Bagger-288 excavator: specifications and photos

Excavators - heavy construction equipment, designed to dig the earth. It is equipped with a bucket and a cab on a rotating platform. The cab is located on top of the machine, it can turn in all directions, providing a complete view and high mobility of the excavator. This is very important for the unit of such an action.

Rope drive mechanisms

Rope drive excavator uses very strong and reliable steel ropes, which help the machine to perform all kinds of maneuvers and movements. All functions of the hydraulic excavator are carried out using a special fluid, with hydraulic cylinders and motors. In connection with the linear operation of the cylinders, their operation mode is fundamentally different from that of a cable-driven excavator.

Excavator: what is it? Who invented it?

Excavator - the most successful mechanism for working with soil, as well as coal and other minerals. The first mention of such an earth-shattering giant met in the diaries of Leonardo da Vinci, who designed such a machine and even tested it.

However, it is believed that the creator of this mechanism was still not him. Similar constructions, reminiscent of the current excavators, were used in ancient Egypt when building various temples and huge pyramids.

Types of excavators and their function

Excavators are a technique that is used in many activities, such as excavating trenches, erecting foundations, digging pits, all kinds of forest work, demolition of buildings or dams. They are also used for landscaping, for mining various minerals, deepening reservoirs and rivers, installation of overall piles.

Wherever a large number of useful rocks or ordinary land is to be extracted and transported most economically and efficiently, the largest rotary excavators are used to get the deepest layers of raw materials. Since the plans of the mines, as well as the features of the mountains, can differ significantly, the excavators are supplied in different configurations. Accordingly, and their work and management will be slightly different, but the essence of the tasks usually always remains unchanged. Excavators can be connected to a conveyor special bridge, and also connected to a specific cargo block.

Excavators come in different sizes, among them there are very small, and very large, but there are certain leaders that no other car can surpass the dimensions. Such mechanisms are difficult to move around, but the volume of work performed by them can not be surpassed even by a dozen smaller machines.

Excavator Bagger-288: the history of the creation of the giant

This mechanism, created by the well-known German company Krupp for the energy and mining company Rheinbraun, is a rotary excavator, or mobile mining machine. When its construction was completed (in 1978), it was used by NASA as a caterpillar conveyor for the transfer of the Apollo missile. The mechanism itself is produced by Marion Excavator as the largest land vehicle in the world, whose weight is more than thirteen tons. This makes both installation and disassembly of this machine incredibly expensive and complex. Not seeing live this huge mechanism, it's simply impossible to understand what Bagger-288 is.

Advantages of the giant machinery

The giant-sized Bagger-288 excavator, whose technical characteristics are unique, was built for remote coal mining operations in Germany. It can raise about 240,000 tons of coal or 240,000 cubic meters of rock per day, which is equivalent to dug at 30 meters (98 feet) deep in the area with a football field. This is unbelievable for other excavators, which will not be able to carry out half of such work per day. Coal, extracted by him in one day, fills 2,400 wagons carrying raw materials to factories for its processing. Operation Bagger requires 16.56 megawatts of external power. This allows him to move at a speed of 2 to 10 meters per minute (from 0.1 to 0.6 km / h). The chassis of its main section is 46 meters (151 feet) wide. The large surface area of the giant caterpillars makes the pressure on the Bagger-288 very small (17.1 N / cm ² or 24.8 pounds per square inch). This allows the excavator to move freely on gravel, earth and even grass, leaving no significant traces, which is very important when working with rocks. Initially, this excavator planned wheels for greater mobility of its movement, but at the first tests this idea suffered a catastrophic defeat, as the car immediately collapsed, unable to withstand its own weight. Caterpillars became the best solution to this problem. In the future, it is planned to replace them with an air cushion, which will further reduce pressure on the surface under the excavator. The minimum turning radius of the Bagger-288 reaches 100 meters, which is a very good indicator when working with minerals, the extraction of which is an extremely time-consuming task.

Achievements of the excavator

By February 2001, Bagger-288 had completely cleared the coal source in the Tagebau mine and was no longer needed there. It was decided to move him to another mine. Three weeks later, the excavator made a twenty-two kilometer trip to Tagebau Garzweiler, passing along Autobahn 61, on the way crossing the railway track and several route dirt roads. This trip cost almost 15 million DM and required the help of a team of seventy workers exercising full control over the excavator's movement. For crossing the river, large steel pipes for water were laid, through which it could pass unhindered. They were covered with stones and gravel from above. A special grass was sown to smooth out the excavator's passage through a particularly valuable area. Despite the enormous costs of moving the Bagger-288, this method of moving it was more economical than complete dismantling and moving in parts, which would require a lot of equipment and even more time.

Advantages of the unique mechanism

Bagger-288 is part of a group of excavators of similar dimensions. It consists of Bagger-281 (built in 1958), Bagger-285 (1975), Bagger-287 (1976), Bagger-293 (1995) and other units.

Bagger-288 was shown in 2012 in the movie "Ghost Rider: The Spirit of Vengeance," where the Ghost Rider (the protagonist of the painting) uses it to subdue his enemies.

Being such a famous huge machine, the excavator is even sung in several songs of American bands. Many people, seeing this unit, immediately wonder: "Bagger-288 - what is this?" After all, the very sight of this incredibly large machine inspires everyone who sees it, horror and awe.

Such a huge sturdy construction requires special care. More than twenty workers are engaged only in servicing the excavator. Every two months, the entire mechanism is lubricated, because the cost of repair in the event of a breakdown will be simply colossal. Every move must be calculated and planned, especially when it occurs in dangerous unstable mines, so that something is not touched or torn down. After all, this can harm both the work and the machine itself.

Instead of concluding

This unique mechanism is not just an excavator, for some people it's a lifetime. To date, many are interested in the Bagger-288 excavator. Where is now this giant, unfortunately, is not known.