Excavators are engineering vehicles which are primarily used for the purpose of digging trenches, holes or foundations. They are also used for other purposes such as demolition, lifting and placing heavy materials especially pipes, for mining( not open pit mining), river dredging, landscaping. These can be used for brush cuttings aided with hydraulic attachments.

Because excavators are used for the purpose of digging, people usually use the term 'excavators' for all kind of digging equipments. Actual excavators have an articulated arm, a bucket and a cab mounted on a rotating platform known as a pivot. This platform is on top of an undercarriage with tracks or wheels. The design is basically derived from steam shovels.

The other terms used for excavators are ' diggers' and '360-degree excavators'. They are sometimes simply called 360. The tracked excavators are also called 'track hoes' due to its resemblance with a backhoe. There is a contradiction that the 'back' in a backhoe is used in reference to the pulling back action of the bucket towards the machine instead of the location of the shovel. However, excavators are still referred to as front hoes by some people.

Excavators come in a variety of sizes, but the most popular are large excavators and mini excavators. The large excavators are huge in size. They weigh around 85,000 kg and their bucket size is usually 4.5 m 3. These excavators are generally used for industrial excavation works.

Mini excavators are popularly known as compact excavators also, the smallest models generally weigh around 1,500 kg and they have a bucket size of 0.036 m 3. One thing that sets a mini excavator apart is the fact that all the movements and functions are supported by a hydraulic fluid.. These mini excavators have become very trendy in metropolitan areas because of the limited space available. It can easily get into small spaces where one cannot even dream of bringing in a large excavator.

Mini excavators are used for improving the service and reducing the maintenance costs. Mini excavators are generally used for loading the material into a truck , setting up pipes and for precision excavating and trenching.

Estas excavadoras pueden variar en función de su uso porque hay diferentes usuarios para estas excavadoras. Las excavadoras pueden ampliar sus usos con la ayuda de diferentes accesorios. Se puede garantizar una excavadora flexible y exitosa mediante el uso de acopladores de miniexcavadora estándar. Esto aseguraría un buen funcionamiento porque todos los archivos adjuntos funcionarán bien la primera vez.

Al ser los equipos más populares en la industria de la construcción, las excavadoras han ayudado con éxito a reducir la participación del esfuerzo humano en los trabajos pesados ​​de construcción.