With more and more construction projects demanding the use of piling works, many contractors are looking at alternative methods to traditional piling rig solutions.
Ivor King is one of the leaders of the UK piling industry operating a diverse range of mobile piling rigs up to 100 tonnes in weight and delivering a wide range of different piling solutions. The family-owned company has been providing their piling solutions to the construction industry for almost half a century and still retains their constant drive to being a dynamic and progressive organisation with a quality ‘can-do’ approach to business.
Whilst the large piling rigs are designed to deliver a combination of high productivity and capacity, smaller projects where ground conditions and access are less favourable rely on a different approach.
Simon King, Ivor King’s Managing Director takes up the story; “We have traditionally used a variety of machines to deliver our projects successfully. As projects change, we have had to look at alternative methods of delivering our part of the works and have looked towards both compact traditional piling solutions along with excavator mounted attachments in a bid to keep ahead of the competition. We have used Kobelco excavators in the fleet for a number of years both working alongside our piling rig fleet in an ancillary role and also as frontline machines with auger and hammer attachments with great success. Whereas traditional piling rigs require an engineered mat to work from, our Kobelco excavator solutions allow for less restrictive requirements in ground preparation resulting in lower costs for this portion of the project.”
The company have recently invested in two new Kobelco excavators from Avonmouth based Molson Group who have supplied a 50t SK500LC-10 Kobelco excavator and a 38t SK380SRLC compact tail swing Kobelco excavator, both of which are capable of handling the Movax MPL300 piling attachment.
The Japanese manufactured Kobelco excavators have been chosen thanks to recommendations from Ivor King’s competitors within the industry. “It is a big industry, but we all know and talk to each other on a regular basis.” Simon commented. “We were looking to increase the excavator fleet and spoke to our colleagues who all recommended Kobelco excavators fromMolson, due to their ability to back them up.” Whilst getting the right machine for the job is massively important to Simon and his team, delays due to mechanical issues and dealer response also have a massive knock-on effect to both their operating schedule and that of the main contractors following on behind. “We require a machine that is not only on top of the job but also extremely reliable and so far, the Kobelco excavators have met these demands. We have only had one instance of a break down that has cost us time on site and this happened late on a Friday afternoon. We called Molson and there was an engineer sitting at the gate for us on the Saturday morning. We cannot fault that level of service.” Simon comments.
The choice of excavators was made to suit the changing environment for piling works. While the SK500LC-10 Kobelco excavator is capable of performing piling works on a wide range of projects, the compact tail swing of the SK380 Kobelco excavator allows it to work effectively in tighter more restricted areas. “We like the SK500 Kobelco excavator because it allows us to work in an area where a standard 35 tonne machine would usually operate. Despite its heavier operating weight, the physical size of the machine isn’t much greater than our 35-tonne machines in the fleet. This allows us greater flexibility when it comes to machine choice for some of our projects.
Both the SK380SRLC and SK500LC Kobelco excavators are capable of operating the company’s latest Movax MPL300 Multi-Tool Piling Leader attachment. Manufactured in Finland, the MPL attachment is available with a wide range of tooling for different piling and foundation applications ranging from driven piles to CFA and pre-augering. The leader and its tooling are designed to work on a standard excavator with normal auxiliary hydraulics and are controlled with the Movax Control System situated on an independent screen mounted inside the excavator’s cab. Precise augering and installation of piles is controlled by the Movax Information Management System (MIMS) and provides essential information about the piling process and the pile installation as well as the Movax piling equipment itself. The MPL multi-tool piling leaders are based on a modular concept and can easily and quickly be reconfigured to allow different piling systems to be installed in a short period of time.
Working in sensitive ecological environments has called for the excavators to be filled with Panolin Bio-Oil, a task completed by the Molson team prior to delivery. Additional safety features have also been specified with Molson configuring a 360° camera system onto the machines along with the installation of the class leading Xwatch XW5 height and slew restrictor.
The new SK380SRLC Kobelco excavator was recently used on a project to install several cofferdams on the banks of the river Trent. The U-shaped structures allowed the SK380 to work to its full potential. Sitting on a reduced level pad the excavator was able to work tightly to the piles the team were installing whilst still capable of working in a full 360° radius to pick up each pile. Another Movax product, this time an SG60 side-grip pile driver was used to drive each sheet in to a depth of 9.5m to which the Kobelco performed with ease. The class-leading lifting power of the SK380SRLC Kobelco excavator allowed the team on the ground to manoeuvre several heavy sheet piles at once speeding up productivity on the job.
Operator acceptance is a huge part of machine choice for Ivor King. “We need a machine that has the visibility from the seat and comfort in the cab for an operator to be happy in their work. The Kobelco cab is first-class on all points and with a smooth and responsive hydraulic system, we have been extremely happy with both purchases so far.” Simon commented.
