Gradall Forklift Parts - During the period when World War II created a scarcity of workers, the legendary Gradall excavator was founded in the 1940s as the creation of two brothers Koop and Ray Ferwerda. Partners in a Cleveland, Ohio construction company referred to as Ferwerda-Werba-Ferwerda, the brothers faced a huge predicament when so many men left the workforce and joined the military, depleting existing workers for the delicate grading and finishing work on highway projects. The Ferwerda brothers decided to make an equipment that would save their company by making the slope grading task more efficient, less manual and easier.
Their initial design prototype was a device with two beams set on a rotating platform which was attached over a used truck. A telescopic cylinder moved the beams back and forth that allowed the fixed blade at the end of the beams to push or pull dirt. Soon enhancing the initial design, the brothers made a triangular boom so as to add more strength. What's more, they added a tilt cylinder that let the boom turn 45 degrees in either direction. A cylinder was placed at the rear of the boom, powering a long push rod to allow the equipment to be equipped with either a blade or a bucket attachment.
Gradall launched in the year 1992, with the introduction of the new XL Series hydraulics, the most ground-breaking adjustment in their equipment ever 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 traditional excavators. The XL Series put an end to the initial Gradall equipment power drawn from gear pumps and low pressure hydraulics. These conventional systems effectively handled finishing work and grading but had a hard time competing for high productivity tasks.
Gradall's new XL Series excavators showed more ability to dig and lift materials. With this series, the models were made 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 along with a load-sensing capability. Conventional excavators utilize an operator to be able to choose a working-mode; where the Gradall system could automatically adjust the hydraulic power meant for the task at hand. This makes the operator's general task easier and also saves fuel simultaneously.
As soon as the new XL Series hydraulics reached the market, Gradall was thrust into the vastly competitive industrial equipment market which are designed to deal with excavating, demolition, pavement removal as well as other industrial tasks. 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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