Overlapping Side Plates are a key design feature. The plates are designed to stop the windrowing of material from pushing out the opening of the sides of the bucket while closing.
As the clamshell closes, removed material attempts to squeeze out the sides of the bucket. This is often refered to as windrowing. To help elimate this problem our environmental clamshells feature overlapping side plates to keep material in place.
The overlapping side plates increase the cross-sectional area of the sides of the bucket, enclosing the material inside of the bucket with nowhere to go.