A scraper is a self-propelled earthmoving and transportation machine. Its working body is a bucket on pneumatic wheels, which in the lower part is equipped with knives for cutting the soil.

The scraper can also be trailed (to a wheeled or caterpillar tractor, wheeled tractor). The main purpose of scrapers - layer-by-layer digging and backfilling, transportation, leveling and partial compaction of soils from the first to the fourth category in the process of engineering preparation of the territory for construction, construction of embankments, layout of neighborhoods, development of volumetric excavations and trenches for artificial reservoirs, various structures, etc. Scrapers are most effective when working on loams, sandy loams, chernozems, i.e. on soils that are not overwatered and do not contain stony formations. If heavy soils are developed by scrapers, they are pre loosened to a given thickness. Unfortunately, scraper rental is not widespread on the market, unlike the rental of a crane or backhoe loader. The geometric bucket capacity is the main parameter of scrapers, and it forms the basis of the size ranges of these machines.

Scrapers are classified by bucket capacity:

- small capacity (up to 5 cubic meters);

- medium capacity (from 5 to 15 cubic meters);

- large capacity (more than 15 cubic meters).

There are several ways of aggregation with tractors:

- trailed (attached to two-axle wheeled tractors and crawler tractors);

- self-propelled (coupled to two-axle and single-axle wheeled tractors).

Also scrapers are subdivided by the method of control:

- rope-block (mechanical);

- electro-hydraulic;

- hydraulic.

Today scrapers have electro-hydraulic and hydraulic control system of the working body, which provides forced lowering, unloading and lifting of the bucket, lowering-lifting of the front part of the bucket with the help of double-acting hydraulic cylinders, changing the set cutting depth. Due to forced deepening of the bucket blades into the soil layer, it is possible to precisely adjust the thickness of the cut layer, reduce the time spent on the soil set, and develop dense soils as quickly as possible. When working with some models of scrapers, an elevator (inclined scraper conveyor) can be installed in the bucket, which performs forced loading of the priming layer, which was previously cut, as well as its loading. Such scrapers are most rationally used with loose soils in the process of performing small volumes of work. Depending on the volume of earthworks and their type, different scraper movement patterns can be used: ellipse, figure-eight, shuttle-transverse pattern, etc.