RTG Rig Outsells All Others
A major sea change has occurred in the past 12 months in the piling industry with the importation of several new and used telescopic leader crawler mounted piling rigs.
Most of these rigs originate from Germany where they became very popular in the late 1990's. Since then new environmental controls have come into place and a new breed of equipment design has been developed. At the forefront of this development has been RTG, a wholly owned subsidiary of the BAUER group, who are well recognised as one of the worlds leading manufacturers of specialised piling and foundation equipment.
RTG have successfully sold and commissioned four new telescopic leader rigs in Australia in the past 12 months highlighting the commitment of Australian Contractors to protecting our environment, which in turn has enabled RTG to clearly outsell other manufacturers of similar type equipment.
The biggest machines yet to be imported are the two RG19T rigs bought by Wagstaff Piling in Brisbane and by Civil Foundations in Sydney. Both are capable of handling piles up to 19m length. Late last year Piling Contractors from Brisbane pioneered the first machine, an RG16T, and Ausipile from the Gold Coast imported an RG14T.
The most recent sale was the RG19T to Civil Foundations in Sydney. This rig was initially brought into Australia by Pilequip for rental to Waterways/AFS on an environmentally sensitive sheet pile & steel tube pile project at Pyrmont Wharf for Multiplex Constructions.
Tony Derham, the owner of Civil Foundations (who already owns another telescopic piling rig) was able to observe the many new features of the Bauer/RTG rig during this landmark project. This rig has now completed many sheet pile (and other steel pile section) projects in the inner city and on environmentally sensitive projects with great success.
The rig uses Panolin biodegradable oil throughout with the same oil running the vibratory head. This has the advantage that the oil passes through the main oil cooler thus keeping oil temperatures in the vibratory head down to the required levels.
This type of rig is designed for rapid mobilisation to and from job sites with the retracted mast length, and for working in compact spaces. They are most commonly used for the installation of sheet piles and other preformed piles by resonance free vibratory hammers; and for the installation of bored piles and continuous flight auger piles. They can however also be used for soil mixing applications and for pressing piles when fitted with the specific attachments for that application.
The rig specifically comes into its own where there are long straight runs of sheet piles or the sheets themselves are longer than normal. Predrilling attachments allow the machines to drill ahead of the piling in the event that the ground contains any hard layers or obstructions. The length of the pile that can be installed depends on the extended height of the telescopic mast.
It is not expected that telescopic leader rigs will result in the demise of other well accepted traditional piling practices using cranes and rope suspended piling hammers, but like many new techniques there will be a niche market for this type of machine.
Pilequip Australia Pty Ltd are the appointed Service Agents for RTG in Australia & New Zealand and will be pleased to discuss any features of this type of machine with potential customers or contractors wishing to know more about them.