Atlas Copco Pneumatic Tools: Breakers, Hammers, and Rock Drills

Atlas Copco's pneumatic tool line is construction and demolition equipment. Paving breakers, chipping hammers, pick hammers, tampers, scabblers, and rock drills, plus a petrol driven Cobra range that runs without a compressor at all. If you came here looking for a shop impact wrench for automotive work, this is not that catalog. What you will find is the equipment concrete contractors, municipalities, utilities, and mining operations run every day, and the specs that actually decide which model belongs on your job.

We stock and source this line as an authorized Atlas Copco distributor. Below is what matters when you are choosing between them.

What the Pneumatic Tool Line Actually Covers

The range breaks into five working groups:

• Paving breakers for vertical demolition of concrete, asphalt, and brickwork. This is the RTEX and TEX PE family.
• Chipping and pick hammers for lighter, more controlled work. TEX 03 through TEX 12.
• Rock drills for construction and mining drilling, in surface and underground versions. BBD, BBC, RH, and SRD.
• Tampers and scabblers for compaction and surface preparation. TAM and SBL.
• Petrol driven breakers and drills, the Cobra series, which need no air supply.

There are a few outliers in the catalog, including the TEX 290W impact wrenches and the TEX 1133-R rivet buster. Those are heavy pneumatic tools built for rail and demolition work rather than shop use, and they move rarely enough that we would rather point you at the right one by phone than write a section pretending otherwise.

The Vibration Spec That Decides How Long Your Crew Can Work

This is the number most buyers skip, and it is the one we would look at first.

Hand arm vibration exposure limits how many hours a worker can safely run a percussive tool in a day. Atlas Copco builds a vibration reduction system into much of this line, marked H.A.P.S on the spec sheets, and the difference it makes is not marginal. Compare two chipping hammers from the same family:

Model	Weight	Air at 90 psi	Impact rate	Vibration (3 axes)
TEX 05 P	12.1 lbs	20 CFM	2,760 BPM	13.0 m/s²
TEX 05 PE	13.9 lbs	21.2 CFM	2,640 BPM	2.4 m/s²

Same job, nearly the same air, and roughly one fifth the vibration. Atlas Copco rates the vibration reduced handles at up to seven times the trigger time of conventional fixed handle machines, and up to a 75 percent reduction in harmful vibration on the rock drill side.

The practical read is simple. If a tool is going to run for hours a day in someone's hands, the vibration reduced version is not a comfort upgrade, it is what lets the crew finish the shift. That extra 1.8 lbs on the TEX 05 PE buys back real working hours.

Breakers: RTEX Versus TEX PE

Both lines break concrete and asphalt vertically. The difference that should drive your decision is air consumption, because it determines what compressor you need behind the tool.

Model	Weight	Air at 90 psi	Impact rate
RTEX 15	37.5 lbs	32.6 CFM	936 BPM
RTEX 25	55.1 lbs	37 to 40 CFM	816 to 870 BPM
TEX 150 PE	42 lbs	53 CFM	1,530 BPM
TEX 190 PE	49.6 lbs	55 CFM	1,500 BPM
TEX 230 PE	56.2 lbs	64 CFM	1,320 BPM
TEX 280 PE	69 lbs	68 CFM	1,230 BPM

Look at the RTEX 25 against the TEX 230 PE. Similar weight class, similar work, and the RTEX does it on 40 CFM instead of 64. That gap compounds fast when a crew is running more than one tool, which is where we see air problems actually show up. Three TEX 230 PEs is roughly 190 CFM of compressor. Three RTEX 25s is closer to 120.

The TEX PE line hits harder per minute, so it still earns its place where breaking speed matters more than air budget. But if you are adding tools to an existing compressor rather than buying a bigger one, the RTEX line is usually the smarter buy.

Chipping Hammers and Pick Hammers

These are the lighter tools, for work where a paving breaker is too much machine.

Model	Weight	Air at 90 psi	Impact rate	Vibration
TEX 03 PS	8.8 lbs	15 CFM	4,140 BPM	16.5 m/s²
TEX 05 P	12.1 lbs	20 CFM	2,760 BPM	13.0 m/s²
TEX 05 PE	13.9 lbs	21.2 CFM	2,640 BPM	2.4 m/s²
TEX 09 PS	22.3 lbs	39.1 CFM	1,800 BPM	16.1 m/s²
TEX 10 PS KL	23.6 lbs	36 CFM	1,350 BPM	22.4 m/s²

The pattern across the range holds. Lighter tools run faster and use less air, heavier tools hit harder and drink more. Note how quickly the vibration numbers climb on the pick hammers, which is exactly why the vibration reduced variants matter on any tool that runs all day. The TEX 09 PE is the version to ask about if the tool is going to see steady use.

Rock Drills for Drilling Contractors

The rock drill side of the line goes to drilling contractors and general construction more than anywhere else, though it turns up in places you would not expect. We have sold into everything from mining operations to a party rental company.

Surface drills like the BBD 15E run 47 CFM at 90 psi with a 2,520 BPM impact rate at 34 lbs. The BBD 12 series comes in lighter, from 22 to 27 lbs, at 47 to 51 CFM. Heavier surface and underground models climb to 83 and 106 CFM, which is a meaningful jump in compressor requirement and worth confirming before you order.

The RH 658 and RH 571 surface drills sell steadily for us. If you are matching a drill to specific hole sizes, depths, and rock conditions, call us rather than working from a table. Drilling is the part of this catalog where application details change the answer most.

When a Petrol Breaker Beats an Air Breaker

The Cobra series runs on petrol, so there is no compressor, no hose, and no air budget to plan around. That makes it the right call in three situations:

• The site has no compressor and you are not buying one.
• The work is not near a fixed air supply.
• The breaker is the only piece of equipment you actually need.

That last one comes up more than people expect. We helped a party rental company into a Cobra Combi for exactly that reason. It was the only tool they needed, and selling them something that required an air compressor behind it would have made no sense.

Here is the range:

Model	Weight	Impact energy	Blow frequency	Engine
Cobra PROe	53 lbs	44 ft.lb	1,440 BPM	90 cc, 2 hp
Cobra TTe	53 lbs	30 ft.lb	1,620 BPM	90 cc, 1.5 hp
Cobra Combi	55 lbs	15 to 18 ft.lb	2,700 BPM	185 cc, 2.7 hp

The Cobra PROe is the general purpose breaker at 44 ft.lb at the tool tip. The TTe is optimized for railway tie tamping, where lower impact energy pushes ballast under the ties instead of pulverizing it. The Combi switches between breaking and drilling, and will drill up to 12 inches per minute in solid granite to a depth of about 6.5 feet.

The Maintenance Tradeoff Nobody Mentions

Going petrol removes the compressor and adds an engine. That is a real trade, and these are the specifics worth knowing before you buy:

• They are 2-stroke engines, so fuel must be premixed at 2 percent oil. Running straight gasoline is the fastest way to destroy one.
• Use 90 to 100 octane unleaded.
• Alkylate fuel is approved on the PROe and TTe, but not on the Combi. This one catches people, because crews that standardize on alkylate across their small equipment assume it carries over.
• Fuel consumption runs about 0.2 gallons per hour on the PROe and TTe against a 0.26 gallon tank, so plan on refueling a little past the hour mark.
• The starters differ. PROe and TTe use a recoil starter, the Combi uses Magnapull.
• Warranty runs out at 1,000 operating hours, or 12 months from commissioning, or 18 months from invoicing, whichever comes first.

Total cost of ownership depends on the situation, and we are not going to claim petrol always wins or always loses. A tool that runs two hours a week and a tool that runs six hours a day are different math problems. What we will say is that the engine maintenance is a real line item, and it should be part of the decision rather than a surprise afterward.

What It Takes to Feed These Tools Air

Most of our customers on this equipment already have their air sorted out. When air does become a problem, it is almost always the same problem, which is running several tools at once off a compressor sized for fewer.

The math is not complicated. Add up the CFM of every tool that will run simultaneously, then leave headroom. Two TEX 230 PEs is 128 CFM before you account for hose losses or a third tool showing up on site. If you are working that out for a specific fleet, our portable air compressor sizing guide walks through it, and we will do the calculation with you at no charge.

Wear Parts, Shanks, and Replacement Parts

Every tool in this line consumes working steel. Moil points, narrow and wide chisels, asphalt cutters, digging spades, clay spades, tamping pads, and the shanks themselves all wear and get replaced on a schedule set by how hard you run them.

This is where most of our customers come back to us. Some of these parts are ancillary to Atlas Copco rather than Atlas branded, particularly on the shank side, and matching the correct part to the equipment you actually own is the part that goes wrong when people source them cold. Shank sizes alone run 3/4 by 2 inch, 7/8 by 3-1/4, 1 by 4-1/4, 1-1/8 by 6, and 1-1/4 by 6 across this catalog, and the wrong one is useless to you.

Send us the model and we will source the right part. If you are working on older equipment, our guide to finding parts for legacy Atlas Copco mobile compressors covers how we track down numbers that no longer appear in current catalogs.

Buying Versus Renting

You can rent a breaker locally almost anywhere, so the customers who call us to buy are usually doing it for one of two reasons. Either the project runs long enough that rental costs stop making sense, or they expect to use the tool across multiple projects rather than one.

That is the honest test. A single short job usually rents. A long project, or a tool you will pull out again next quarter, usually buys. Municipalities and utilities tend to land on the buy side because the work recurs on a schedule they already know.

A Note on Lead Times in 2026

We would rather tell you this up front than after you order. Lead times on some of this equipment have been difficult through 2026. The Cobra units in particular have run long, sometimes weeks and sometimes months. TEX tools are typically available in stock in certain quantities.

If timing matters on your project, ask us before you commit. We will tell you what is actually available rather than quoting you a date we cannot hold.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Atlas Copco make an air impact wrench for automotive work? Not in the line we carry. The TEX 290W, 291W, and 292W are heavy pneumatic impact wrenches built for rail and heavy construction fastening, not shop or automotive use. If you need a shop tool, this is not the catalog for it.

How much air does an Atlas Copco breaker need? It depends on the model. The RTEX 15 needs 32.6 CFM at 90 psi, the RTEX 25 needs 37 to 40, and the TEX PE line runs from 53 CFM on the TEX 150 PE up to 68 CFM on the TEX 280 PE. Add the tools that will run at the same time and size the compressor above that total.

What is the difference between the TEX 05 P and the TEX 05 PE? Vibration. Both are chipping hammers in the same class with nearly identical air consumption, but the PE version measures 2.4 m/s² against 13.0 m/s² on the P. If the tool runs for hours at a time, the PE is the one to buy.

Can I run alkylate fuel in a Cobra? In the PROe and the TTe, yes. In the Combi, no. Check the model before you fill it.

Do you sell chisels and shanks separately? Yes. We source wear parts and shanks for this equipment, including parts that are ancillary to Atlas Copco. Send us your model number and we will match the correct part.

What is H.A.P.S? It is Atlas Copco's vibration reduction system. On the breaker and hammer lines it is rated at up to seven times the trigger time of a conventional fixed handle machine, and on rock drills at up to a 75 percent reduction in harmful vibration.

Talk to Someone Who Knows the Line

Choosing between an RTEX and a TEX PE, or between air and petrol, comes down to details that a spec table cannot settle on its own. How many tools run at once, how long the project lasts, what compressor you already own, and how many hours a day the tool sits in someone's hands.

Talk to a real compressor expert. Free consultations on sizing, installation, and replacement parts. Same-day response, no chatbots, no runaround.

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