Atlas Copco recently supplied a large order of HB2000 hydraulic driving hammers to GeoPile Africa (Pty) Ltd., for use with the Duktus driven ductile iron pile system.GeoPile Africa is the exclusive agency and supplier of the Duktus driven ductile iron pile system in Africa. “Atlas Copco HB200 hydraulic driving hammers are used globally with the Duktus piling system because the Duktus database of over four million meters of piling is entirely correlated to the energy delivered by the Atlas Copco hammer,” explains GeoPile Managing Director and CEO, Rob Marsden.

“This fast and economical driven foundation system requires only a medium sized excavator equipped with a rig mounted hydraulic attachment i.e. a breaker-type driving hammer and a specially fabricated driving adaptor,” explains Marsden. “So it was totally logical for GeoPile to link up with Atlas Copco in South Africa and across this region.” “Atlas Copco began the supply of the first hydraulic driving hammers to GeoPile last year. Only a slight internal modification to the hammer, using a special adaptor provided by Duktus, as well as some other proprietary adjustments is required for the piling process.” According to Marsden, although the Duktus pile system has a global 30 year track record of pile performance across diverse applications, it is brand new technology in South Africa.

The pile material is factory quality centrifugally-cast ductile iron and the individual pipe sections, 5m in length and outside diameter of either 118 mm or 170 mm, are manufactured in the Duktus factory near Innsbruck, Austria. The sections are joined together using an incredibly fast and unique patented ‘Plug and Drive’ connection system. The length of each pile is automatically adapted to the actual ground conditions. The pile section which ends up above the final trimmed pile level is cut with a standard grinder and then fitted with its own driving shoe for use as the first section for the next pile, thereby minimizing waste. End-bearing piles are filled with concrete/ grout after driving, creating a continuous load bearing structural member. Friction piles are constructed using an overside pile shoe and by pumping concrete simultaneously with pile driving.

“Some of our current projects using the Duktus piling system are at solar plants located in the Northern Cape which involves pilings with both 118 mm and 170 mm diameters. The high level of safety and simplicity of the Duktus piling system was demonstrated when GeoPile was named number one safety contractor. The Atlas Copco hammer and Duktus piling system is without any doubt a win-win combination. We were so impressed with the performance of the HB2000 that we purchased an additional three hammers in February 2013.”                
 
“Recently we brought one of our piling rigs to install Duktus piles for a project in Rivonia. The project involved the installation of 234# x 170mm diameter x 9mm Duktus piles to provide foundation support for a 5-level residential private building development. Our Duktus piles were expected to have an average length of 5m from underside of pilecap down to pile toe level driven to be embedded into the underlying Granite.” The hammer delivers 400 joules of energy at 400 blows per minute.

Marsden reports that all piling work was completed within one week piling time on site, inclusive of the work of trimming all pile heads to final cut-off level, and with no spoil, no waste, and no mess. “We were then able to hand over every pile ready to our customer who was then able to commence with immediate construction of their pilecaps and ground-beams sub-structure works without any fuss or delay.”

The multi-featured Duktus piling system offers numerous benefits; in addition to project savings in terms of time and money, this system uses safe equipment and reduces risks by providing a safer working method. Other projects successfully completed by GeoPile using the Atlas Copco hammer and Duktus system include grain mill silos in Harrismith, where piling works were completed on site in only 6 hours in a very congested site, foundations for residential properties, signboards, other solar project works, car show rooms, bridge foundations, etc.Marsden reports complete satisfaction with the quality and reliability of the Atlas Copco hammers. He concludes by saying that the service he has enjoyed from Atlas Copco has been helpful and professional.

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