is its first full production model of an excavator-mounted
piling system.
David Zanchetta, Berminghammer’s sales and service
representative for Ontario, says the inspiration for the new
system was customer demand. A number of contractors
doing work in Northern Ontario, some as far away as 1,000
kilometres or more from parent company Bermingham’s
Hamilton office, would ask if there was anything the company
could do to lower their costs. Company representatives
would often explain that the cost of the work was relatively
minor compared to the cost of getting the equipment to
remote sites.
The costs associated with transporting a crane to the
remote locations were significant. Some cranes that would
complete similar work require as many as three or four
truckloads to transport them to a construction site, meaning
transportation costs could total more than $100,000 to set up
a single project.
The beauty with the EML30, Zanchetta says, is that it
can be transported anywhere in just a single load. That
means mobilization costs of as little as $5,000 compared
to the six-figure cost associated with using a cranemounted
system.
“The EML was designed so that it can go as one load
already attached to the excavator. You can take it from your
yard or its last job and bring it to the site in one load. That’s
what it was designed around,” he said.
“If you have a situation where your transportation savings
are in the magnitude of $100,000 for a single trip, that’s a huge
savings and quickly justifies the purchase of the EML30.”
Another advantage the EML30 offers is that it requires far
less room to operate than crane-mounted systems. That’s
critical in areas where the footprint is so small that a crane
system can’t easily access it.
“That’s very advantageous in areas where you are looking
to do something like roadway protection,” Zanchetta said.
“You might be right beside a river or between lanes on a highway
and getting a crane into that area and creating a crane
pad can cost a significant amount of time and money. With
an excavator, you can get into a lot tighter spots.”
Not only does the EML30 help simplify some of the logistical
challenges associated with deep foundation projects, it’s
also pretty simple to operate. Most excavator operators can
learn how to properly use the system within a couple of days.
“If you can operate the shovel and have a feel for that,
you can operate our system once you have a little guidance,”
Zanchetta said. “One of the nice things is everything is integrated.
You don’t really have to change anything in your base
machine. You hook up hydraulic lines and all of the valves
that control the lead and hammer are on the lead itself. An
TECHNOLOGY UPDATE
CONTINUED ON PAGE 14
12 Q4 2018 www.pilingcanada.ca
/www.pilingcanada.ca
