Vulcan 5100: Specifications and Information

With the success of the 560 the 5′ stroke concept was taken upward with the 5100, an extension of the 3100.  In addition to the longer stroke, it was Vulcan’s first hammers with 120″ jaws, to accommodate 96″ piling.  The first 5100 was sold to Brown & Root (Western Hemisphere Marine, to be formal about it) in 1977 and, like the 3100, was assembled in the customer’s yard, in this case at Green’s Bayou in Houston.

Specifications are here:

Offshore Specifications for 010-340 Hammers

Offshore Specifications for 530-6300 Hammers

General arrangement is here:

The 5100 saw active service in the Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere.

A bird’s eye view (or more accurately from the crane boom) of the first 5100 in Brown & Root’s Green’s Bayou yard, 1977.

Stacking it up: an ingenious use of containers as scaffolding to finish assembling the Vulcan 5100 hammer.

A 5100 driving pile for Global Marine, August 1996.

Vulcan 5100 hammer driving pipe pile in the Gulf of Mexico. This photo graced offshore literature in the late 1970’s and again in the 1990’s.

The biggest problem Vulcan had with the 5100 was its sheer size.  The territory into which Vulcan was venturing was stretching its own capabilities along with those of the U.S. foundry industry.  Nevertheless, once these problems were resolved, the 5100 did well in service.