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Your First Stop for Piledriving Technology News

The APE Model 250 Variable Moment Hammer was called to duty. Malcolm Drilling was in need of removing a couple of 24″ pipe pile filled with concrete. With APE custom built jaws that simply bolted into a APE 25″ wood clamp, then installed under the APE 250VM, Malcolm was able to make short work of this task with minimum radial vibration.

The superintendent “Chad” noticed one of the benefits of the variable moment feature. There was absolutely no crane boom vibration when the pile was removed and the hammer was phased out. That said, using a hydraulic squirt boom crane will no longer be taboo when using vibratory hammers. Allowing for quick and easy crane set ups saving time and money.

Quality Enterprises of Chesapeake Virginia was awarded a challenging new project for a “Mobile user objective radio tower system” This is being constructed at the T131 MUOS Northwest Naval Annex in Virginia. Their 1st phase consisted of driving all of the test piles for the tower foundation piles then doing a static load test on several of the piles. They are currently driving the production piles. Quality Enterprises have a great working relationship with APE Mid-Atlantic, so we put our heads together and determined that a “fixed leader” system was the way to go! This was designed by APE Mid-Atlantic and with great support from APE Corporate in Kent Washington. They are using 100′ of 8″x 26″ leads with a side riding APE Model 20 auger for pre-drilling the piles and driving them to grade with an APE D12-42 diesel impact hammer. This has really worked out to be a very productive and clean set-up. Project Manager Steve Jones has had his hands full since this job was handed over to him and has really stepped up to the plate as have all of the QE people. The piles are 10″ x 10″ square pre-cast. If you’re in the market for a fixed lead set-up, or any type of pile driving & foundation equipment call your local APE branch. WHEN A PILEDRIVER TALKS…WE LISTEN ! GO APE!

APE Mid-Atlantic is located right in the middle of one of our largest Naval facilities- “Norfolk Naval Station”, Virginia. It’s no surprise when the Navy Sea-Bee’s wanted to update their inventory of piledriving equipment several years ago they went APE. APE is the only company in this business that offers classes on pile driving as well as equipment maintenance and upkeep. Ask your current equipment supplier if they will teach you how to work on your equipment- if the answer is no you better start dealing with APE. APE Mid-Atlantic had a class on diesel hammers for the Sea-Bee’s and let them bring both of their new D19-42 hammers to our shop and taught them to completely disassemble both of them. This covered removing the piston, ram, anvil, and all of the lower end components and also taught them fuel & lube pump trouble shooting as well as rebuilding both. Shop Foreman Chuck Frain taught the class and had them assemble both hammers and run them in our test stand. This training is priceless to our military boys, being they never know where they will be using this equipment. Thanks again US Navy for choosing the best equipment & company, APE ! GO APE. Contact your nearest APE branch for upcomming schools & classes.

APE will be attending along with two other representatives from Russia. Vladimir Nifontov with SFS will be hosting Dave Yingling from the APE/J&M Kent, WA Factory and Martijn Kleine with APE Holland in The Netherlands.

We are proud to have the opportunity to present our individual and combined abilities to enhance your profits with the most cutting edge technology available in the deep foundation market.

Come visit us at booth number 10532

Kokosing Construction, Ohio’s most prominent heavy highway contractor, was in the market for a powerful vibro for several upcoming sheetpile jobs. After carefully researching the choices, Kokosing’s equipment manager Bob Greene called APE Northeast. It was decided the APE 200T Vibro with the APE 700 HP Power Unit best suited their needs. The 200T boasts 5200 inch pounds of eccentric moment, 800 inch pounds more than the APE 200 vibro. The extra energy is due to tungsten inserts in the eccentric weights, a patented invention. In fact, the legitimacy of the patent was recently upheld in court when it was discovered 2 of APE’s competitors were secretly adding tungsten into their eccentrics as well.

The crane operator commented how “smooth” the vibro started and stopped. APE’s patented 2 stage suppressor greatly reduces the violent shaking up the boom typically associated with the operation of other manufacturers’ hammers. The 200T with the 700 HP Power Unit provides abundant hydraulic horsepower, making it a very powerful setup indeed.

Thanks to Kokosing Construction and Bob Greene for choosing APE. Call Paul Kuzik at APE/J&M Northeast @ 201-400-8356 for more info, and for all of your pile driving equipment needs.

The Motiva refinery in Port Arthur Texas with a current capacity of 275,000 barrels a day is expanding its operation to 600,000 barrels a day to make it the largest refinery in the Nation and one of the top ten in the world. The expansion consists of driving approx. 60,000-80,000 piles. The company driving the most piles is Bomac Contractors from Beaumont Tx. followed by Group Contractors out of Baton Rouge La, Cajun Constructors also out of Baton Rouge La, and BOH Bros. out of New Orleans La. There are approx 20 APE diesel hammers driving in Motiva which doesn’t leave much room for anyone else’s hammers.

Waterfront Marine a local Virginia Beach VA. Contractor has really gone APE in the House of APES ! They have begun driving the 12″x 12″ concrete piles with an APE D-19-42 in the Norfolk Zoo’s new Asia exhibit. Bill Hall of Waterfront Marine tells us this 18 million dollar facility will feature all kinds of animals that are Native to Asia. They will have several tigers, monkeys, monkeys, APES (no pun intended) ect. This will feature caves, dark rooms and a large boardwalk to boast of, it will be one of the finest in the USA. We wish Waterfront Marine a safe & productive project, Go APE !

Costa Fortuna a Foundation Contractor from Sao Paulo, Brazil has taken delivery of a new APE Model 100 Wick Drain installation system.
We assisted Costa Fortuna’s very fine crew with installing the system on their 245 Cat, the installation went smoothly with only minor problems with the Excavator’s older hydraulic system.
I look forward to many more projects with Costa Fortuna in the beautiful Country of Brazil.

MASSIVE FAILURES OF OUR COMPETITION’S MACHINES PROMPTS APE BUILD UP IN UAE

APE Austria has begun a massive shipment of new APE Model 200 vibratory pile driver/extractors to the UAE. This is in response to recent electronic and overheating of our competition’s so-called new units in hot weather conditions. APE machines are will known for their simplicity and ability to handle both the hot Saudi Arabian sun and the cold of Alaska. The secret is our unique kidney loop cooling circuit which can be reversed in cold weather.

APE units come with massive heat exchangers and a special kidney loop oil cooling system that keeps the machine running even in 125 degree temperatures. APE developed a simple electrical system to mate with the advanced Tier III CAT engines. We avoided adding fancy touch screen panels that are subject to code failures that shut the unit down and require re-programming to get started again. APE machines are simple yet advanced. Our hydraulic gauges are old school simple yet our CAT Electronics are fuel efficient.

Our power units feature a built-in spare hydraulic tank, CAT Tier III engine, Super Heavy Duty radiator and oil cooler, kidney loop oil system, all stainless steel control panels, tachometer in the remote pendant (found only on APE machines) tool box with spare jaws and hoses and tools to do all the maintenance work and a 5 year warranty.

The APE 200 has the world’s greatest lifting capacity, heavy metal eccentrics, helical gears, one piece gear/eccentric, giant spherical double roller bearings, patented two stage suppressor, 0-ring seals on all parts for ready operation under water, clamps with nylotron lined slides and one piece cylinders and larger jaws for excellent gripping ability.

The APE 200 is the world’s most demanded vibratory pile driver due to its many patented features.

CD Perry is currently at work on a very interesting piledriving job across the Hudson River from Albany NY as a subcontractor to LG Constructors. Faced with many challenges during the bid phase, CD Perry approached APE and together we came up with a system that would allow for the successful driving of the piles while meeting an extremely strict noise ordinance.

The design called for driving 12×84 H-Piles between 60ft and 75ft long thru zero blowcount material into glacial till ultimately achieving a 200ton capacity. However local noise ordinances limited the maximum noise that could be generated at the protery line from the piledriving operation to 65 decibels, which is quieter than a normal conversation between 2 people. Taking into consideration that using an impact hammer on an h-pile when 75ft of it is above ground greatly amplifies the impact, in a textbook example of line source noise, the determination was made to vibrate the piles in thru the very soft upper layers of soil to the top of the till. Once in the ground, with less of a line source,the pile could be impacted and create less noise.

The plans called for a dynamic test pile program to assure capacity could be achieved, which was the perfect testing ground to see if this system would keep the noise below 65dB. The piles were vibrated in, then impacted to the required capacity without any problem. However the 65 decibel noise requirement at the property line was exceeded by 10 decibels. A way to shave 10 dB off of the noise being produced by the diesel hammer driving the h-beams needed to be found.

This was accomplished by building a noise shroud around the leads for the diesel hammer using fireproof noise cancelling blankets. CD Perry designed and fabricated a “cocoon” on the lower section of leads around the diesel hammer and pile, and a 2nd test pile program was undertaken. The 2nd test showed that the decibel levels at the property line were now below the maximum allowable and the project could move forward.

Currently CD Perry has 3 vibros; an APE Model 50, a J&M Model 216 and J&M Model 11-23, all riding in APE 8×26 leads, to vibrate in the h-piles. Then they use two APE D19-42 diesel hammers with the noise abatement system on each set of leads, as well as an APE 150T vibro to drive the sheeting that is part of the foundation contract.