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19

2023

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10

Why do excavators need to be retrofitted with pile-driving arms?


Recently, many friends have been asking about modifying excavator pile-driving arms. I’ve noticed that many people aren’t familiar with or fully understand pile-driving arm modifications, nor do they know what their actual purpose is. As a leader in the pile-driving machinery industry, Juxiang Machinery is here today to share some essential knowledge about excavator pile-driving arm modifications.

The excavator pile-driving arm modification consists of components such as a main boom, a sub-boom, and a pile-driving hammer. It uses a hydraulic power unit as its hydraulic power source and generates high-frequency vibrations through a vibration box, imparting high-acceleration vibrations to the pile body. The mechanical vertical vibrations are transmitted to the pile, causing the soil structure around the pile to undergo changes and reducing its strength. As a result, the soil surrounding the pile becomes liquefied, significantly decreasing the frictional resistance between the pile side and the soil. Subsequently, the pile is driven into the ground by the excavator’s downward pressure combined with the vibration-induced driving hammer and the pile’s own weight. During pile extraction, while maintaining continuous vibration on one side, the excavator’s lifting force is used to pull the pile out of the ground. After a conventional excavator is modified with a hydraulic pile-driving arm, it is referred to as an “excavator pile driver.” This equipment is primarily used for pile-driving operations, and the types of piles it can handle include tubular piles, sheet piles, steel pipe piles, precast concrete piles, wooden piles, and photovoltaic piles installed in aquatic environments.

Actually, it’s quite simple when you think about it: the modification of excavator pile-driving arms actually originated from excavator modifications themselves—meaning they evolved directly from excavators. However, these modified arms feature exceptionally long booms specifically designed for pile driving with excavators. They differ from standard excavator booms that are optimized for digging. The pile-driving boom is a straight boom, which makes it easier to lift high; it’s equipped with a short, compact auxiliary boom, and the curved arm of the pile-driving hammer can be connected to this auxiliary boom, allowing the hammer to reach even greater heights. This design also enables better control during both the lifting and pressing stages of pile driving. As a result, many high-rise building foundations have been constructed entirely with the help of these specialized pile-driving arms. Such foundations rely on steel sheet piles as their basic structure, and they demand extremely precise depth control—making excavator pile-driving arm modifications an essential component in the process.

Juxiang Machinery boasts 15 years of experience in equipment modification, over 50 R&D engineers, and an annual production capacity of more than 2,000 sets of piling equipment. Our piling equipment features exquisite manufacturing processes and cutting-edge technology, enjoying strong sales nationwide and earning unanimous praise from industry professionals. We warmly invite all interested parties with modification needs to reach out for consultation and collaboration.