Deep stabilisation with cast-in-situ piling

Author: Karina Lumholt

In the small village of Aalen in the south-west of Germany, Palm Paper Factory GmbH is building a new paper factory on sanded ground. The project will be finished in 2022 and will contain heavy paper machines in a large building complex. Therefore, the foundation must be stabilised with concrete piles cast in the underground.

The Austrian construction company Hilti&Jehle is contracted for the piling work, which will take approximately six months. Hilti&Jehle, working with machine control since 2013, is using the Liebherr LRB355 machine, a versatile machine weighing 105 tonnes and reaching up to 33,5 metres. This powerful machine is equipped with the new Leica iCON iRP3 machine control solution for drillers and pilers from Leica Geosystems.

“We drill the outer casing into the ground. The auger in the middle removes the soil, then concrete, reinforced with iron casing is poured into the hole,” explains Markus Mähr, project manager at Hilti&Jehle.

The job is also done a lot faster, thanks to the iRP3’s automatic navigation function. Markus Mähr estimates they are able to pile over 40 piles a day compared to only 30 piles without machine control.

“One of the benefits of using a digital pattern on loose soil like this is that traditional spray markings are easily lost when it is raining and when the machines are working on the site. This is of course not the case with a digital pattern,” says Mähr.

A Liebherr-integrated solution

A Liebherr LRB355 piler rig equipped with machine control from Leica Geosystems

The machine in Aalen is an example of a machine control solution from Leica Geosystems integrated with Liebherr’s own sensor configuration. This is an example of a ‘Leica-ready’ delivery, where the machine is delivered with all cables from the Liebherr factory and with Liebherr’s own sensors.

“The advantage of having a machine delivered ‘Leica-ready’, is that we can install the machine control solution and then have a fully operational machine within only two hours,” explains Reto Bardill, technical support from Leica Geosystems.

The integration between the Leica Geosystems machine control solution from and the Liebherr piler machine goes even further. The Leica iRP3 interfaces directly with Liebherr’s Process Data Recording system, PDE, which means the as-built information is directly exported to Liebherr’s own data recording and as-built reporting system.

“Installing the iPR3 solution to the piler was actually recommended by Liebherr,” explains Mähr.

Exploring new possibilities with Leica MC1

Piles stabilising the soft ground for the building of a new factory.

The new software, Leica MC1, offers the piler rig operator a more intuitive and graphical user interface. The run screen can be set up for cylinder view so the operator has an overview over the ready piles and the remaining ones.

As part of the complete solution delivered by Leica Geosystems, Leica MC1 now supports the cloud-based collaboration tool, Leica ConX, allowing users to share, visualise and report data in real-time. ConX is used by Hilti&Jehle for model transfers, as well as for remote communication. Bardill logs in to ConX from his office in Switzerland to the panel on the machine in Germany for remote training, troubleshooting and communication.

“The new machine control solution for rigs offers new features, supports the IREDES, KOF and LandXLM file formats with the new, user-friendly 3D interface in Leica ConX,” explains Petter Heyerdahl, product manager for rig solutions at Leica Geosystems.