Gradall Forklift Parts - The Gradall excavator was the brainchild of two brothers Ray and Koop Ferwerda. The excavator was established In the 1940's all through WWII, when there was a scarcity of workers. The brothers faced the problems of a depleted labor force because of the war. As partners in their Cleveland, Ohio construction business known as Ferwerda-Werba-Ferwerda they lacked the existing laborers to be able to do the delicate tasks of grading and finishing on their freeway projects. The Ferwerda brothers chose to build a machine that will save their business by making the slope grading work less manual, easier and more efficient.
The initial excavator prototype consisted of a machine with two industrial beams on a rotating platform fixed to a used truck. There was a telescopic cylinder that was used to move the beams backward and forward. This enabled the fixed blade at the far end of the beams to pull or push the dirt. Soon enhancing the very first design, the brothers built a triangular boom to add more strength. Moreover, they added a tilt cylinder that let the boom rotate 45 degrees in either direction. A cylinder was positioned at the rear of the boom, powering a long push rod to enable the machinery to be equipped with either a blade or a bucket attachment.
1992 marked a significant year for Gradall with their launch of XL Series hydraulics, the most amazing change in the company's excavators since their creation. These top-of-the-line hydraulics systems allowed Gradall excavators to provide high productivity and comparable power on a realistic level to conventional excavators. The XL Series put an end to the original Gradall equipment power drawn from gear pumps and low pressure hydraulics. These traditional systems efficiently handled grading and finishing work but had a hard time competing for high productivity jobs.
The new XL Series Gradall excavators proved a significant increase in their lifting and digging ability. These versions were manufactured together with a piston pump, high-pressure hydraulics system that showed great improvements in boom and bucket breakout forces. The XL Series hydraulics system was also developed together with a load-sensing capability. Traditional excavators utilize an operator in order to choose a working-mode; where the Gradall system can automatically adjust the hydraulic power intended for the task at hand. This makes the operator's overall task easier and likewise saves fuel at the same time.
When the new XL Series hydraulics became available in the market, Gradall was thrust into the extremely competitive industrial machinery market which are designed to tackle excavating, demolition, pavement removal as well as several industrial tasks. 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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