Large Machines

1. Large Hadron Collider:

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and most powerful particle collider and the largest machine in the world. It was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) between 1998 and 2008 in collaboration with over 10,000 scientists and hundreds of universities and laboratories, as well as more than 100 countries. It lies in a tunnel 27 kilometres (17 mi) in circumference and as deep as 175 metres (574 ft) beneath the France–Switzerland border near Geneva. Its first data-taking period lasted from March 2010 to early 2013 at an energy of 3.5 to 4 teraelectronvolts (TeV) per beam (7 to 8 TeV total), about four times the previous world record for a collider and accelerator. More details

2. Bucket Wheel Excavator:

Bucket-wheel excavators (BWEs) are heavy equipment used in surface mining. The primary function of BWEs is to act as a continuous digging machine in large-scale open-pit mining operations. What sets BWEs apart from other large-scale mining equipment, such as bucket chain excavators, is their use of a large wheel consisting of a continuous pattern of buckets used to scoop material as the wheel turns. They are among the largest vehicles ever constructed, and the biggest bucket-wheel excavator ever built, Bagger 293, is the largest terrestrial (land) vehicle in history by weight (14,200 tonnes), according to the Guinness Book of World Records. More details

3. Saturn V Rocket:

The Saturn V (Saturn five) was an American human-rated expendable rocket used by NASA between 1967 and 1973. The three-stage liquid-fueled super heavy-lift launch vehicle was developed to support the Apollo program for human exploration of the Moon and was later used to launch Skylab, the first American space station. The Saturn V was launched 13 times from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida with no loss of crew or payload. As of 2018, the Saturn V remains the tallest, heaviest, and most powerful (highest total impulse) rocket ever brought to operational status, and holds records for the heaviest payload launched and largest payload capacity to low Earth orbit (LEO) of 140,000 kg (310,000 lb. More details

4. Tunnel Boring Machine:

A tunnel boring machine (TBM), also known as a "mole", is a machine used to excavate tunnels with a circular cross section through a variety of soil and rock strata. They may also be used for microtunneling. They can bore through anything from hard rock to sand. Tunnel diameters can range from one metre (3.3 ft) (done with micro-TBMs) to 17.6 metres (58 ft) to date. Tunnels of less than a metre or so in diameter are typically done using trenchless construction methods or horizontal directional drilling rather than TBMs. Tunnel boring machines are used as an alternative to drilling and blasting (D&B) methods in rock and conventional "hand mining" in soil. More details

5. Metso 4265 Gyratory Crusher:

A crusher is a machine designed to reduce large rocks into smaller rocks, gravel, or rock dust. There are five types of crushers; Jaw crusher,  Gyratory crusher, Cone crusher, Impact crusher and Mineral sizers. A gyratory crusher is consisting of a concave surface and a conical head; both surfaces are typically lined with manganese steel surfaces. The inner cone has a slight circular movement, but does not rotate; the movement is generated by an eccentric arrangement. Material travels downward between the two surfaces being progressively crushed until it is small enough to fall out through the gap between the two surfaces. More details

6. Rotary Snow Plow:

A rotary snow plow is a piece of railroad snow fighting equipment. It is characterized by the large circular set of blades on its front end that rotate as a unit to cut through the snow on the track ahead of it. The precursor to the rotary snowplow was the wedge snowplow. The rotary was invented in Toronto, Canada, by dentist J.W. Elliot in 1869. He never built a working model or prototype, although he wanted to. Orange Jull of Orangeville, Ontario, expanded on Elliot's design, building working models he tested with sand. During the winter of 1883–1884, Jull contracted with the Leslie Brothers of Toronto to build a full-size prototype that proved successful. More details

7. ITER (Nuclear Fusion Project):

ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) is an international nuclear fusion research and engineering megaproject, which will be the world's largest magnetic confinement plasma physics experiment. It is an experimental tokamak nuclear fusion reactor that is being built next to the Cadarache facility in Saint-Paul-lès-Durance, in Provence, southern France. The ITER thermonuclear fusion reactor has been designed to produce a fusion plasma equivalent to 500 megawatts of thermal output power for around twenty minutes while 50 megawatts of thermal power are injected into the tokamak, resulting in a ten-fold gain of plasma heating power. More details

8. Crawler Transporter:

The crawler-transporters, formally known as the Missile Crawler Transporter Facilities, are a pair of tracked vehicles used to transport spacecraft from NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) along the Crawlerway to Launch Complex 39. They were originally used to transport the Saturn IB and Saturn V rockets during the Apollo, Skylab and Apollo–Soyuz programs. They were then used to transport Space Shuttles from 1981 to 2011. The crawler-transporters carry vehicles on the Mobile Launcher Platform, and after each launch return to the pad to take the platform back to the VAB. More details

9. LeTourneau L-2350 Loader:

The P&H L-2350 Wheel Loader (formerly the L-2350 loader) is a loader used for surface mining. It is manufactured by Komatsu Limited. It holds the Guinness World Record for Biggest Earth Mover. Designed to center-load haul trucks with capacities of up to 400 tons, the L-2350 provides an operating payload of 160,000 pounds, a 24-foot lift height, and an 11.5-foot reach. The L-2350 was originally manufactured by LeTourneau Inc. LeTourneau Inc. was acquired by Marathon in 1972, Rowan Companies in 1986, and Joy Global in 2011. More details

10. Self-Propelled Modular Transporter:

A self-propelled modular transporter or sometimes self-propelled modular trailer (SPMT) is a platform vehicle with a large array of wheels. SPMTs are used for transporting massive objects such as large bridge sections, oil refining equipment, motors and other objects that are too big or heavy for trucks. Trucks can however provide traction and braking for the SPMTs on inclines and descents. SPMTs are used in many industry sectors worldwide such as the construction and oil industries, in the shipyard and offshore industry, for road transportation, on plant construction sites and even for moving oil platforms. Recently in addition, they have begun to be used to replace bridge spans in the United States, Europe, Asia and more recently Canada. More details

11. Komatsu 930E Truck:

The Komatsu 930E is an off-highway, ultra class, rigid frame, two-axle, diesel/AC electric powertrain haul truck designed and manufactured by Komatsu in Peoria, Illinois, United States. Although the 930E is neither Komatsu's largest nor highest payload capacity haul truck, Komatsu considers the 930E to be the flagship of their haul truck product line. The 930E is the best selling ultra class haul truck in the world. As of September 2016, Komatsu has sold 1,900 units of 930E. The current model, the 930E-5 offer a payload capacity of up to 320 short tons (290 t). More details

12. Space Shuttle:

The Space Shuttle was a partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system that was operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program name was Space Transportation System (STS), taken from a 1969 plan for a system of reusable spacecraft of which it was the only item funded for development. The first of four orbital test flights occurred in 1981, leading to operational flights beginning in 1982. In addition to the prototype whose completion was cancelled, five complete Shuttle systems were built and used on a total of 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. More details

13. International Space Station:

The International Space Station (ISS) is a modular space station (habitable artificial satellite) in low Earth orbit. The ISS programme is a multi-national collaborative project between five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), and CSA (Canada). The ownership and use of the space station is established by intergovernmental treaties and agreements. The ISS serves as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory in which scientific experiments are conducted in astrobiology, astronomy, meteorology, physics, and other fields. More details

14. Five Hundred Meter Aperture Spherical Telescope:

The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) is a radio telescope located in the Dawodang depression, a natural basin in Pingtang County, Guizhou, southwest China. FAST has a 500 m diameter dish constructed in a natural depression in the landscape. It is the world's largest filled-aperture radio telescope and the second-largest single-dish aperture, after the sparsely-filled RATAN-600 in Russia. It has a novel design, using an active surface made of 4,500 panels to form a moving parabola metal panels in real time. The cabin containing the feed antenna, suspended on cables above the dish, can move automatically by using winches to steer the instrument to receive signals from different directions. More details

15. Cranes:

A crane is a type of machine, generally equipped with a hoist rope, wire ropes or chains, and sheaves, that can be used both to lift and lower materials and to move them horizontally. It is mainly used for lifting heavy things and transporting them to other places. The device uses one or more simple machines to create mechanical advantage and thus move loads beyond the normal capability of a human. Cranes are commonly employed in the transport industry for the loading and unloading of freight, in the construction industry for the movement of materials, and in the manufacturing industry for the assembling of heavy equipment. More details