First use in Toronto: BAUER BG 46 demonstrates top performance

With over 2.7 million inhabitants, Toronto is the biggest city in Canada. The Greater Toronto Area has grown to over 6.4 million. Its role as the country's major economic center and one of the biggest financial hubs in the world as well as its array of cultural offerings make the city on Lake Ontario an ever-growing mega metropolis. High-rise after high-rise are emerging in the city's skyline. The renowned and award-winning company Tribute Communities, for example, is currently building three multi-story apartment houses on a 2.42 ha plot – one with 26 floors, one with 34 floors and one with 43 floors. A total of around 1,100 apartments will be created as part of this project which goes by the name of "Parkside Square".

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The Canadian Bauer Maschinen client Deep Foundations Contractors Inc. is carrying out the foundation work for the Parkside Square project and in order to install the 28 m deep secant pile wall and 20 m deep single piles has opted for the latest equipment technology from Bauer: the BAUER BG 46, the most powerful rotary drilling rig currently on the market. "The reason we bought the BG 46 was to enable us to install deeper secant cut-off walls at a good production rate," says Mike Cianchetti, Vice President of Operations at Deep Foundations. "Currently, with the BG 39s we are able to achieve depths of 38 to 40 m at 1,000 mm diameter, but occasionally we need to use oscillators or torque multipliers to achieve these depths. Now, with the BG 46 we will be able to achieve greater depths, over 45 m, with 1,320 mm casings.  All with maintaining a verticality within 0.5 %."

The PremiumLine heavy-duty rotary drilling rig, showcased for the very first time by BAUER Maschinen GmbH in spring 2016 at Bauma in Munich, Germany, features a KDK 550 S rotary head which generates torques up to 553 kNm. In addition, it is possible to apply a torque of 700 kNm to the casing using a mechanically mounted torque converter. This allows the drilling rig to insert casings deeper into the ground and to react to unexpected geotechnical conditions better than any other machine. To cope with the enormous forces, Bauer relies on the extremely robust V-kinematics for the mast attachment which have proven themselves over many years.

Moreover, the machine, which is over 33 m tall, offers a flexible mast concept that enables the advance system to be optimized specifically for the particular process or application. The optional single-layer piggyback winch allows the complete pulling force of 450 kN to be used in full without reduction in any working situation. Thanks to the high-performance base carrier and the dual motor concept, the winch still has a lifting speed of 50 m per minute even with a load of 300 kNm, thus guaranteeing a highly efficient drilling operation.

In the development of the BG 46, there was special focus on low noise emission and low fuel consumption through an individual consumption control. This was implemented through the Energy-Efficient Power (EEP) system. Despite considerably greater torque and drilling performance, the fuel consumption could be reduced significantly compared to the predecessor machines.

With regard to safety as well, the BG 46 has been equipped in accordance with the latest Bauer-standards: warning flash lights have been fixed such that they are at the eye level of the site personnel. Cameras cover areas that are not directly in the operator’s field of vision. Safe rig assembly was also given due consideration. Handling of heavy components, such as bolts, is omitted owing to the use of hydraulic connection elements, e.g. on the rotary drives and supporting trestle.

Deep Foundations Contractors Inc. – with Bill Starke as Chief Executive Officer and Michael Cianchetti as Vice President of Operations – has been a loyal client of BAUER Maschinen GmbH for many years now. "In 2000, the company was one of the first in North America to own a hydraulic drilling rig. Since then, its equipment fleet has grown significantly", reports Ray Kemppainen, Branch Manager at ECA Canada. ECA has been a dealer and service partner of BAUER Maschinen GmbH for the US and Canadian East Coast since 2004 and also officially became a certified "BAUER Service Partner" in 2015. Deep Foundations Contractors Inc. currently owns 17 Bauer and seven Klemm machines in total. With more than 250 employees, the company constructs pile foundations and excavation pit retaining structures for various residential, industrial and infrastructure projects across Canada.