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“To answer your question regarding
the most important changes that our pile
driving business has undergone during this
past quarter century, I believe that we could
summarize into one principal parameter:
nominal load of our driven piles.
Back in 1995, we were driving mainly
prestressed concrete piles with nominal
capacities that did not exceed 300 to
350 tons. Today, we are able to drive steel
pipe piles of 1,500 mm in OD and 38mm
thickness up to 60 meters in length with
nominal capacities of 1.950 metric tons.
Back in the ‘90s we drove those piles
with a Pileco D-46 diesel hammer. Today,
we are using a Pileco D125 diesel hammer,
with energies that are three times larger.
All this has become accompanied by an
in-house WEAP and PDA analysis and testing
team that can measure the mobilized
and activated loads on these piles. Back in
the ‘90s, we had the static load tests ASTM
D-1143 and our biggest hydraulic jack was
400 short tons.
In summary: higher nominal capacity,
bigger hammers, bigger cranes, all resulting
in more efficient foundations with lower
cost per ton!”
Rafael C. Miranda
Civil Engineer, President
Ciport SA
CIPORT & TECNAC, CIPTE C.L.
“ESC’s piling supply globally has
changed significantly over the last 25 years.
As a result, so has the installation aspects.
As materials become often lighter through
the use of higher steel grades and the
strengths increasing, so too did the capacity
for machines to handle longer lengths.
Not only did the steel quality allow the
more efficient designs but ESC’s mills more
effective productions also meant longer
lengths that tested trucking and shipping
providers could be installed.
As labor increased, ESC moved more
to installation machines that could carry
out installation effectively without secondary
equipment and added personnel.
For shorter lengths, ESC utilizes excavator
mounted vibrohammer-equipped
machines that can pick up and drive
piles without any added assistance. For
piles longer than 40 feet, often we turned
to the rigs that had leader masts with
vibrohammers mounted on them that
could not only drive piles but also provide
pre-drilling services in hard ground
conditions. Again, these pieces of equipment
are essentially self-contained
and greatly reduce the need for added
machinery and manpower.
When working on piles in excess of 80
feet, there still remains little option but to
use large crawler cranes with free handing
vibrohammers. More often than not, these
are in the larger marine environments
where we are catering for deeper ports
than need to entertain the Post Panamax
Container vessels or similar.
ESC’s basic approach to piling remains
unchanged conceptually, except everything
is done more efficiently with the
more modern equipment available and
the better steel quality and longer lengths
we can supply.”
Bruce Colson
President
ESC Steel LLC & ESC Group
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