Wheel-Loader / Excavator Bucket Production Rate
Loose-yards-per-hour a wheel loader or excavator digs and dumps from the rated bucket capacity, fill factor.
Example
You enter
- Heaped bucket capacity (loose cy) 3.5
- Bucket fill factor 0.95
- Dig-dump cycle time (min) 0.5
- Working minutes per hour 50
- Productive hours per day 8
You get
- Bucket payload 3.325
- Cycles per hour 100
- Production 332.5 lcy/hr
- Daily production 2660 lcy/day
Details, formula, and sources
Loose-yards-per-hour a wheel loader or excavator digs and dumps from the rated bucket capacity, fill factor, and cycle time, plus the daily output - the load-side production the haul-cycle fleet match assumes.
bucket_payload = bucket_cap x fill_factor; cycles_per_hour = working_min / cycle; production = bucket_payload x cycles_per_hour; daily = production x hours.
Caterpillar Performance Handbook cycle-time production-estimating method by name (production = payload x cycles per hour); first-principles cycle arithmetic.
The cycle-time production method is published earthmoving practice.
Estimate. AHJ and licensed professional govern.
Field names used by the API: bucket_cap_lcy, fill_factor, cycle_min, eff_min_per_hr, hours_per_day, bucket_payload_lcy, cycles_per_hour, production_lcy_hr, daily_lcy
- Fill factor 0.95 heaped-bucket fill (default; material and bucket geometry govern)Caterpillar Performance Handbook
- Working minutes 50-minute hour (efficiency factor for real-world delays)Caterpillar Performance Handbook