Gradall Forklift Parts - The Gradall excavator was the creation of two brothers Ray and Koop Ferwerda. The excavator was established In the 1940's throughout World War II, when there was a scarcity of workers. Partners in a Cleveland, Ohio construction business known as Ferwerda-Werba-Ferwerda, the brothers faced a huge dilemma when so many men left the labor force and signed up in the military, depleting existing laborers for the delicate finishing work and grading on highway projects. The Ferwerda brothers opted to build an equipment which will save their business by making the slope grading job more efficient, less manual and easier.
Their very first design prototype was a machine 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 that enabled the fixed blade at the end of the beams to push or pull dirt. Before long improving the very first design, the brothers built a triangular boom in order to add more strength. Also, they added a tilt cylinder that let the boom turn 45 degrees in either direction. A cylinder was positioned at the back of the boom, powering a long push rod to allow the equipment to be equipped with either a bucket or a blade attachment.
The year 1992 marked a significant year for Gradall with their introduction of XL Series hydraulics, the most dramatic change in the company's excavators since their invention. 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 ended the first Gradall equipment power drawn from gear pumps and low pressure hydraulics. These traditional systems successfully handled grading and finishing work but had a difficult time competing for high productivity jobs.
Gradall's new XL Series excavators showed more ability to dig and lift materials. With this series, the models were made together with a piston pump, high-pressure system of hydraulics which showed marked improvement in boom and bucket breakout forces. The XL Series hydraulics system was also developed together with a load-sensing capability. Conventional excavators utilize an operator to choose a working-mode; where the Gradall system could automatically adjust the hydraulic power for the work at hand. This makes the operator's whole work easier and even conserves fuel at the same time.
Once the new XL Series hydraulics reached the market, Gradall was thrust into the very competitive industrial machine market that are designed to tackle demolition, pavement removal, excavating and other industrial jobs. The introduction of the new telescoping boom helped to further enhance 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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