GB1136005A - Pile driving mechanism - Google Patents

Abstract

1,136,005. Pile driving. W. W. MOUNT. 1 June, 1966 [7 June, 1965], No. 24502/66. Heading E1H. Pile-driving apparatus or mechanism for driving a tubular pile 10 comprises a hammer 15, Fig. 1, having a base-plate 20 and guide rods 26 for a monkey or ram weight 22 with a cylindrical foot or ram point 21 attached thereto, and a vibrator 18 that includles a piston 47, Fig. 2, abutting a helmet 14 for a driving core 12, which is temporarily placed within the pile 10 driving the driving operation, the piston being lodged in a plate 45 having a recess 43 therein that is engaged by a frustoconical member 20a situated in the plate 20. A space above the piston 47 can be charged with compressed-air or steam through a hose 51 and a passage 52 in the plate 45 so as to lift said plate and the hammer 15 until the piston uncovers exhaust passages 55 thereby effecting descent of said plate and hammer to produce a hammering action. The distance between the uppermost end of the piston and the passages 55 is small so that said hammering action is rapidly recurrent. The monkey 22 can effect hammering separately or simultaneously with the hammering action produced by the vibrator 18. Alternatively, the pile can be driven by the aforemention hammering action effected by the vibrator alone. When the monkey 22 is in use the foot 21 strikes a disc 20d lodged in a bore 20c within the member 20a, which bore is filled with cushioning material 20f e.g. wood chips. The monkey is raised by a piston 31 situated in a cylinder 30 when compressed air or steam is supplied thereto through a hose 35, a valve 36 and a passage 40. When the piston 30 arrives at the end of its upward stroke the valve 36 is closed by a cam 37a carried by a bar 37b on the monkey and the air or steam escapes through a plurality cf passages 41 in the upper end of the cylinder, thereby allowing the monkey to descend and produce a hammer blow on the disc 20d, the valve 36 being re-opened by a further cam 37a on said bar when the monkey reaches the end of its downward stroke. Manuallyoperated valves 56, 83 are provided in the hoses 51, 35. In a second embodiment, Fig. 3 (not shown), the vibrator 18 is replaced by a piston-andcylinder unit (60, 61) at the lowermost end of the driving core (64) so that when compressed-air or steam is alternately supplied to and ejected from a space in the cylinder above the piston through pipes (65, 66, 68) and a valve (67) the cylinder, the core, which is attached to the cylinder by bolts (62, 63), and a hammer (not shown in the drawings) resting upon the uppermost end of the core are made to reciprocate vertically so as to effect a rapidly recurrent hammering action. At the end of each downward stroke of the cylinder (61), the core (64) strikes a plate or so-called hammer head (70) to which the piston is attached by a rod (69), the said plate being in abutment with the foot (11) of the pile. The core may also strike a shoulder (13a) in the pile. A pressure intensifier, Fig. 4 (not shown), may be situated between the source of compressed air or steam and the pipe (68) in the second embodiment. A storage tank (81) may be situated between a cylinder (78) on the high-pressure side of the intensifier and the pipe (68), the cylinder (78) and said tank being filled with a liquid e.g. oil, which serves as the working fluid of the piston-and-cylinder unit (60, 61). The cylinder (78) contains a piston (77) that is attached to a piston (76) of greater diameter within a cylinder (75) to which steam or compressed air is supplied. The tank (81) may be omitted and the cylinder (78) connected directly to the cylinder (61), the pistons (76, 77) being made to reciprocate so as to produce pressure pulses that effect reciprocation of the cylinder (61).