The present invention relates to an excavator for excavating a longitudinal trench having a predetermined transverse profile.
Such an excavator may be used, for example, to form irrigation or drainage trenches which are much deeper than they are wide and which are intended, in the case of drainage, to direct the flow of surface water to an underground drainage system.
A requirement of such trenches is that their sides should have a precise orientation as well as good cohesion.
With the object of obtaining such regular and stable sides, machines are used at present which comprise two parallel discs cutting two parallel fissures in the ground, and a ploughshare placed behind the two discs to form the bottom of the trench and remove the strip of earth between the two fissures.
Such a machine makes it possible to obtain trenches having the required characteristics, but has the disadvantage of operating very slowly, in practice at less than two kilometers per hour, because of the considerable force required to cut and raise the earth.