The term ‘formal training’ can be applied to a lot of situations. Is on the job training formal training? Some would argue, yes! However, formal training is generally accepted as being the type of training that is accredited and that follows a defined path – if you like, it has a start, assessment points along the way and a conclusion.

Do you need this formal training to operate heavy equipment? The answer could often be no. However, when you receive on-the-job training your training is only as good as the operator who is training you. If they have poor habits then they are likely to be passed on to your.

More importantly, on-the-job training really only teaches you how to push buttons, use levers and turn a key. You don’t always learn important aspects such as safety or basic maintenance. These are important areas, particularly when working in tricky or unusual situations.

If an accident occurs and you haven’t had proper training, there may be serious ramifications. Undertaking provides a peace of mind in the knowledge that you have the complete range of skills required to operate a unit of heavy equipment safely and competently.

ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools prides itself on the provision of accredited training that includes safety and basic aspects of machine maintenance. You also learn how to push buttons, work levers and how to operate that piece of heavy equipment to get a job done properly.

ATS will soon celebrate its 50th birthday – that is 50 years of dedicated service to training. ATS has grown to 10 locations nationwide and further expansion is planned in the future.

Our service doesn’t just stop at training. We also provide employment assistance and with 10 locations, there are plenty of employers to choose from when it comes to time to get your career of the ground. Our lifetime job placement service is recognized by employers due to the skill levels of those we train.

The training that ATS provides is accredited through the National Center of Construction and Research Education (NCCER) which is a not-for-profit education foundation. Our training has stood the test of time and continues to improve and maintain current industry standards.

What is the ATS advantage? We provide quality, accredited and industry endorsed training in the heavy equipment field. Our aim is to help you get started in your chosen career.

When you were growing up, did you like playing in the dirt with toy trucks, perhaps a bulldozer or toy front end loader? I did and it was a lot fun. When I was finished I could just tip my toys upside down, whack them a couple of times on the ground to remove the dirt or sand, then pack them away in my toy box (when I remembered that is is 🙂 ). It is such a pity you cannot do that to the real ones.

Real dump trucks, front end loaders and the myriad of heavy equipment that is in use today requires a little more than just removing a little loose dirt or sand. Anyway, you cannot pick them up and empty them like a toy.

The real heavy equipment that big boys (and girls) play with need much more, they need fuel, oil, grease in the right places and working areas that require constant attention. Heavy equipment often relies on hydraulics. Hydraulics is a system where a fluid, under pressure, is used to perform certain acts. For example, to raise or a lower a bucket, hydraulics may be used. Since fluid, pressure and often flexible piping is used, these need to be inspected regularly to ensure there no leaks or problems that could cause a loss of pressure.

Digging equipment often comes fitted with teeth or tines. These need to be inspected regularly to ensure there are no breakages and that they retain some form of pointed or sharpness to enable easy digging.

Caterpillar or track vehicles need to have their tracks regularly inspected to ensure there no foreign objects such as rocks or plant material caught in them that could cause damage. The tracks themselves should also be inspected for breakages or weaknesses that could lead to breakages whilst in use.

Darn, I wish I could just pick them up and shake the dirt out like a toy. Then again, this is heavy equipment, the big boys toy.

Building a simple farm dam sound like an easy task. Dig a hole. Make sure the walls are secure and at the right angle to channel run off into the dam proper. Easy. Perhaps not, especially if I give you a shovel and pick and tell you to dig it by hand. Time for the heavy equipment.

One piece of heavy equipment may not be enough. A bulldozer can do a lot of the muscle work. You may also need an excavator if the ground is rocky or packed solid. A front end loader can make short work of lifting the excess material out,

Whilst all this is happening, you need to be referencing plans to ensure the dam is built correctly, and safely. Building a dam is not an easy task. It takes a lot of muscle, muscle that only heavy equipment can provide, along with a lot skill in how to use that heavy equipment to get the job done.

Today’s farms no longer rely on just a simple tractor. In fact some tractors have all the attachments to make them into smaller versions of much of the heavy equipment used in construction. Tractors don’t quite have that real muscle power of a bulldozer or motor grader. In the hands of an expert, a dam can be constructed in a matter of days. Do it by hand and your looking at months with blisters to match.

Training is one of key components to using heavy equipment effectively when building a dam. Knowing how to operate a bulldozer or an front end loader means the job can be done quickly and effectively with little hassle.

The mining sector is a large employer of heavy equipment operators particularly those with experience in equipment that used in the mines. Mines fall into two segments, open cut or above ground and underground.

Above ground heavy equipment operators use excavating, loading machines and draglines equipped with scoops, shovels, or buckets to dig and load sand, gravel, earth, or similar materials into trucks or onto conveyors. This is a job that is open to the extremes of weather. Most workers are employed on 8 hour shifts, sometimes around the clock, seven days per week.

Underground heavy equipment operators use underground loading machines to load coal, ore, or rock into shuttles and mine cars or onto conveyors. Loading equipment may include power shovels, hoisting engines equipped with cable-drawn scrapers or scoops, and machines equipped with gathering arms and conveyors. Whilst underground miners are protected from weather extremes, there is added danger being underground. As with above ground workers, most shifts are 8 hours although it is not uncommon to work rotating seven day shifts around the clock.

These are challenging jobs and whilst the remuneration is not terrific, the wages are reasonable. There is a constant need for heavy equipment operators in the mining industry, particularly underground due to the transient nature of many of the workers.

ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools can help you gain the skills required to operate heavy equipment in the mining sector.

There are many training establishments around that offer training for heavy equipment. You can also learn to operate the machinery on the job. Some of this training is accredited, some isn’t. How important is this accreditation?

It doesn’t matter what sort of training you undertake, whether it is heavy equipment, car driving or any other skill. Accredited training is training that has been assessed as meeting an agreed set of standards. For heavy equipment, training is not limited to how you operate a piece of machinery. Training also includes important areas such as safety, basic maintenance including safety checks to identify problems before they cause problems and associated skills.

For heavy equipment, some of the associated skills include dealing with different types of materials, for example, dirt behaves differently to sand or gravel. In fact, different grades of material will react differently to the machine working on it. Training could also involve working with slopes and working around other objects, obstacles and services such as water and electricity.

Accredited training allows for an agreed standard of training, training resources and the personnel delivering the training. If you seek out accredited training you know you will receive training that at least meets the minimum standards.

ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools delivers accredited training to strict standards laid down by The National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER). You can be assured your training meets or exceeds these standards.

Overhead cranes are used in many industrial, manufacturing and assembly environments. These cranes are devices that raise and lower a load and move it along a horizontal plane. Most overhead crane systems are controlled by an operator either remotely or through a fixed housing control.

There are a variety of different types of overhead crane including gantry, semi-gantry, cantilever gantry, storage bridge and wall cranes.

Gantry cranes are very similar to overhead cranes with the exception of the bridge for the trolleys. Two or more legs support it as the crane runs on fixed rails or another runway.

Cantilever gantry cranes are either gantry or semi-gantry cranes on which the bridge girders or trusses extend beyond the crane runway on one or both sides.

Storage bridge cranes are a type of gantry crane in which the bridge girders or trusses are rigidly or non-rigidly supported on one or more legs and may have one or more fixed or hinged cantilever ends. These long-span overhead cranes are typically used for bulk storage applications.

Wall cranes are a traveling type of crane which has a jib, with or without a trolley. These overhead cranes are supported from a side wall or lined columns of a building to which the runway is attached.

Overhead cranes are used in a variety of industries. The automotive industry utilizes overhead cranes extensively in their production facilities. Overhead cranes are also commonly used in the construction of very tall structures. Relocating cargo containers and other heavy non-assembly materials, such as blocks of concrete, is another common use for overhead cranes.

the principles of operating an overhead crane are similar to that of a conventional crane. Like any vehicle, it is the controls that differ. Learning to operate a conventional crane may open the door to a career as an overhead crane operator. ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools can provide basic crane operation training to help get you started.

Heavy equipment operators, particularly those that are prepared to go out into the mines, or perhaps out onto the oil rig, do so with the one ambition of working hard, saving their money and buying a heavy equipment machine of their own.

One of the popular choices is the compact or mini excavator. These are easy to operate and, more importantly, easy to transport from one job to another. The feature of these machines are similar to their heavy equipment brothers. They do however have several real benefits to the owner operator.

Where the space is tight or the job is near another structure, the compact excavator can operate efficiently the area much easier than a bigger excavator. If the work to be done is in a sensitive area that won’t tolerate a heavier load, like inside a house block, the lower weight of the compact excavator allows the machine to perform with little impact on the surrounding environment.

Despite their size they still deliver a lot of power so they are popular in landscape gardening and for digging utilities trenches ready for pipe laying. Some compact excavators have zero tail swing; this means that no portion of the machine extends beyond the footprint of the tracks as the machine rotates a full 360 degrees. This feature is important when working in tight areas like next to a wall or fence.

Compact excavators may not be large heavy equipment machine, when it comes to small jobs like building gardens, they rule! Owning and operating a compact excavator starts with the basic training in heavy equipment use. ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools can provide this basic training and have you up and running operator this type of equipment very quickly.

Timber piles have been the most widely used pile foundations in history with known structures being supported by timber piles dating back thousands of years. However, with the development of steel and concrete piles, the use of timber piles has steadily declined as they are generally considered to be less versatile. Heavy equipment mechanized pile drivers have also required a rethink as timber can split under pressure.

Over the years engineering codes have been written to limit the use of timber piles. This has primarily been done due to the belief that timber piles are not as consistent in strength as the steel or concrete pile alternatives.

Timber piles are still used today, however pile drivers need to be more precise in the way they drive these timber piles into the ground. Heavy equipment can, at times, be just too heavy for this kind of work.

Pile drivers themselves have a long history starting with huge mechanical devices that relied on human or horse power to raise the hammer before it was released to drive the piles. These days, heavy equipment in the form of motorized pile drivers do the job in far less time using far less in the way of resources.

For a career in this age old profession, check ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools for a start in the heavy equipment industry.

Mobile cranes come in all shapes and sizes, from small cranes suited to small construction sites to huge cranes that require huge flatbed truck trailers to move about. These cranes have a boom that is mounted to a platform, the crane then relies on pulleys or levers to raise and lower the boom.

The mobile crane’s platform can be a traditional truck style with standard wheels, railway type wheels to run on train tracks, or caterpillar tracks like a bulldozer. The base of the crane is bolted to a concrete foundation which supports the weight of the crane and the weight of the loads it moves.

The mast or tower is the vertical portion of the crane. It is connected to the base at the bottom. At the top of the tower is the slewing unit. The slewing unit is a term for the gears and motor which allow the crane to rotate.

Self-erecting cranes arrive on job sites where the operator uses the power from the crawler or truck to slowly extend the crane. Instead of being anchored in a concrete base, the self erecting crane is supported by four outriggers that fold out from the crane’s body and rest on the ground.

For training on how to operate heavy equipment like trains, contact ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools.