We’ve talked about PC-pile walls many times, so today we want to address other issues that influence the success of your project.

Quite literally the power pack is the heart of a piling hammer. It pumps the hydraulic flow needed to power the eccentric weights of the vibratory hammer, which create amplitude necessary to bring a pile into motion and in or out of the soil.

PC retaining walls are popular in Zhejiang, and a client in Hangzhou rented a few hammers to extract the piles after the retaining work was completed. The casings used were 18m long, 630mm diameter, 14mm wall thickness steel casing, with a weight of 4 tons.For the areas along existing structures the client chose the ICE 28RF hammer, for other areas an ICE 55NF. A third machine mixed an ICE 815C hammer with a local made power pack. These hammers all operate at different settings of eccentric weights, RPM, and amplitude.

The driving predictions showed that all three ICE hammers would have sufficient amplitude to loosen the piles for extraction. Yet the hammer with the local made power pack performed poorly, the hammer failed to liquify the soil and the crane operator ended up using static line pull to extract a pile filled with soil. A pile filled with soil ways up to 9 tons and the static line pull to get it out of the ground damaged the steel cable. The client canceled the contract for the underperforming hammer that managed only 2 piles a day, while the original ICE equipment extracted 4-5 piles per hour.

It is best practice to evaluate hammers for eccentric driving force and amplitude, but the final performance of the hammer is up to the power pack.

Even though many power packs use the same engines, not all power packs are created equal! Those made by ICE in The Netherlands have some advantages that set them apart from competitive offerings. 

Our products are built to a higher European standard resulting in fuel economies, less wear and tear, and a longer life time of the product.

Following EU law our product specifications are written to reflect actual performance, while some power packs in the market place have specs that are written to show maximum theoretical performance.

Things to consider when selecting a power pack: