Bulldozer

A bulldozer or dozer (also called a crawler) is a large, motorized machine equipped with a metal blade to the front for pushing material: soil, sand, snow, rubble, or rock during construction work. It travels most commonly on continuous tracks, though specialized models riding on large off-road tires are also produced. Its most popular accessory is a ripper, a large hook-like device mounted singly or in multiples in the rear to loosen dense materials.

For other uses, see Bulldozer (disambiguation).

Bulldozers are used heavily in large and small scale construction, road building, minings and quarrying, on farms, in heavy industry factories, and in military applications in both peace and wartime.

The word "bulldozer" refers only to a motorized unit fitted with a blade designed for pushing. The word is sometimes used inaccurately for other heavy equipment such as a front-end loader designed for carrying rather than pushing material. The term originally referred only to the blade attachment but is now commonly applied to any crawler tractor with a front mounted blade.

straight ("S blade"), short with no lateral curve or side wings. Can be used for fine grading.

universal ("U blade"), tall and very curved, with large side wings to maximize load.

combination ("S-U", or semi-U), shorter, with less curvature and smaller side wings. It is typically used for pushing large rocks, as at a quarry.

Manufacturers[edit]

Industry statistics based on 2010 production published by Off-Highway Research showed Shantui was the largest producer of bulldozers, making over 10,000 units that year or two in five crawler-type dozers made in the world.^[12] The next-largest producer by number of units is Caterpillar Inc., which produced 6,400 units.^[12]

Komatsu introduced the D575A in 1981, the D757A-2 in 1991, and the D575A-3 in 2002, which the company touts as the biggest bulldozer in the world.^[13]

A 19th-century term used in engineering for a horizontal

forging press

Around 1870s: In the USA, a "bulldose" was a large dose (namely, one large enough to be literally or figuratively effective against a bull) of any sort of medicine or punishment.

By the late 1870s, "to bulldoze" and "bulldozing" were being used throughout the United States to describe intimidation "by violent and unlawful means", which sometimes meant a severe whipping or coercion, or other intimidation, such as at gunpoint.^[15] It had a particular meaning in the Southern United States as a whipping or other punishment for African Americans to suppress black voter turnout in the 1876 United States presidential election.^[16]^[17]^[18]

[14]

1886: "Bulldozer" meant a large-caliber and the person who wielded it.^[15]

pistol

Late 19th century: "Bulldozing" meant using brute force to push over or through any obstacle, with reference to two bulls pushing against each other's heads in a fight over dominance.

[15]

1930s: applied to the vehicle

These appeared as early as 1929, but were known as "bull grader" blades, and the term "bulldozer blade" did not appear to come into widespread use until the mid-1930s. "Bulldozer" now refers to the whole machine, not just the attachment. In contemporary usage, "bulldozer" is sometimes shortened to "dozer", and the verb "bulldozing" to "dozing", thus making a homophone with the pre-existing verb "dozing".