Special attachment plate gives Connecticut contractor power, reach and versatility
ANSONIA, Conn. – An efficient Volvo hydraulic quick coupler and a bit of jobsite ingenuity allowed a Connecticut contractor to finish a complicated utility job in a marshy area with a single Volvo EC240BLC excavator that did the job of three pieces of equipment.
And as Complete Construction Co., Inc’s Tony Teixeira points out, using just one machine to do the job had a positive impact on the bottom line.
“We were able to do the whole project using just the Volvo excavator,” he said. “When you don’t have to use three different pieces of equipment and three different operators, that saves you time and – most importantly – money.”
The Ansonia-based utility contractor was brought in to replace 600 feet of ductile iron pipe for a sanitary sewer project in nearby Fairfield, a seaside Connecticut town located on the coast of Long Island Sound, north of Long Island, N.Y.
Because the ground conditions in the project area were wet and with a seemingly deep bottom area, the municipal contract called for Complete Construction to drive H-beam piles as deep as 25 feet at 9-foot increments to support and keep the sanitary sewer pipe in place.
Though this was the type of job that typically would have required a crane, Teixeira said he was convinced the firm could get the job done for lower cost and more efficiently with its Volvo EC240BLC excavator.
“It was either that or we would have had to bring a crane in for this job,” he said. “We don’t have a crane, nor have much use for one, but that Volvo excavator is a tool that we use everyday.”
So, Complete Construction technicians went to work and added a special attachment plate that extended the reach of the excavator, allowing the firm to drive the H-beam piles using a vibratory hammer attached to the Volvo S2 hydraulic quick coupler.
The EC240BLC could handle Hbeams at lengths up to 25-feet. However, once the project began, Teixeira said, his crews found that some of the piles had to be driven much deeper. In some cases, piles went down as far as 60 feet before hitting bedrock.
Again, rather than bringing in a crane to handle the longer sections of piling, Teixeira said Complete Construction decided it was more cost and time efficient to drive the 25 foot pilings with the Volvo excavator and then weld extensions.
“It was far less expensive to drive with the Volvo and then weld the 25-foot sections than it would have been for us to bring in a crane,” he said.
Once the pilings were driven to refusal on the Fairfield project, they were cut off about a foot above the bottom of the trench. Then, caps were poured to encase the piles and reinforce the concrete support beam base to support the new sanitary line. Teixeira said his firm used custom designed pre-cast concrete beams and cradles, placing them with the 24-ton EC240BLC.
“That enabled us to increase production by 60 percent and minimized ‘hole-time’ for our guys on the job,” he said.
According to Teixeira, the configuration of Volvo’s hydraulic quick coupler puts Volvo excavators a step ahead of its competition.
“We love the versatility of the Volvo,” he said of the EC240BLC, which Complete Construction purchased from Tyler Equipment Corp. in Prospect, Conn. “We can take the hammer off and attach the bucket very quickly.”
That versatility, resulting from the quick and efficient exchange of attachments, is attributed to Volvo’s exclusive S2 hydraulic quick coupler.
Complete Construction foreman Mike Teixeira said the ability to quickly switch attachments is an advantage on the jobsite.
“The Volvo coupler and auxiliary hydraulics allow us more maneuverability of the pile and when we need to dig, we just uncouple the hammer and couple to the bucket,” he said.
“It’s very efficient. The operator simply sets the hydraulic flow from the cab, which allows him to work with the attachment to optimum capacity.”
Tony Teixeira noted that unlike many competitive excavators that Complete Construction has operated, Volvo’s hydraulic quick coupler requires no manual pin removal. “We just had to attach the hoses,” he said.
Without the Volvo hydraulic quick coupler, Teixeira said, the pipe installation job would have required two excavators: one to hammer the piles and a second to excavate.
He also gives credit to Volvo’s auxiliary hydraulic valve, which is standard on B-Series excavators.
“Nobody can believe that we did that job in Fairfield with a single Volvo excavator,” he said. “It was really Volvo’s bidirectional-flow hydraulics that gave us the power and flexibility we needed.”
Volvo’s auxiliary hydraulic valve provides full power to a second independent hydraulic circuit. Two axial piston variable displacement pumps enhance Volvo B-Series hydraulic performance, resulting in powerful digging forces, high swing torque and fast cycle times.
Teixeira said Complete Construction has also used the special attachment plate with its 36-ton EC360B excavator. "With the Volvo auxiliary hydraulic system, we can easily set the flow to match the requirements of the attachment we want to use on our EC360B," he said.
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