How to select a piling rig and how to use it?

“Pile machine” is the collective name for all dedicated rigs used in pile-foundation work. It has only one core mission: to place a pile (or a hole) accurately, efficiently, and safely to the designed depth, so that the super-structure load is transferred firmly to deeper, competent soil or bedrock.How to select a piling rig and how to use it?

What exactly does it do?
① Precast piles: drive, press, or vibrate factory-made piles into the ground like “nailing”.
② Bored piles: first drill a hole on site, then lower a reinforcing cage and cast concrete — “growing” a pile in place.
③ Soil-improvement piles: mix cement slurry or gravel with native soil to form “budget reinforcement bodies”.
④ Auxiliary jobs: extract old piles, cut pile heads, install sheet-pile walls, etc.piling rig

How are the mainstream rigs classified? (by energy form + action mode)
① Impact type: drop hammer, diesel hammer, hydraulic hammer — rely on hammer weight or combustion impact; cope with hard soil/rock but noisy.
② Static-press type: hydraulic clamping + machine ballast (up to 800 t); vibration-free and low-noise, can work right beside metro lines.
③ Vibratory type: high-frequency eccentric vibration reduces shaft friction; fastest for sinking/extracting steel sheet or pipe piles, beloved in sandy layers.piling rig
④ Auger type: rotary head drives hollow auger to drill dry holes; one pile per hour for 5G tower bases or rural housing.
⑤ Rotary-bored (kelly) type: telescopic kelly bar + multi-purpose bits; 3 m diameter, 100 m depth, standard for major bridge piers.
⑥ Mixing type: single/twin/triple-axis paddles inject cement slurry while drilling; used for soft-soil improvement and SMW cutoff walls.
⑦ High-pressure jet-grouting: 20–40 MPa slurry cuts soil, forming 0.6–1.2 m columns; cures “mud + sand” mixes.
⑧ All-in-one cast-in-situ rig: combines auger lead-boring + static pressing + jet-grouting in one machine to finish stiffened composite piles, doubling efficiency.

How to choose piling rig?
① Ground: soft mud → static-press / mixing; sand → vibro; gravel → rotary-bored / impact; rock → rotary-bored + rock bit.
② Environment: within 30 m of housing or 50 m of metro → prefer static-press, auger, mixing; open countryside → diesel or hydraulic hammers can be used freely.
③ Pile type & load: 500 mm dia. precast pipe pile for buildings → 800 kN static-press rig; 2 m bored pile for bridges → 1200 kN⋅m torque rotary rig; sheet-pile cofferdam → 400 kW vibro-hammer.

KB1.2 m large-capacity piling rig