Use of a Motor Grader in Road Infrastructure

The Indian infrastructure industry is witnessing rapid growth, supporting it is the recent budget allocation during the 2019-20 budget discussion and other research reports that have clearly predicted its growth. The most important growth that a developing country like India can have is road construction.

Roads play a major role in a developing economy. It not only improves the efficiency of an enterprise or a whole industry but also does it by supporting an increase in logistics and other profits. One of the major machines used in improving roads is a Motor Grader, while other important construction equipment’s include smaller graders, usually referred to as mini graders and Backhoe Loader.

Backhoe Loader

A standard Backhoe Loader typically encompasses

1. A large bucket that is attached in the front and is used generally for landscaping, breaking asphalt, providing stability while working, and myriads of other operations like construction, small demolition, etc.

2. A backhoe that is attached to the back is used in digging and small engineering matters in urban areas.

Backhoe loader from Mahindra Construction equipment, the EarthMaster, provides a 7% more reach with extended banana boom feature, hence increasing productivity. Other features include a DITEC engine which allows 10% more savings with Mahindra’s backhoe loaders.

Motor Graders

A Motor Grader is a type of construction equipment that is designed specifically for road construction. It can perform tasks such as grading, levelling a rough surface, evenly spreading dumped material, trenching and of course, creating smooth roads for us to travel.

Motor graders are also used in mines to maintain and modify the rough and unpaved roads continually for the heavy mining equipment.

A motor grader consists of

1. A blade used to create flat surface during grading for road construction. The size of the blade can be adjusted based on the location of the construction, Mahindra’s RoadMaster offers a 3000 mm long blade which can be adjusted depending on the requirement by 200 mm on both sides.

2. Although most graders have tandem axles Mahindra’s grader does not possess it. An ingenious design by Mahindra allows the RoadMaster to achieve the same quality of finish without the use of bulky tandem axles.

3. Apart from the above, non-inclusion of other features like a 90-degree rotation of blades, has allowed Mahindra Construction Equipment to reduce the cost to almost half the price of traditional graders while not compromising on either the efficiency of the machine neither the quality of the construction work.

4. Ripper, an optional attachment to a grader, allows the grader to dig-up and loosen a patch of road before grading it. This saves the cost of employing a backhoe or an excavator to do the same job.

5. Dozer, another optional attachment, allows the grader to break larger heaps and spread material faster. Dozer is also useful is clearing boulders and other debris from the road and other miscellaneous tasks. Whenever a grader is trying to move a heavy object, an operator should avoid doing it with the grader blade, instead, the dozer blade should be used.

Both backhoe loader and motor grader are widely used in urban engineering setup, especially in developing countries for the construction, demolition of small houses, grading roads, construction of roads and road repair. Mahindra Construction Equipment has tested these machines for over 10,000 hours to ensure quality for the customer. Additionally, the RoadMaster was purpose-built for the Indian territories and hence provides the maximum efficiency, both in terms of fuel and maintenance.