Dragline Excavator

Dragline falls in heavy equipment’s category.  Dragline excavator is used for civil engineering projects and surface mining. Dragline is the largest equipment ever built on this planet. It has the ability to excavate very deep down the earth. Word drag is used because it has the ability to drag material at far distance from the machine. Dragline consists of drag rope, large bucket, boom, hoist rope and driving motors. As shown in the figure;

Dragline parts

A large bucket is attached with dragline boom (it is truss like structure). Bucket is controlled with the help of number of ropes and chains. There are two separate function ropes are attached with bucket.

These are;

1. Hoist rope
2. Drag rope

Hoist rope is controlled with the help of electric motor and it supports the hoist-coupler assembly and the bucket from the boom. The second one i.e., drag rope is used for drawing of bucket horizontally towards the machine.

Uses of Dragline

Dragline is used for;

1. Road excavation
2. Deep down pile driving
3. Construction of ports, harbor etc.
4. Surface mining
5. Deep down excavation
6. Under water excavation

Dragline working under water

Types of Dragline

There are three types of dragline;

1. Wheel mounted dragline
2. Crawler type dragline
3. Truck mounted dragline/portable dragline.

Working Principle of Dragline

Dragline drops the bucket on the source and then drag it horizontally. bucket start tilting as it came closer to the machine. Dragline during working can be seen from the animation. Click on the image and watch how it works;

Dragline during operation