Dawson Construction

Excavator Mounted Vibrators

The perfect tool for driving relatively short piles in sands and gravels.

Experienced pile drivers will confirm that driving relatively short piles using traditional methods is expensive and cumbersome. Mobilising cranes and suspended pile driving equipment together with the need for temporary guide frames or templates is something of a sledge hammer to crack a nut.

The solution is to grab hold of the pile head with a hydraulic clamp on the end of an excavator boom. This means you can horse the pile head around until it is exactly where you want it. You then need a vibrator between the boom head and the hydraulic clamp to provide linear vibrations which, in conjunction with the excavators crowd force (shove), will stuff the pile into almost any ground conditions.

This is precisely what the Dawson EMV's do!

You can also pull the piles out with this tool and, if you run into obstructions, simply detach the vibro, put the bucket back on and hook it out.

Generally you only have 5 to 9 metres (15' to 30') of headroom under the bucket so this limits the pile length. Longer piles should be driven using more conventional equipment - they have to be accurately pitched and never horsed around afterwards.

What do you need?
· An excavator, wheeled or tracked, with adequate hydraulic power

Simply remove the bucket off the excavator and pin on the EMV using appropriate shafts, spacers and washers to ensure adequate strength and minimum slack.

Connect up the bucket cylinder hoses to the EMV, and run a drain line from the EMV back to the base machine hydraulic oil tank.

Sequence valves control the rest. Operate the bucket cylinder control lever and the clamping cylinder will close. Leave it in position and the cylinder will come up to pressure, keep the lever in position and the sequence valve will then direct oil flow to the motor which will start up vibrations.

Centre the bucket cylinder control lever and the motor runs down to a stop. When the motor has stopped turning the hydraulic clamp can be released by operating the bucket in the opposite direction - HAVING FIRST ENSURED THAT IT IS SAFE TO DO SO.et lever in the opposite direction - HAVING FIRST ENSURED THAT IT IS SAFE TO DO SO.