the rock.
Using explosives is really really dangerous, which is why the team here are specially trained.
They drill holes all the way along the rock, and fill them up with the explosives.
Then it’s time to detonate!
Standby!
3,2,1!
Now the excavators can move in to dig up all of the loose rock.
This is the boom, the dipper and the bucket.
These three parts all work together to make the excavator AMAZING at digging.
The arm can dig really deep, and reach really far.
Waaaa!
I'm an excavator and digging is my job, I'm an excavator, it's time to load this rock.
Round and round and up and down, an excavator digs.
The rocks and rubble from the ground underneath the twigs
There's no trouble loading and we're filling up the lorry
These rocks will make a new road now, we've dug them from the quarry.
I'm an excavator and digging is my job, I'm an excavator, it's time to load this rock.
This is Dave, the operator of this Excavator.
Once he’s inside he can use these 2 joysticks to control exactly what the arm does.
He scoops up as much loose rock as possible, lifting it high into the air, and drops it
into this machine, which then crushes and sorts the rock into large, medium and small
sizes.
This rock can then be used to build houses, roads and for farming!
Excavators can move in amazing ways.
The cab, arm and bucket can spin all the way around whilst the tracks stay still.
This is called 360 degree movement!
Woo, Dave are you dizzy yet?
Using the pedals in the cab, Dave can make the Excavator move side to side like a crab.
Left, right, left, right!
And they can move forward and backwards, forwards and backwards.
Excavators can also load rock into Dumper Trucks.
Once the rock is ready to load, the dumper truck reverses into place and the bucket drops
the load of rock into the hopper on the back.
Good job everyone!
I’ve loved learning all about these amazing Excavators today.
Thanks to Dave, and all the team at Tarmac for showing us what they can do!
We’ll see you again soon,
Byeeeee!!!