The history of the multi-purpose telescopic excavator, commonly known as the «golden handle» or telescopic excavator with a full-rotation bucket, is associated with the development of universal construction equipment capable of performing a wide range of earthworks, installation and road works. Universal telescopic excavators have earned wide recognition among technical specialists over their more than 65-year history and have become an integral part of the construction and road machinery market, having since undergone significant technological improvements, thereby expanding their areas of application.
In the USSR in the 1960s, attempts were made to develop and produce universal telescopic excavator on wheeled and automobile chassis, but the real surge in popularity of this type of equipment occurred in the 80s.
The stages of development of the multi-purpose telescopic excavator began from the first American models Gradall, Badger to modern machines of the UDS type (UDS-114) of сzechoslovak production, specialized models «Antey», «EW-25-M1» of belarusian production of the machine-building enterprise «Svyatovit». In different years, the production of universal excavator was carried out by such factory as Motovilikha and Kokhanovsky excavator factory, producing telescopic excavator, in particular the EO-43214 (ZTM 220.1) and ET-4322 models.
Despite all the facts, the share of universal telescopic excavators (type UDS) based on automobile chassis in the world production of excavator equipment is quite insignificant, and therefore the number of manufacturers of universal telescopic excavator can be counted on the fingers.
Historically, most telescopic excavator in our country are used in the oil and gas sector for pipeline maintenance — this equipment works great in confined spaces and hard-to-reach places. The second most popular sector is public utilities, and the third is road construction organizations.
To date, of the many attempts to produce universal telescopic excavators mentioned above, only two companies actually have significant influence, authority and significance in their industry on the territory of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus: Svyatovit, CSM Tisovec.