National Pile Croppers enjoys highly successful Scotplant

Continuing growth, expansion internationally and the increasing use of its pile croppers on major infrastructure and housing projects in Scotland, all contributed to National Pile Croppers exhibiting once again at Scotplant 2024. The National Pile Cropper team enjoyed a warm reception at the Edinburgh show, proudly displaying some of the company’s pile cropping solutions...

Held on Friday 26 and Saturday 27 April 2024 at the Royal Highland Centre, Edinburgh, over 5,000 high quality trade visitors attended Scotland’s leading construction equipment exhibition, Scotplant. The show, which has grown from strength to strength, attracted a host of exhibitors, including National Pile Croppers. “The decision to attend Scotplant was based on the increasingly warm reception our pile cropping solutions have received in Scotland and the UK as a whole.  Given that Scotplant is such a well targeted show, with its visitor base being high quality ‘trade’, we decided to exhibit a cross section of our offering.

“Hydraulic pile croppers are becoming the ‘must-have’ equipment on construction sites and projects throughout the world, and that includes Scotland.  We enjoyed tremendous footfall at the show, with the equipment we exhibited being greeted positively by the many visitors who came to our stand, and the business the show generated proved what a good investment exhibiting proved to be,” explained National Pile Croppers Simon Hall.

Regional sales manager, Scotland, Stephen Wyber, added that business is growing amongst groundworks contractors and civil engineering firms, as well as home builders. “It’s quite common in Scotland for construction work to take place in former mining areas that require piles to be put in. Instead of employing several people using hand held breakers and other vibrating equipment, contractors can fit our pile croppers to the excavators they already have on site and carry out the job more efficiently and productively. From our centrally located Scottish depot, we will be able to service the hire requirements of the industry to even greater extent as many existing customers in Scotland can vouch for. Furthermore, if any customers require technical assistance, then from our depot we perfectly placed to assist.”

Getting the message out

One of the reasons National Pile Croppers chose Scotplant to exhibit was to further familiarise construction businesses with hydraulic pile cropping technology in general, and the company’s offering in particular. A pile cropper (also known as a pile cutter or pile breaker) is a very precise hydraulic shear with defined angles of deflection and points of contact ensuring a clean cut of the excess that does not interfere with the efficacy of the remaining pile. There are a breadth of different types and sizes of available, depending on the task at hand. For example, augured, bearing, contiguous, secant, CFA, trench and helical displacement with croppers are available from National Pile Croppers in varying sizes ranging normally from 300mm to 1,200mm in diameter. 

Mounted on a 360^O excavator via quick release fittings, pile croppers have proved their versatility and effectiveness in all sectors of the construction industry, from housing to commercial, public to private, utilities, road and rail. When lowered onto the concrete pile, the hydraulic system operates the jaw(s) which allows the pile cropper to cut a de-bonded pile and cause the concrete to break away leaving a horizontal finish as a result. In doing this the chisels penetrate in a precise direction up to the rebar to make the fracture. On bonded piles, the chisels will penetrate further, and due to the shape of the chisels and the reaction forces of the rebar, the concrete will break in pieces and can easily be lifted off the pile enabling recycling of the cut away concrete.

“We were pleasantly surprised to see so many visitors to Scotplant embrace our pile cropping technology. The highly knowledgeable visitors to our stand were quick to spot to the opportunities National Pile Croppers offers their businesses.  We would like to thank all those who came to our stand for letting us explain how we can help construction businesses, large or small, improve their efficiency, safety and profitability,” concludes Stephen Wyber.