Strong eye for success
The sheet pile being placed prior to the vibrohammer being used to drive to the design depth
Wider, thinner, more strength for less steel - Felicity Landon reports on the evolution of sheet piling in the ports sector
"The cold formed nature of the ESC sheet piles allows infinite flexibility and low set-up costs for the manufacturing process," says general manager Bruce Colson. "Because we were an alternative, it was important that we provided added services to our potential clients. That is where we were able to get our foot in the door, so to speak. We provided the design, supply and installation for our clients in Malaysia and Singapore."
This was completely different to the norm at the time, he says: "The large mills merely provided the supply of their standard catalogue sheet piles and the client was expected to know what piles they wanted and how they were to be used."
Today, says Mr Colson, the sector overall tends to provide a similar service in terms of the "one stop shop" sheet piling solutions. "It has been good for the market and clients are certainly getting a better service as a result."
In its early days, ESC was criticised by many of the large sheet pile manufacturers because of its cold formed nature and wide thin profiles. But today, sheet piles are all getting wider and thinner. "The evolution of steel has, of course, allowed some designs to be refined and this has been helped further with the higher grades that have become available - therefore better yield strengths are achieved with less steel," says Mr Colson.
In addition, the new Eurocode 1993: Part 5 for sheet piling has also now set the design criteria with less guesswork needed.
However, ESC says that the service and advice side of the business remains critical: "People who are making decisions for millions of dollars or pounds do not just want products dumped at their front door," he says. "They like the personal touch and they like to know that they are not just a number."
Most consulting engineers are more than likely involved with buildings and similar types of infrastructure such as bridges and roads - very few will specialise in designs of sheet pile retaining walls and structures, Mr Colson emphasises. "They would, of course, have a general understanding but they would need to refer to specialist CAD (computer aided design) programs and tools like this in order to provide the best in cutting-edge design.
"They may well subcontract this type of work to a 'specialist consultant' and then group it under their entire design package. Often sheet pile works make up only 10-15% of the entire project value and sometimes it only gets a small amount of attention as a result."
Sheet piling development and demand varies from region to region, depending on a variety of outside factors. While the industry remains "pretty much the same" in Europe and the US, Mr Colson says: "What has provided a huge catalyst for growth of sheet pile, is areas like the Middle East where they want fast growth and cost is only a small factor. In places like Asia, growth is huge but the eye is constantly on the cost - and therefore the sheet pile usage is restricted somewhat as concrete and labour-intensive options are chosen in many instances."
ESC did not invent cold formed sheet piles but took what was available previously in only low-strength (very thin) sections and turned the cold formed pile into some of the largest sheet piles available.
"Obviously, the investment in hot rolled mills is huge and therefore mills cannot simply change strategies overnight - but some [other steel companies] are hedging their bets a little by having the cold formed mills as well," says Mr Colson. "The cold formed nature allowed us to set up outside the traditional strongholds of Europe and Japan, and now others are doing likewise."
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