Pavement Breaker

Hand-held pavement breakers may be thought of as a kind of heavy-duty version of the chipping hammer.

Hand-held pavement breaker

The difference is that pavement breakers are heavier, more powerful tools that are usually operated perpendicular to the ground. Because of this, a T-shaped handle is the most common design for pavement breakers. A few lightweight breakers are designed with a D-shaped handle that allows the operator to pick the breaker up and operate it horizontally.

Like chipping hammers, pavement breakers are powered hydraulically, electrically, or pneumatically. The pounding action of breakers is usually slightly slower than that of chipping hammers, ranging from 800 blows per minute to close to 2,000 blows per minute.

Pavement breakers weigh from 30 to 99 pounds. A good indication of a breaker's power is its weight.

Pavement breakers weighing between 40 and 50 pounds are particularly useful for removing concrete for partial-depth pavement repair. The weight of these tools gives them the power needed to break up a few inches of concrete without being so heavy that they demolish the entire pavement.

The pavement breakers weighing 60 pounds andmore can handle medium-to-heavy demolition jobs with reinforced concrete, and are used to demolish pavements, roads, and thick concrete. One example of the type of work that the heaviest breakers do is demolition of high-strength concrete found on airport runways.

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