Quarry is a place in which a stone or gravel producer extracts versatile raw materials from the site. Common materials extracted in the quarry include limestone, granite and gravel, etc. The equipment used in quarry plants is generally large, heavy and productive.

Stripping and Drilling Machine

It is the first step to open a quarry by removing the material between the surface and the minerals to be extracted. This is completed through surface stripping or blasting with explosives. Surface stripping is primarily done by crawler tractors, which are large-scale bulldozers. These massive machines are able to move large amounts of dirt with their front-mounted blades and rip through rock with their rear-mounted ripper arms. Blasting is first initiated by drilling holes into the earth with specialized auger bits mounted on a mobile platform. After the holes are drilled, explosives with a primer booster are packed into the holes. When the primer boosters are detonated, large portions of earth are moved.

Wheel Loaders

Wheel loaders are equipped with a hydraulic arm and bucket that are used to load dirt that is moved by crawler tractors or blasting technicians. These massive loaders have a bucket capacity of up to 35 ton. They are also used for loading mined products into rock trucks for later processing. Smaller loaders are available for smaller-scale quarrying operations and for loading trucks which deliver materials to their end destination.