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Your First Stop for Piledriving Technology News

In late February of 2003, Drivecon joined forces with APE and J&M. Drivecon had a long history of selling ICE products. J&M had been making the ICE 216, 416, 812, 815, 44, 66, and 1412 since the beginnning so it was only natural that Drivecon team up with the new APE and J&M organization. In 2003 Drivecon has sold nearly 1.8 million worth of the new J&M product and this amount is only through August 2003.

The J&M and Drivecon team was something that King Evarts, President of J&M envisioned from day one. The Drivecon team, backed by King Evarts and John Konwick, have enjoyed great success in 2003 and 2004 is going to be even stronger.
We thank Drivecon’s Jill Sinner and Terry Lee along with their top service man Jim Kunkel. We take our hats off to their team which has made the APE and J&M team stronger. Drivecon’s ability to service the customer has raised the level of service at APE.

The photo shows APE and J&M along with Drivecon personnel at the recent DFI meeting in Florida.

For more information on Drivecon or J&M please go to their websites.

Here are pictures of a D19-42 driving 14×89 H-Piles in Albany NY. August Bohl has driven many of the piles under buildings constructed in Albany in the last few decades and since the mid 1990’s those piles have been driven with APE equipment.

Note that with fixed leads, August Bohl utilizes an APE RHI-14 Round H-Pile Insert so that they can turn the profile of the H-Pile in any direction which keeps them from having to constantly travel the crane so that it is square to the H-Pile flange.

APE has supplied the largest pile hammer ever made in the USA to MCM Constructors to drive 8-foot diameter caissons for the Stoney Creek Bridge. The specifications called for a Menck hammer but MCM paid $200,000 up front to APE to design the giant hammer. The new APE Model 750 has a ram weight of 120,000 pounds and strokes 6.25 feet. The hammer has been fully tested by Caltrans.

MCM has been using an APE Model D100 diesel hammer to start the caissons. The big APE hammer is placed on the caisson only after the D100 reaches a blow count of more than 330 blows to the foot. Once the big hammer is put on the caisson, the blow count drops to under 30 blows per foot.

The APE Model 750 is being rented for $50,000 per month. It runs off the standard power unit used for the APE King Kong (Model 400 vibro).

MCM also owns an APE Model 150 and Model 200 plus a J&M manufactured ICE 44.

As we reported last week, two APE Model D62’s were sent to replace hydraulic impact hammers on Ford Pile’s job in Georgia. A record amount of piles were driven in one day with the APE hammers. The APE diesel’s are ISO 9002 certified and come with a 5 year warranty. No one beats that kind of warranty or quality. Keep watching our website for daily reports.

APE sent its entire sales staff to the Deep Foundations Institute Meeting in Miami. J&M’s staff also attended, including King Evarts, the inventor of the ICE vibro and John Konwick, sales and parts manager for J&M. APE and Junttan have agreed that APE will provide support for Junttan products in the USA market. APE also announced that Moody and Sons will represent APE, joining Drivecon and Hercules as strong distributors with unlimited territory.

APE announced that it’s rental fleet is now the largest in the world and pointed out that its nearest competition, ICE, has withdrawn forces in Houston and California. In addition, APE has expanded into Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia.

APE introduced its new variable moment machines and a new wave program that is user friendly.

For more information please check our website daily.

APE invented a new kind of wick drain machine that converts a standard excavator into a powerful wick drain installer. The new machine uses a vibro with a hole down the middle and a sprocket drive system that allows the wick mandrel to be statically loaded while also being dynamically loaded. The combination of the two forces, static and dynamic, plus the revolutionary axial loading rather than side loading found on all other wick machines, makes this invention unique. The vibro/static bottomdrive device is mounted at the bottom of the leaders or mast. This bottomdrive technology can be used to drive wicks up to 300 feet in depth at speeds of up to 300 feet per minute through difficult soil conditions. Cable rigs and chain drive rigs must yield to this new technology. This new device can install where other machines would require predrilling.

APE sold the first machine a few years ago to Nilex Corporation, a large wick drain installation contractor. The technology was so successful that it became a major concern for Geotechnics America and Mustang, two wick drain installation companies that once dominated the wick drain installation business.

In an effort to stop APE from selling the technology, Geotechics sued both APE and Nilex, citing what APE believed to be a unrelated patent. Nilex, fearing a costly lawsuit, agreed to stop using their new APE machine to stay out of the fight.

APE went on to sell the technology for use on a US Army Corps of Engineers project in Norfolk where the APE machines installed record deep wick drains in record time. APE and ICE fought to a stand still. The lawsuit ended when Geotechnics sold all their wick equipment to Nilex.

Geotechnics tried to copy the APE technology and rented their device to a contractor in Virigina. APE sued for copy infringment of APE’s technology. The case was settled with a large payment to APE that included a percentage of each foot of wick that was installed using the APE technology.

APE’s wick drain installer has far less moving parts than conventional machines, has a smaller foot print, and costs much less to maintain. The technology allows anyone with an excavator to become a wick installer. In addition, the APE machine has the ability to drive much deeper wick drains because the vibratory driver and sprocket drive remains at the bottom of the leads. For more information please review the online training CD on our website under Pile Driving School “online courses” or call 800 248-8498 and order your free CD today.

APE is now in the business of selling wick drain material. Call us today for a quote.

APE’s Mid-Atlantic branch has shipped an APE D62 to Ford Pile. The D62 just finished driving pipe piles for Corman Construction at the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. The D62 operated on vegetable diesel fuel.

Hub Foundation is using their recently purchased APE Model 400 (King Kong) to drive caissons on the 3rd Ave. Bridge in New York. This is the only King Kong operating directly off the Liebherr crane- no power pack. Those big cans are 100 foot long in high blow count material!

Two Model APE D62’s were sent to Woody Ford’s job. One was sent from APE Mid-Atlantic by the APE crew headed up by Jimmy Deemer. The onther APE D62 was shipped from APE Florida headed up by Bill Smith and Wally Brumsey.

The APE Model 150, first introduced in 1990, is still the most advanced vibatory pile driver/extractor on the market. Even 13 years after it first hit the market, the Model 150 is still the lightest, most powerful 2600 inch pound machine available. The 150 can out perform 4000 inch pound machines. The 150 features a suppressor housing that can adapt to low head situations and its modular design can reduce the overall weight to as little as 5500 lbs. The height can be reduced to less than 55 inches. The 150 can be mounted on an excavator or can run off a forklift. The suppressor housing is smooth enough to prevent damage to small squirt boom type cranes, a patented technology not available on any other vibro. Call your nearest APE branch for a free demo. We warranty that our Model 150 can out perform any other 2600 inch pound machine or we will pay $5,000 in cash.