A trench is a type of excavation in the ground. Trenches are used in agriculture, military, archaeology, geology and infrastructure. In agriculture, trenches are used as a mean to transport water, draining of water and irrigation. Trenches are used in archaeology to allow archaeologists in finding materials in chronological order. In civil engineering, trenches are used to search for pipes and other underground constructions.
To dig a trench, a piece of equipment needed is known as trencher. There are different sizes of trench digging tools or machinery, from walk-behind models, attachments for a tractor or skid loader or to heavy tracked engineering vehicles. Apart from the sizes, the types of trench digging tools or machinery to be used are chosen based on the required size and hardness of the trench digging tools or machinery.
One type of trenchers is a chain trencher. It has a digging chain which is driven around a rounded metal frame or boom to cut parts of the ground. To control the depth of the cut, the angle of the boom can be adjusted.
In order to cut a trench, the boom is to be held at a fixed angle while the machine creeps backwards. If the ground is too hard to be cut by a bucket excavator, chain trench digging device or machine is used. It resembles a giant chainsaw.
A wheel trencher can be mounted on rubber tires or tracks. It utilizes a number of buckets that are mounted on a wheel which moves in a circular motion during excavation of materials.
Another type of trench digging device or machine is the rockwheel. It is a metal wheel with teeth, which is similar to a giant circular saw. The giant saw can be removed. It is made from high strength steel or tungsten. The teeth may need to be replaced frequently depending on the usage. This type of trench digging device or machine can be used to cut hard grounds that a chain trench digging device or machine cannot cut, including cutting through solid stone. A rockwheel is also used to gain access to utilities under roads and to cut pavements for road maintenance.
Portable trencher are used in landscaping, lawn care and to install utility connections that are not too deep into the ground. Lawn care specialists uses portable trencher to install irrigation lines and landscapers to install landscape edging. This type of trencher is very light compared to the rest and is easy to operate. The cutting part of the trencher can be a chain or a blade which is similar to a rotary lawn mower blade which rotates in a vertical plane.
Trenchers may be combined with a geotextile feeder unit or drainage pipe and backfill hopper. This is to save more time by placing the drain or textile and filling in the trench at simultaneously. The earliest trench digging device or machine was built in the 1940s and it was based on Fordson tractor unit known as rotapeds.
Manufacturers of trenchers include Bobcat, Case, Howard, Allen, Barth, Vermeer and Eagle Wheel Trenchers. The above manufacturers sell not only the whole vehicle, but also attachments to be attached in other types of vehicles. There are new and used trenchers available on the market.