Gradall Forklift Parts - The Gradall excavator was the idea of two brothers Ray and Koop Ferwerda. The excavator was created In the 1940's throughout World War II, when there was a scarcity of workers. The brothers faced the problems of a depleted labor force due to the war. As partners in their Cleveland, Ohio construction business referred to as Ferwerda-Werba-Ferwerda they lacked the available workers in order to carry out the delicate tasks of grading and finishing on their freeway projects. The Ferwerda brothers opted to build an equipment that would save their company by making the slope grading job easier, more efficient and less manual.
Their initial design model was a device with two beams set on a rotating platform that was affixed on top of a second-hand truck. A telescopic cylinder moved the beams back and forth which enabled the fixed blade at the end of the beams to push or pull dirt. Soon enhancing the first design, the brothers made a triangular boom so as to add more strength. Furthermore, they added a tilt cylinder which let the boom turn 45 degrees in either direction. A cylinder was placed at the back of the boom, powering a long push rod to allow the machinery to be outfitted with either a bucket or a blade attachment.
Gradall launched in the year 1992, with the introduction of the new XL Series hydraulics, the most innovative adjustment in their equipment since their creation. This new system of top-of-the-line hydraulics enabled the Gradall excavator to provide comparable power and high productivity to the more conventional excavators. The XL Series ended the first Gradall equipment power drawn from gear pumps and low pressure hydraulics. These traditional systems efficiently handled finishing work and grading but had a hard time competing for high productivity tasks.
The new XL Series Gradall excavators proved a remarkable increase in their digging and lifting ability. These versions were manufactured with a piston pump, high-pressure hydraulics system that showed great improvements in boom and bucket breakout forces. The XL Series hydraulics system was even developed with a load-sensing capability. Conventional excavators use an operator to select a working-mode; where the Gradall system can automatically adjust the hydraulic power meant for the work at hand. This makes the operator's general work easier and likewise conserves fuel at the same time.
Once the new XL Series hydraulics became available in the market, Gradall was thrust into the extremely competitive industrial machine market that are meant to deal with excavating, demolition, pavement removal as well as different industrial work. The introduction of the new telescoping boom helped to further improve the excavator's marketability. The telescoping boom gives the excavator the ability to work in low overhead areas and to better position attachments.
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