National Pile Croppers has always been proud of the continuous R&D that goes in to making its hydraulic pile croppers more efficient, safer, customer focused and productive. The latest development of this non-stop development programme is the latest version of the company’s award winning Contig 600 cropper.

“We have always stated we are constantly improving the equipment we manufacture, so, the launch of our new Contig 600 Cropper is just one development we are justly proud of,” says National Pile Croppers managing director Simon Price. “Over the years we have continually refined and developed our offering and we now are pleased to announce the release of the very latest in state of the art pile cropping of contiguous piles.”

New Contig 600

As the name suggests, the Contig 600 is a cropper built with the purpose of reducing piles in a contiguous or secant wall formation where only two sides of the pile can be exposed and spaces between adjacent piles is tight. Two hydraulic rams mounted opposing at 180^o provide the ability to position the cropper over the wall to reduce the piles. The wall thickness of the cropper allows it to slot between contiguous piles with spacing as close as 50mm.

The redesign brief

The original unit was larger than anticipated and has the functionality to crop 750mm piles. Whilst this is a good problem to have, it also caused issues addressing a 600mm contiguous pile with 150mm (nominal) pile spacing. NPC has thus now created a cropper that has a reduced width, but maintains its structural strength whilst also keeping the overall dimensions tight to a 600mm pile. Testing and subsequent stress analysis has provided the optimal jaw-to-pile interface angle.

The New Contig 600 has already been subject to extensive field testing which it has passed with flying colours. It was recently used to great success by Churngold Construction on a development in Bristol. The concrete piles used in the development had to be dealt with efficiently, speedily and safely, with the resulting concrete residue reprocessed in an environmentally friendly manner.  “Churngold invited us to site to see the difficulties faced with cropping of the piles.  I must admit the complexities of site, and the way the piles have been laid out, presented a challenge. Fortunately, we had been working on an updated version of our Contig 600 cropper. This would prove to be the ideal tool for the job,” explains NPC director Lee Aston.

Maintaining structural strength in a tight fit

“With the new Config 600, two hydraulic rams mounted opposing at 180^o provide the ability to position the cropper over the wall to reduce the piles. The wall thickness of the cropper allows it to slot between contiguous piles with spacing as close as 50mm,” explains Lee. “In order to develop a cropper suited to Churngold’s requirements, we aimed to build a cropper that had a reduced width, maintaining its structural strength, whilst also keeping the overall dimensions tight to a 600mm pile.”

The design and the development of the new Config 600 overcame any issues related during stress analysis whilst attempting to achieve the optimal jaw to pile interface angle. NPC eventually hit the perfect balance and the latest version is now on site with Churngold cropping 600mm and 450mm diameter augured piles in a contiguous wall format. These were installed leaving a nominal spacing of 150mm between adjacent piles which has proved to be the perfect scenario for using the new Contig 600 V2.

“Feedback from the guys (Churngold Construction) on site has been highly complementary stating the cropper is performing better than expected, and it was expected to do well! The change in width dimension (of the new Config 600) had a major impact resulting in piles in the middle of the wall being able to be reduced where other croppers would foul on the adjacent pile resulting in the need for further cropping from the end of the wall of piles. The weight and centre of gravity of the new Config 600 has also been moved to provide noticeably superior manoeuvrability; all this whilst also maintaining the excellent pile finish expected of the NPC range of pile croppers,” concludes National Pile Croppers director Lee Aston.

The new Contig 600 is now available for hire or purchase throughout the UK and will be introduced globally in the coming months.

New Contig 600 technical specifications

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