The Backacter is the world's first dedicated marine dredging excavator. It is designed for one purpose only and that is to dredge on a dipperdredger. It has no compromises only advantages.  A complete range was designed and build. The smallest is the BA600 and the biggest and strongest dredge is the BA1100.

In the past (what we now call a classic excavator) an existing excavator was put on the dredger's deck, its tracks and mining attachment were removed, a backhoe attachment was added. The client had to accept how much capacity and penetration / breakout capacity was left.

This configuration was a big compromise, but at that time there was no other choice. There was nothing else available in the market.

In 2005 Yard de Donge made a bold decision to design a serie of marine excavators. We designed it from the bucket upwards, defining the desired dredging depth, the capacity of the buckets and the penetration force. This resulted in cylinder capacities and equipment size and thus hydraulic system dimensions etc. 

We applied state of the art developing techniques to develop the Backacter. FEM (Finitive Elements Method) was used for all major parts. No compromises were made in the parts and designs used. 

Why did we do this:
• The classic approach of a land excavator on a dipperdredger had too many compromises.
• Higher lifting and penetration forces where demanded.
• Functional desire to put the engines in the hull, cooling, no fuel stop, reduced oil spills,  etc.
• Free choice of dimensions and components.
• Stronger dredging equipment were desired.
• Improved design with regard to maritime environment, etc.

General Features:
• A top-class marine dredger with all drive unit power packs in spaces under deck.
• Big buckets at a deep dredging depth with high penetration forces.
• No fuel stops required and therefore higher production.
• High and extended dumping reach.
• One hydraulic powerpack system for the Backacter, self-manoeuvrability and for the spudsystem.
• Shock-absorbing elastic foundation, integrated in the dredger’s deck.
• Water cooled diesel engines and water cooled hydraulic system.
• For working in ambient temperatures till -25°C.

Equipment:
Every Backacter serie has an extensive range of equipment. Different dredging jobs require different sizes of equipment. The chosen size of the equipment ensures the maximum efficiency on the indicated dredging depth. This optimum depends on several factors:
• Dredging depth
• Density of the soil. The lower the weight the bigger the bucket can be.
• Type of soil. Rock requires a rock bucket.
The interchangeability of the equipment per Backacter series is 100%. Each type of bucket can be attached on length of sticks. All sizes of sticks can be used on all sizes of MonoBlocks.