Rollers are one of the many types of compaction equipment used in most construction work sites today. It is a type of engineering vehicle that is designed to compact different types of materials in a construction site. They are used to compact materials such as gravel, soil, asphalt, or concrete. They are mainly employed during the construction of roads or building and house foundations. Their use a construction site as the preferred type of compaction equipment has numerous advantages and benefits.

Horse drawn Jumping Jack Vibratory Rammer rollers were the first to be used in farms and building of roads in historic times. This later evolved to the use of steam engine rollers that were even ore effective than their horse drawn counterparts. These were however slow and not very effective due to their mode of propulsion and the exhaust fume produced.

Their effectiveness greatly depends on the weight of the machine and also in the mode through which it is powered. Hence, the invention of the internal combustion engine in the 20th century greatly improved their effectiveness. The machines used today are mainly diesel powered that operate at a higher efficiency than all their previous counterparts. Different constructors use various rollers at work, especially depending on the nature of the job.

Rollers essentially use the weight of the vehicle to compress and compact different types of materials. Most of them consist of a heavy and bulky drum and a set of wheels that compact the surface as they move above it. They come in various designs, weights and makes, depending on the extent of compaction of the surface.

The first type is the pedestrian operated roller. This requires a worker or several workers to push or pull it as it moves over the surface compressing the materials. It can either be manually powered or have a small gas or diesel engine. Examples of pedestrian operated ones are the rammer; the forward plate compactor, the reverse plate compactor, the trench, the walk behind single drum and the walk behind double drum rollers.

The smooth finish roller is another category set of rollers that are general diesel or gasoline-powered, and are designed like vehicles with a seat where the worker can sit when operating the roller. They include the static tandem drum, the vibrating tandem drum, the smooth single drum, the three point and the combination rollers. Also, the pneumatic-tyre, also known as the rubber tyre roller or the multi-wheel roller falls under this category.

The ride on landfill has different types of drums that have pads or spikes on them. They are used where a greater compression power is needed and are hence bigger and heavier than the other types. The single drum, the 4 wheel, the tandem drum and the three point rollers are some of the types that fall under this category.