News Article from INSIDE CONSTRUCTION: October/November 2017
FINNISH contractor Ieppet Morimoto had many years of cutting piles manually, and knew that there must be a better way. His invention, the MotoCut cutter, is the first pile cutting device to use diamond saw blades. A jaw holds the cut pile section. It provides a clean cut and is around twice as productive as manual methods. A range of four excavator-mounted attachments has been developed, and these suit excavators of 5t to 30t operating weight, and handle piles from 200mm x 200mm to 500mm x 500mm.
The Motocut can be used not only where the pile is cut off neat but also where exposed reinforcing is required, such as where there is a connection to a deck. In that instance, the saw does a full cut to remove the top of the pile down to the height of the top of the exposed reinforcing. A partial saw cut is then done at the bottom of the exposed reinforcing area, to a depth that does not reach the reinforcing but leaves a neater finish than only using a breaker. A breaker of some sort is then used to remove the remaining concrete.
This method is not only faster than using a breaker from the top down, but leaves the site neater and substantially
reduces OHS risk in several areas. Instead of bringing in a specialist contractor for the pile trimming, sites can now use an excavator already on site to use a bucket to expose the piles down to a depth that allows the cut to be made, and then swap over to the MotoCut to perform the cuts. The now and pressure requirements of the attachment are well within the range of a standard excavator.
The ability to now do this work with existing site equipment and personnel avoids the potential delays of coordinating with an outside contractor, and allows work to be done progressively so that the next stage of work can be started with the trimmed piles while other piles are still being worked on.
The concrete pile cutter was released to the market in 2014, and its success saw a prototype MotoCut Plasma pile cutter for steel piles and pipes released at Conexpo in early 2017. While the prototype handled up to 270mm diameters and wall thicknesses to 20mm, the production model to be shipped in December 2017 can handle up to
330mm diameter.
Being a fully hydraulic attachment (with a hydraulic generator and compressor incorporated in the attachment), there are significant safety benefits in not requiring separate cutting tools. A second model, possibly handling diameter up to 1000mm, is being planned as are cutters for different profiles. When mounted on a suitable hitch, this attachment can also be used for cutting steel pipe on pipeline projects.
Brisbane-based Premier Rock Machinery (PRM) has been appointed as the Australian distributor. A unit has already worked on a Brisbane project, and reportedly performed well. PRM already has a history with innovative European attachments, representing Movax piling attachments, Remu screening buckets, Rotar demolition hammers, Montabert hammers (in some states ) and Lehnhoff quick hitches.
