The most common machines for driving piles are diesel hammers, the main advantages of which are: independence from external energy sources (autonomy), high productivity, simplicity and ease of operation, and low cost of manufacture. The classification and main parameters of diesel hammers are given in GOST 7888-80. All existing and currently used diesel hammers can … Continue reading Diesel Hammers
Vulcan produced many products for the coastal and marine industry. When it started producing pile hammers in Chicago, the Loop was moving to other types of foundations. Vulcan--and the Warrington family--was focused on the waterfront, which literally took it all over the world. An example of that is something closer to home: the yard yacht … Continue reading Hauling the “Lighter” Up With a Davit, and An Example of Static Analysis
Much of the narrative around Vulcan centres on the development of the Warrington-Vulcan pile hammer design in the late 1880's (and the serial number records aren't the most informative about when exactly the final transition to that design was made.) But how did Vulcan come up with the valve design it made its standard? Some … Continue reading Some Insight into the Origin of Vulcan’s Pile Hammer Valve System
As noted elsewhere, Vulcan got itself into many products outside of pile driving equipment. One of those was railroad equipment. Some of these didn't work out as planned, as was the case with the Caldwell Steam Snow Plow. Others, ostensibly, had a happier outcome for everyone. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, one of … Continue reading The Hicks Track Laying Machine, and an Example of Belt/Band Friction
As this site has documented, Vulcan produced more than pile driving equipment, especially in the years before World War I. One of those is the 1500 lb. jib post crane depicted above, which Vulcan produced for the Thomas B. Jeffery Company in Kenosha, WI, an automobile manufacturer. (It ultimately became Nash motors, which in turn … Continue reading A Vulcan Jib Crane, and an Example of a “Two-Force Member”
This is a brief summary of the basic theory behind vibratory power. It goes back to Savinov and Luskin (the original summary of the development of the technology) and I've covered it repeatedly in my monographs. The basic model is shown above. It assumes that that soil acts as a velocity-dependent damper, which speaks to … Continue reading The Basics of Vibratory Power Theory
The 1400, driving sheeting for a creosote plant environmental remediation in Chattanooga. The 1400 incorporated many of the features of the 400, including the curved eccentric case (which was mated to the 7" clamp.) The original suspension was an H-beam, but this proved too light for bias weight, and was replaced by the cast unit … Continue reading Estimating the Starting Time of a Vulcan Vibratory Hammer
As a way of starting off the new year, and at the request of one our visitors (and someone who facilitated saving much of this information, thanks) here is presented Vulcan Catalogue No. 48, 1920, which can be downloaded here. I've used material from this particular catalogue in the past. This is the first catalogue … Continue reading 1920 Vulcan Catalogue of Pile Driving Machinery
Recently the paper "Prefabricated and Prestressed Bio-Concrete Piles: Case Study in North Jakarta" cited my work Vibratory and Impact-Vibration Pile Driving Equipment. I always like to pass along works which cite mine (and are openly available like this one.) When I wrote my own article in 1989 and revised it three years later, I had … Continue reading Comments on “Prefabricated and Prestressed Bio-Concrete Piles: Case Study in North Jakarta”
Another Vulcan distributor has passed on: Alfred “Al” Roy Kern, beloved husband, father, grandfather and Pittsburgh businessman, age 89, passed on to be with our Lord on August 29, 2024, peacefully at home in Ocean Ridge, FL. Al was former President and Chairman of Equipment Corporation of America [ECA], based in Coraopolis, PA and was associated … Continue reading RIP Al Kern
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