BSP – The World Force in Piling and Ground Improvement Equipment

To further increase awareness of its products in the North American market BSP International Foundations (BSP), a leading force in piling and ground improvement equipment, is exhibiting at the International Foundation Congress and Equipment Expo being held at Hilton Orlando Buena Vista Palace, Orlando, Florida from 5 to 10 March, 2018.

At Orlando, BSP will be showcasing its latest product, the new CXL140 piling hammer. This most recent addition to the BSP line-up has been designed to fit into a standard 32″ lead or a pile sleeve to drive 60″ diameter steel tubes. The hammer produces over 100,000 ft. lbs. of impact energy from its 24,000 lbs. drop weight. The CXL140 is of simple design with only three moving parts making it no less reliable than other piling hammers in the BSP range. Another bonus of this hammer is that a 19,000 lbs dropweight can be fitted, to reduce the over all operational weight of the hammer from 30,500 lbs to 25,000 lbs and still pack a punch of over 84,000 Ft-lbs of energy per blow.

Hydraulic power can be provided by a suitable hydraulic crane or one of BSP’s specially designed Hydro Packs available with either EPA-Tier 3A or EPA-Tier 4 Final emission compliant diesel engines.

The new hammer can be seen on the Jinnings Equipment booths (516 and 537). Jinnings is BSP’s North American distributor for piling hammers based at Fort Wayne, Indiana. In addition to the BSP hammer Jinnings will have a selection of hydraulic drills and a model from its vibrating hammer line-up on display.

BSP Piling Hammers

For more than a century BSP has been at the forefront in the innovation and manufacture of piling hammers, related equipment and rapid impact compaction technology. During its 114-year history the company, with its manufacturing facilities in Ipswich, England has pioneered the development of steam, air and diesel powered hammers culminating in the introduction of its first hydraulic powered hammer in the early 1980s.

Since then, further development and technical innovation has resulted in the current range of its medium-duty CX, heavy-duty CG and CGL hammers. These offer contractors a choice of models with ram weights ranging from 1.5t up to 40t. These hydraulic hammers, which can be crane suspended or leader mounted, have made significant production contributions on civil engineering projects on both land and offshore in many countries around the world.

A typical example of BSP hammers being used in the field involved the pinning of a reservoir retaining slope at Lewis Creek near Willis in Texas. The slope surface had the top 6.56ft (2m) material treated and mixed with additives to form a hard crust and prevent erosion. Piles, 19.68ft (6m) long are pre-drilled though the crust at 10ft (3m) intervals. When placed the piles are then driven using an excavator mounted BSP DX-RT 20 hydraulic hammer to just below the surface. Piles are being driven at high rate of progress averaging 100/day with 200 installed during one day. Over 2000 have been driven so far, with approximately 2000 more to be driven. The contract will last a further three months.

BSP Rapid Impact Compactors (RIC)

In addition to its impressive range of piling hammers, BSP develops and manufactures Rapid Impact Compactors (RICs). The RIC has become the preferred method for an increasing number of ground improvement projects around the world. In particular, the RIC has been successfully used in the Middle East to compact large areas of infill sites such as the Ras Laffan port extension in Qatar.

Available in seven, nine, twelve and twelve tonne dropweight sizes. The RIC is based on BSP’s hydraulic piling hammer technology and can be mounted on regular hydraulic excavators with operating weights from 30t to 95t. In operation the unit’s foot stays in contact with the ground, ensuring efficient energy transfer to the ground at all times. This also stops debris flying when the ground is impacted. Energy is imparted by dropping the weight through a relatively small height of up to 1.2m at a rate of between 40 to 60 blows per minute. In some ideal ground conditions good improvement has been achieved to a depth of over10m.

BSP markets the RIC in North America through Geopac in Montreal Quebec and Rush Contracting in Vancouver, British Columbia.