The latest development from National Pile Croppers is a new version of the company’s Quad XXL cropper, which is proving to be an essential tool on the HS2 rail project in the United Kingdom.
NPC croppers found a niche on HS2 where a variety of contractors and civil engineering companies have successfully used the Quad XXL. However, the rail project allowed NPC to further develop its XXL cropper.
With a project as big and as demanding as HS2, there has arisen a requirement for larger more powerful pile croppers.
“As we always work closely with our customers to ensure that they are getting the very best in hydraulic pile cropping, we soon identified a need for an even larger cropper,” said NPC Director Lee Aston.
The collaboration onsite led directly to the development of the new Quad XXL.
“We have a well-proven and existing range of Quad croppers that cover virtually any requirement, with our Quad XL 1000 cropper for one being designed to be used for the reduction of augured (round) piles up to 1050 mm in diameter,” Lee said. “As with the entire Quad range, it utilizes four powerful and fully synchronized rams with specially designed blades to give a superb pile cut.”
As well, the cropper holds the cut pile section safely for removal to a designated safe area. Utilized on piles with de-bonded reinforcement bars, it has proved to be the ideal solution when reducing contiguous and secant piled walls with spacing as close as 150 mm.
“However, on some parts of HS2 the Quad XL, although effective, needed to be super-sized to make it even more productive,” Aston said.
According to NPC, the new Quad XXL is a “true cropping behemoth” being designed and developed to deal with piles of between 900 and 1200 metres in size.
Weighing in at 3,675 kg, it is best used on an excavator of at least 31 tonnes in weight.
National PIle Croppers Quad XXL specs:
- Pile size: 900-1,200 mm
- Length: 2,363 mm
- Width: 2,363 mm
- Height: 2,363 mm
- Excavator min size: 30 tonnes
- Max operating pressure: 275 bar
- Flow rate: 90-180 l/min
“Although big, the new Quad XXL is still easy to use, and our experienced support staff are at hand from the initial order to the installation on site to make sure that customers get what they pay for,” Aston said.
Operation of the new Quad XXL is simple, with the cropper being lowered to the ideal height. The jaws are then closed until pile sections pop free.
The broken pile section then can be easily removed for recycling to a dumper or a specified area.
“The feedback we’ve received has been beyond our expectations,” Aston said. “Our customers seem to want more and more of the Quad XXL as the targets and deadlines shorten on HS2. Despite its size and power, the new Quad XXL is as efficient as the other members of the Quad range, delivering an effective solution wherever it has been used.”
The new Quad XXL from National Pile Croppers is now available in the UK and will be introduced globally in the coming months.
