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2025-06-16
Guide to Hydraulic Breakers: Types, Uses, Benefits and Maintenance
Time: 2025-07-03 14:11
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What is a hydraulic breaker and how does it work?
Hydraulic breakers are devices that generate high-intensity impact forces through a hydraulic system, and are widely used for breaking hard materials such as concrete, rock, and asphalt. Construction workers typically mount them on heavy machinery such as excavators and skid steer loaders for high-intensity operations such as demolition, mining, and construction.
Hydraulic breakers drive the piston to move up and down through hydraulic oil. When the piston strikes the chisel, the impact energy is transferred to the target material, achieving rapid and effective breaking. This principle makes it an indispensable equipment in multiple industries.
In various scenarios, from urban demolition and mining operations to underwater structure construction, operators rely on hydraulic breakers to improve efficiency, reduce manual labor, and ensure operational precision.
Key Features and Application Scenarios of Hydraulic Breakers
Hydraulic breakers play a significant role across various industries due to their high efficiency and strong adaptability. The following outlines several primary application scenarios:
Demolition and urban construction
In urban areas, construction workers need to break down walls, floors or concrete foundations on a small scale to avoid affecting the surrounding structures. The hydraulic breaker provides precise control, focusing on the designated area to ensure structural safety while completing the task.
Road construction and bridge renovation
During road construction, construction teams use hydraulic breakers to remove structures such as road surfaces, bridge decks, and curb stones. Compared with traditional handheld tools, hydraulic equipment can significantly accelerate the progress, reduce labor intensity and improve the overall construction efficiency.
Quarry & mine mining
In mining operations, hydraulic breakers are used to break super-large rocks or to conduct preliminary processing of ores. No explosives are needed, which not only reduces safety risks but also simplifies the operation process, making it suitable for high-intensity continuous operations.
Recycling & waste disposal
In the recycling process of scrap metals or concrete, hydraulic breakers are used to break large pieces of material into smaller ones that can be transported or reprocessed. Operators can effectively control the crushing range and prevent damage to the recyclable parts.
Underwater operations
In underwater construction projects, technicians install hydraulic breakers on dedicated machinery for scenarios such as wharf construction, underwater pipeline maintenance, and canal dredging.
The working principle of the hydraulic breaker
The hydraulic breaker performs impact operations by driving the piston with high-pressure oil provided by the hydraulic system of the carrier machine. High-pressure oil is transmitted through pipelines to the interior of the breaker, where the flow rate is regulated by the control valve and the piston is driven to move.
When the piston strikes the tool head (such as a chisel or a pointed head), the impact force is transmitted to the target material, resulting in a crushing effect. This cycle process proceeds continuously, generating a powerful high-frequency impact.
There are two types of hydraulic breakers on the market:
- Air-assisted hydraulic breaker: Combining hydraulic oil and nitrogen energy storage system. Nitrogen releases energy after compression, enhancing the impact force.
- Fully hydraulic breaker: Only hydraulic oil is used to provide impact force, suitable for fine operation scenarios, with stable power output.
Advantages of Hydraulic Breaking
When choosing a hydraulic breaker, companies usually look for the following advantages that hydraulic breakers bring to the table:
High Impact Output
The hydraulic breaker hammer provides strong and concentrated impact force to easily break reinforced concrete, granite and other hard materials, effectively shortening the construction period.
Multi-scenario Adaptability
Whether on the ground, at high altitude, or underwater, the hydraulic breaker can work stably. Its compatibility with a wide range of aircraft gives it the potential to be used in a wide range of applications.
Precise control
The operator has precise control over the location and frequency of impacts, ensuring that only the target area is impacted. Precise control of the hydraulic breaker is important to minimize unnecessary damage.
High operational efficiency
Thanks to their high frequency output and sustained impact capability, hydraulic breakers can work continuously with less downtime, significantly improving overall project efficiency and economy.
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The way hydraulic breaker hammers are categorized (by type of carrier)
Depending on the supporting equipment, manufacturers categorize hydraulic breaker hammers into the following four categories:
Miniature Breaking Hammer (for skid steer loaders, small equipment)
Suitable for narrow space or indoor construction, suitable for light demolition tasks, such as home renovation, indoor concrete breaking and other scenarios.
Medium Breaking Hammer (for medium-sized excavators and backhoes)
Widely used in city construction, road construction and other medium-sized projects, combining both output capacity and ease of operation, with high cost performance.
Large Crushing Hammer (for heavy excavators)
Used in mining, bridge demolition and other large-scale projects, providing maximum impact energy, suitable for high-intensity, long-time continuous operation.
Special Crushing Hammer (for underwater, polar, high temperature and other environments)
Underwater environment: By using special sealing structure and corrosion-resistant materials, it can operate stably for a long time in a high-pressure underwater environment, and is widely used in underwater demolition, harbor engineering and bridge foundation construction.
Polar environment: By using low-temperature resistant hydraulic oil, low-temperature seals and anti-freezing structure, it ensures efficient start-up and operation even in the environment below -40℃.
High-temperature environment: adopting high-temperature heat-resistant materials and optimized heat dissipation structure, it can operate continuously in high-temperature environment such as steel smelting and slag cleaning.
Maintenance of hydraulic breaker
Proper maintenance can extend the service life of the hydraulic breaker and maintain stable performance. Operators should follow the maintenance points below:
- Daily inspection
Before each use, check the hydraulic lines for leaks, loose fittings and worn tool heads. Ensure that the equipment is firmly connected to the carrier and that the oil level is normal.
2.Regular lubrication
Apply grease to the tool head and bushings in a timely manner during operation. In dusty or high humidity environments, lubrication frequency should be increased appropriately to avoid dry wear.
- Tool head wear monitoring
Chisel or tip heads are high wear parts. Operators need to measure their length regularly and replace worn parts in time to avoid excessive impact on the piston affecting performance.
- Nitrogen pressure management (gas-assisted crushing hammers)
Air-assisted Breaking Hammers should regularly check the nitrogen pressure to ensure that it is within a reasonable range. Use special tools to avoid accidents caused by improper operation.
- Reasonable storage
During shutdown or transportation, clean up dust and water stains on the surface of the equipment, remove the tool head, seal the oil port, and store it in a dry and ventilated environment to prevent rusting or oil pollution.
If you're reading this, you should have learned how to choose a crushing hammer that
Want to pick a high performance hydraulic breakerr for your project? Feel free to contact the Beilite team. We offer multiple models and will assist you in matching the best solution to your project needs. Contact us now for exclusive technical support and after-sales protection, for more efficient operations and peace of mind.
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