El Más Grande Proveedor de Equipos para la Construcción de Fundaciones del Mundo

American Piledriving Equipment (APE), es el provedor número uno del mundo en investigación y desarrollo, producción y venta de equipos para la construcción de fundaciones. APE cuenta con sucursales en Asia, Europa y en todos los rincones de los Estados Unidos. Gracias por tomarse un momento para visitar nuestra página web y esperamos que la información y recursos disponibles sean de valor para su persona. Click this link for    English.

APE News From Around the World

This section provides a preview of the most recent article from each APE branch. Click on the article to view the full text and photos for the article along with other articles from that selected branch.


Passing of Gary Kranz, Owner of Western Dynamics

I met Gary Kranz in 1987. He was the instructor for a hydraulics course provided by Rucker Fluid Power. My first day of the week-long class was a nightmare because Gary was a serious ass hole teacher and he jumped me for talking in class. Gary was the best hydraulics person I have ever known. He motto was “Be cautious of bull shit hydraulic sales people” because he believed they would change their stripes as fast as they changed jobs. Gary told his class that all hydraulic sales people will sell you what they represent that day. In other words the salesman might tell you that Vocac was the best hydraulic motor in the world because that is what their company represents but next week if the salesman leaves the company and now represents RexRoth then of course Rexroth is now the best product in the world. Gary was fired more than once for bad mouthing the sales staff of the company he was teaching. Gary never changed his ways and finally pissed off so many hydraulics suppliers that could not find a job so he ventured into his own business which he named Western Dynamics. APE invested in his company and stayed with him to the end. I loved Gary for sticking to his principals. Gary was involved in designing the first APE power units which were built in Portland, Oregon at Rucker Fluid Power. Those power units still run and are considered the best units APE ever made. Many of the main components on those power units were not products that Rucker Fluid Power represe

Passing of Gary Kranz, Owner of Western Dynamics

I met Gary Kranz in 1987. He was the instructor for a hydraulics course provided by Rucker Fluid Power. My first day of the week-long class was a nightmare because Gary was a serious ass hole teacher and he jumped me for talking in class. Gary was the best hydraulics person I have ever known. He motto was “Be cautious of bull shit hydraulic sales people” because he believed they would change their stripes as fast as they changed jobs. Gary told his class that all hydraulic sales people will sell you what they represent that day. In other words the salesman might tell you that Vocac was the best hydraulic motor in the world because that is what their company represents but next week if the salesman leaves the company and now represents RexRoth then of course Rexroth is now the best product in the world. Gary was fired more than once for bad mouthing the sales staff of the company he was teaching. Gary never changed his ways and finally pissed off so many hydraulics suppliers that could not find a job so he ventured into his own business which he named Western Dynamics. APE invested in his company and stayed with him to the end. I loved Gary for sticking to his principals. Gary was involved in designing the first APE power units which were built in Portland, Oregon at Rucker Fluid Power. Those power units still run and are considered the best units APE ever made. Many of the main components on those power units were not products that Rucker Fluid Power represe

An Evaluation of the Impacts of Specific Anthropogenic

It is well established that certain anthropogenic noises have a severe effect on whales. Many sounds that humans introduce into the sea today are without precedent in the evolutionary history of marine mammals and other ocean life. Seismic testing associated with oil and gas exploration, military SONAR, and other industrial sources of ocean noise have injured or killed dolphins and whales in many instances. Additionally, behavioral impacts can also be severe, with animals interrupting feeding, nursing, or reproductive activity to flee from disruptive or painful sounds. There is also evidence that whales may be subject to “masking,” where some types of noises interfere with their ability to communicate with each other. As the military and industrial producers of these sounds are required by law in some countries to prevent impacts to marine mammals, there has been considerable debate and litigation in response to this continuing problem. Various mitigation schemes have been proposed, but they have not proven effective in eliminating harm to whales. Despite a wealth of information demonstrating the need to address multiple characteristics of sound, such as form, frequency, and periodicity, mitigation levels have thus far focused only on signal amplitude, or volume. Many of the studies have also been focused on physiological thresholds such as “threshold shift” using sinusoidal-derived signals which may not accurately reflect the types of anthropogenic noises to which whales are

Passing of Gary Kranz, Owner of Western Dynamics

I met Gary Kranz in 1987. He was the instructor for a hydraulics course provided by Rucker Fluid Power. My first day of the week-long class was a nightmare because Gary was a serious ass hole teacher and he jumped me for talking in class. Gary was the best hydraulics person I have ever known. He motto was “Be cautious of bull shit hydraulic sales people” because he believed they would change their stripes as fast as they changed jobs. Gary told his class that all hydraulic sales people will sell you what they represent that day. In other words the salesman might tell you that Vocac was the best hydraulic motor in the world because that is what their company represents but next week if the salesman leaves the company and now represents RexRoth then of course Rexroth is now the best product in the world. Gary was fired more than once for bad mouthing the sales staff of the company he was teaching. Gary never changed his ways and finally pissed off so many hydraulics suppliers that could not find a job so he ventured into his own business which he named Western Dynamics. APE invested in his company and stayed with him to the end. I loved Gary for sticking to his principals. Gary was involved in designing the first APE power units which were built in Portland, Oregon at Rucker Fluid Power. Those power units still run and are considered the best units APE ever made. Many of the main components on those power units were not products that Rucker Fluid Power represe

Ferris Wheel on the Seattle Waterfront? You Got It! Courtesy of Manson and APE

Along with the on-going demolition of the Alaska way viaduct, a Seattle landmark second only to the Space Needle, rises a new attraction on Pier 57- a 175-foot-tall Ferris wheel. Pier 57 was originally built in 1902 as a rail-loading facility for a saw mill. Today, it houses a plethora of marine-oriented shops, restaurants, and even an antique carousel. Hal Griffith, owner of Pier 57, fears losing business due to the viaduct replacement and hopes a new waterfront attraction will keep the publics’ interest alive. With the loss of the Fun Forest at the Seattle Center, this will be the only Ferris wheel available in the city. Once completed with 41 air conditioned gondolas, it should prove to be quite an accommodating attraction to locals and tourists alike. Manson Construction, a major player here in the PNW, was chosen to drive the foundation piles of this soon-to-be “landmark” on the water ward side of the existing pier. With a total of 53- 36” x .5” wall and 30” x .625” wall pipe piles on deck, the Manson crew set out to drive these piles with the APE Super Kong. What else would you want driving the piles for a 175-foot marine based Ferris wheel, right? So far, the Manson crew has driven a dozen test piles. With some fine tuning of the equipment to account for the infamous Glacial till the Northwest is known for, the 150’ piles are down to grade. Some were driven only a couple of feet away from the Fisherman’s Restaurant & Bar. Needless to say, some diners became

Walsh/PCL and APE in Connecticut

The Walsh/PCL Joint Venture in Connecticut on the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge replacement project came to APE with a dilemma. They needed to install a work trestle using 24" open ended pipe piles, some of which have to be driven underneath the existing bridge structure. APE came up with a system that includes an APE Tandem 150 vibro that allows the piles to extend thru a centerhole clamp and above the height of the hammer to maximize headroom. Then the piles are impacted in to capacity with an APE D62-42 diesel hammer in a specially built short section of leads.

Us Wick Drain Drives It Home With The Largest Marine Wick Drain Job In The World

US WICK DRAIN a Leland NC based company has just completed the largest marine barge installation wick drain project that has ever been done in the world. This project is part of the first phases of construction for a new port facility at “Craney Island” in Norfolk Virginia. US WICK DRAIN under direction of president Mark Palmatier installed 12,150,000 lf of wick drains in 6 months using the APE wick drain installation machines. Now that’s 6 months with 2 rigs 24 hours a day 6 days a week! That’s a lot of wick drains. The longest wick drains were 150 ft. in length. Great Lakes dredging dumped a drainage layer of sand in the proposed wick drain area with hopper barges. The wicks will be placed and more sand dumped on top of them. In order to place the wick drains in the correct locations on the water 2 barges had to be converted to have a grid all the way through the decks of the barges using steel pipe from the top deck all the way through the bottom. Each barge had a wick drain machine / rig on the deck. The barges would be surveyed into position and secured in position, and then each machine would go down the deck installing a wick drain in each provided hole. Once these wick drains are installed and pre-loaded the engineers predict they will have about 21 feet of settlement. These wicked areas will support a series of dikes for the new Craney Island port. If wick drains were not used the dikes would constantly be settling and would have to be maintained at a large

APE in the Amazon Jungle!

Costa Fortuna has taken delivery of new APE 200T with a 700 HP Power unit for use in the town of Almerim, Brazil on the Amazon River. Our long time Customer is driving 800 and 1200 mm Pipe Pile for Electric Transmission Tower bases, the overall height of the Towers will be 280 meters. The Pipe Pile are 48 meters long and are driven to 150 ton capacity with some Pile testing over 360 tons. The Pile are started with the APE 200T / 700 and finished with a APE D50-42 Diesel Hammer, in some cases the pile are taken almost to grade and then set checked with the D50-42 to prove Bearing Capacity. Michele Corda the Equipment Manager for Costa Fortuna was very impressed with the patented APE two - stage suppressor Housing and it's ability to dampen Vibration back to their new Liebherr Crane. While using their much older Foster 4150 Vibro the Crane computer would shut down due to the excessive Vibration from the old style Suppressor, not only did that shut down problem stop with the APE 200T but it also outdrove the heavier 4150 with ease at much lower fuel use.

AUI Teams Up with APE to Drive the Piles for the Largest Solar Panel Farm in Texas

AUI is building the largest solar panel farm in Texas using three APE DHJ85 pilerigs. The piles are 6"x9lbs per ft. h- beams that are 20' long. The job consists of 26,400 h-piles and AUI is averging between 125 and 150 piles per day per rig. This solar farm will generate 30mw of power which is enough to power 12k to 18k homes once it is complete. Matt Even who is the Assistant Civil Project Manager for AUI on this project says "The equipment provided by American Piledriving Equipment out of Conroe Texas has worked great on this job! The combination of service and service response time has been critical to the excellent performance and production of the DHJ 85's."

San Francisco, The City by the Bay

San Francisco, the city by the bay. California is steadily rebuilding some of its world renown monuments. Pier 19 located in San Francisco California is one of them. The rebuilding of pier 19 has been long overdue with tourism still in full swing with cruise ships coming and going out of the port. After the demoltion of the pier, the first order of things is, of course, the foundation. Seen here, Power Engineering of Northern California is antalling 72” diameter steel pipe pile 160’ long with a 1” wall thickness. Driving these steel casings wasn’t going to be easy with all the restrictions enforced on the job. Tight work space with little room to manuever and all the regulations involved made this job a chelleng. So when they decided to take on the job, they called APE to get the equipment they needed. With the tough Merrit Sands and the sticky Bay Mud here in the bay, they chose the APE 600 Vibro to do the job. And of course the 600 vibro wouldn’t let them down, it got the pile down!

New Years Eve in Saint Louis

New Years Eve in Saint Louis, and a customer with a problem on the job site. The Vibro from the competition was not up to the task, and Gershenson Construction was desperate for a solution as they had driven for 3 days to set the template as shown in the pics. 50’ PZC 18 driving double sheets. The competition had no larger Vibros available, and told Gershenson Construction it would be the 8 of January before they could ship one to the job site. A quick phone call and a quick solution. Thanks to Joe Wright and the APE Texas Staff we were able to get a Model 300 with 630 Power Unit loaded out and on the road on New Years Eve. Gershenson Construction was amazed that APE staff were answering the phone and sourcing equipment on a Holiday.

Dozens of APE 200 Vibratory Pile Driver/Extractors Rushed to UAE

MASSIVE FAILURES OF OUR COMPETITION'S MACHINES PROMPTS APE BUILD UP IN UAE

APE Austria has begun a massive shipment of new APE Model 200 vibratory pile driver/extractors to the UAE. This is in response to recent electronic and overheating of our competition's so-called new units in hot weather conditions. APE machines are will known for their simplicity and ability to handle both the hot Saudi Arabian sun and the cold of Alaska. The secret is our unique kidney loop cooling circuit which can be reversed in cold weather.

APE units come with massive heat exchangers and a special kidney loop oil cooling system that keeps the machine running even in 125 degree temperatures. APE developed a simple electrical system to mate with the advanced Tier III CAT engines. We avoided adding fancy touch screen panels that are subject to code failures that shut the unit down and require re-programming to get started again. APE machines are simple yet advanced. Our hydraulic gauges are old school simple yet our CAT Electronics are fuel efficient.

Our power units feature a built-in spare hydraulic tank, CAT Tier III engine, Super Heavy Duty radiator and oil cooler, kidney loop oil system, all stainless steel control panels, tachometer in the remote pendant (found only on APE machines) tool box with spare jaws and hoses and tools to do all the maintenance work and a 5 year warranty.

The APE 200 has the world's greatest lifting capacity, heavy metal eccentrics, h

Final 72' Pile Driven to Grade, OctaKong Project Finished

On December 8th 2011, the APE "OctaKong" hammer drove it's final pile to grade in front of a crowd of 200 people on the South China Sea. Many Engineers, officials, contractors, and China T.V. Stations came to witness the final pile drive to grade. In total, 120 piles were used to create the east and west man-made islands for the HongKong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge project. The largest pile was 72 feet in diameter, 180 feet high, and 660 US tons. The entire project lasted just under 7 months, an incredibly fast time to make two full island foundations. ZPMC, the Shanghai based company who fabricated the piles, could hardly keep up pile production with the driving speed of the project. At the fastest point the OctaKong drove 6 piles in 3 days. One of the biggest challenges of the East island was learning how to drive 72 foot diameter piles in complex soil conditions. When driving large diameter piles the soil conditions on one side of the pile can be very different than on the other side of the pile. At some points the right side of the pile was facing N47+ soil while the left side only saw only N15. Soil layers are not flat, which is not usually not a problem when driving small diameter piles, but when faced with super large piles often times one full side of the pile will cut through a soil layer for 10 feet before the other side of the pile hits the same layer. This creates a big challenge when trying to get the pile to go into the soil perfectly straight. These new cha

APE 200 used for removing Russian "Murmansk" cruiser

On the 24th of December 1994, a Russian cruiser sank outside of a small village on the north coast of Norway, while broke free when being towed. In short, the AF strategy consists of the dry dock demolition and removal of the wreck where it lies. This will be done by establishing breakwaters and constructing a dry dock around the “Murmansk" wreck. The water will then be pumped out of the dry dock so the wreck will be dry. Then construction machinery will then break down the cruiser, and sort different demolition materials to be shipped out to waste and recycling facilities. APE Holland supplied an APE Model 200 vibratory hammer, to drive down the sheet piles around the wreck. Follow the link below to see the project to remove the Russian " Murmansk" Cruiser from the sea off Norway which ran a ground back in 1994 and was unable to be re-floated. This is a live web cam site with time-lapse pictures. A documentary is being made by the residence of the village and the demolition company.

Come Meet APE Russia at CTT 2010 in Moscow

Vladimir Nifontov - General Manager. phone/fax number +7-495-603-5345 Mobile +7-985-921-8750 or +7-495-921-8750 E-mail: vladnif@hotmail.com or vladnif@df.ru Konstantin Kurbatov - Technical Director. phone/fax number +7-495-689-1923. Mobile +7-916-678-2841. E-mail: banknote3000@hotmail.com or welcome@banknote2000.ru CTT 2010 Show - #1 Annual Construction Show in Russia is being held on June 1st to the 5th in Moscow. Please come visit us at our booth 3-318.1, for information check out the website: CTT 2010 Website Link

Summary of Accomplishments for APE Mexico 2011 - Resúmen de Logros para APE Mexico 2011

APE has managed to catch the attention of Mexican Contractors regardless of the long term presence of other manufacturers such as ICE, PTC, BAUER/PILECO. APE ha logrado captivar la atención de los Constratistas Mexicanos apesar de la larga presencia de otras marcas como ICE, PTC, y BAUER/PILECO. Ever since our entry into the market on December 2010, APE have managed to provide the right equipment solutions for complex infrastructure such as: Desde que entramos en el mercado en Diciembre del 2010, APE a logrado proveer soluciones de equipo para complejos proyectos de infraestructura tales como: The Construction of Port of Tuxpan, Veracruz Gas Terminal (Rental of APE D50 Diesel Impact Hammer for 7 months) La Construcción de la Terminal de Distribución de Gas Natural, Tuxpan, Veracruz (Renta de Martillo de Impacto Diesel modelo D50 por 7 meses) The Expansion of the Container Terminal for Port of Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico (Rental of 200-6 for 5 months) La Expasión de la Terminal de Contenedores del Puerto de Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico (Renta de APE modelo 2006- por 5 meses) The Construction of a New Major Naucalpan-Ecatepec Expressway accross Mexico, City (Rental of four (4) APE 200 vibros for 6 months each) La Construcción de la Nueva Autopista Naucalpan-Ecatepec inteseca la Cuidad de México (Renta por 4 meses de 4 vibrohincadores por 6 meses) The Construction of a New Marina in Los Cabos, Mexico (Sell of an APE 170 Variable Moment Vibro)