Buoyed by projects in roads, metro rails and other infrastructure developments, there is renewed activity in the foundation and piling equipment industry with manufacturers and distributors offering more robustly built machines for undertaking piling at deeper depths with greater precision and flexibility in application and for working in all kinds of soil and hard strata.

The industry is also moving away from the traditional truck/tractor mounted rigs and tripod methods to cater to the increasingly complex structures, and using modern technologies like hydraulic rotary piling rigs. According to the industry, the change is bringing speed in execution, precision in boring, better handling of the larger diameters and greater depth of the bores.

It is also felt that there will be greater use of specialized equipment like static pile drivers, double power head and engine, and special purpose equipment for underground and foundation engineering.

Rakesh Raina, Country Manager, Casagrande (India) Piling and Geotechnical Equipment
Rakesh Raina, Country Manager, Casagrande (India) Piling and Geotechnical Equipment

Casagrande, an Italian foundation and piling equipment major, is offering specialized and diversified solutions for contractors looking for premium solutions and in civil foundation market segment. Casagrande machines are highly reliable having a long working cycle and many of our customers are using these machines for past 15-17 years entailing competitive life cycle cost. Along with our machines for foundations, we offer be a wide package of solutions with our piling rigs and crawlier drill for anchors, Micro-piling, jet grouting for tunneling projects.

Our specialized solutions include the non-vibration stone column system and the fully Kelly-guided and rope suspended grabs for diaphragm wall construction. The Non vibratory stone column machines are in use for a prestigious Rail Freight corridor project near Mumbai and our D’Wall grabs are extensively being used for Metro Rail stations, Ports, retaining wall and Basement construction. We have been very successful in promoting our Dwall machines In Ahmedabad wherein more then 20 Nos of our grabs are working for various commercial and residential projects for construction of parking upto 2-5 Level basements.

Casagrande (India) Piling and Geotechnical Equipment

The working methodology of the stone column systems opens up new foundation possibilities, where previously, the stone columns/ground improvement could not be considered due to the vibrations. In this system, graded stone aggregate can be used so that the columns are constructed for supporting heavy load structures and process is accomplished avoiding liquefaction. since there is no requirement of high-pressure water or air, the solution is mess-free and the sites adjacent to the sensitive environments remain unharmed. The technique has proven to be very effective in different soil types since the attachment is mounted on casagrande piling rigs.

A major deliverable of casagrande rigs is that the base carrier is designed for various civil foundation works and is highly flexible and adaptable to varied civil foundation applications. Given this feature, our machines can be used for various applications like Piling, Dwall, CFA, Stone Column, Soil mixing, Foundation cranes, Jet Grouting etc. Casagrande has been upgrading its technology based on current advancements in hydraulics and electronics. The features like Smart Power management and Load sensing hydraulic circuit entails a high level of operation efficiency and transfer of idle power to rotary and winches for better productivity. For delivering higher equipment up-time through regular monitoring, the company is having a touch screen display inside cabin which gives instantaneous data related to Torque, Rotary Rpm, Verticality, depth, Pump Pressures, winch capacity, Hydraulic and Engine temp and is equipped with fault diagnostics system. This results in faster repair and minimum human intervention.

We have our parts support centers in Chennai and Delhi and factory trained technicians based at Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Chennai and Delhi. We also provide our experienced machine operators to help our customers to get their operators trained on our machines for smooth operations. We can also provide refurbished machines based on its availability to our customers.

Sanjay Saxena – Sr. VP & Head- Heavy Equipment Business Unit, Sany Heavy Industries India Pvt Limited
Sanjay Saxena – Sr. VP & Head- Heavy Equipment Business Unit, Sany Heavy Industries India Pvt Limited

We have recently delivered one of our largest piling rig model SR445 in India; it is working at the prestigious Mumbai Transharbor Link (MTHL project). End users had also used our SR285 piling rig and found that it could work very well on hard strata with a larger number of piles. Based on its performance, reasonable owning and operating cost, and excellent track record of our product support, they decided to hire Sany SR 445, which is doing the piles sizes between 2200 mm to 2500 mm diameter for the complex MTHL project. We will be delivering few more units of SR 445 in coming months.

Sany Heavy Equipment
Sany piling rigs have higher torque, better crowd force for faster speed of drilling, and 10-15% higher weight for stability as compared to the traditional rigs available in India. All the Sany rig models like SR155, SR205, SR 235, SR285 and SR445 introduced in India are a class ahead of other brands in India as regards their torque and weight. Our mast structures are specially designed to bear harder shocks when drilling in hard strata. The lighter Kelly bar and increased support angle give better performance when working in soil and hard rock strata. These features make our machines the first choice in India, and currently, a fleet of 300 piling rigs are working at various projects in India.

Sany’s specially designed carrier has been strengthened to give more stability to the rig and the main winch is mounted on the base carrier which supports it for reduced shocks. Its two-box structure prevents bending and lends more stiffness.

Sany is moving towards digitization and is using a very advanced Sany EVI (E Vision) system that operates on GPS and gives customers real time data, alarms for schedule maintenance and breakdowns, machine location, fuel level, depth level, rpm of the engine, and generate monthly/quarterly reports on the machine’s performance.

Spare parts of Sany machines can be sourced from our central warehouse in Pune; from our regional warehouses. Maintenance and training are rendered by our service engineers and master operators based in strategic locations to support and train new customers’ operators. Sany India products and services are also supplied to Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Maldives through its engineers and local dealers.

Manoj Agarwal, Chief General Manager-Marketing & Product Support, ACE
Manoj Agarwal, Chief General Manager-Marketing & Product Support, ACE

ACE has entered a tie-up with Sunward of China for the distribution of its Piling Rigs in India and the results are very encouraging. ACE-Sunward Rigs are robust, reliable, and can work in all kinds of soil/hard conditions. Ranging from 60kN.m to 600kN.m, they can boreup to 3500mm diameter and upto 135m depth with best in class aggregates, and patented components and technologies. The piling rigs have an independently designed and developed retractable undercarriage for piling application. This ensures greater stability as compared to other brands that usually install the superstructure on the general excavator chassis.

ACE Pilig Rigs
Independently developed control systems by Sunward use lesser electronics, making the machines more operator friendly, while ensuring multiple functions, quick response, and high accuracy. The main and auxiliary winches are installed on the rear of the rotating platform which reduces the tipping load and provides high stability during drilling 360° round the rig. The winches are fitted with patented rollers which reduces the winding layers, thus improving the reliability of the machine and reducing operating cost. High strength anti-deformation design is adopted for the drill mast. The rectangular mast section is wider in the guide rail direction, which effectively reduces the structural stress of the mast and makes it more suitable for the rock penetrating construction sites.

Ease of assembly of the Kelly bar means that it can be replaced interchanged without replacing the Kelly sleeve. The ergonomically designed large cabin adds to operator comfort and longer working with less fatigue. The advanced intelligent control system enhances operational efficiency. ACE ensures timely parts supply through its strategically located regional centers.
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