Innovative flap system eliminates the need for a lost drill tip

Hardworking people with an innovative spirit can be found all over Flanders — and certainly at Olivier. As a supplier…

Hardworking people with an innovative spirit can be found throughout Flanders — and certainly at Olivier. As a supplier of foundation accessories, the company from Rumbeke has developed key products. It all started with the Olivier pile by Gerdi Vankeirsbilck and was recently perfected with the flap system for the auger head of the full displacement screw pile.

That Olivier remains an innovative company was once again confirmed in 2017. That year, a patent was granted for a product that is set to deliver major savings worldwide: the flap system for the drill tip of full displacement screw piles. This innovation is increasingly being adopted by foundation companies — and with good reason. Did you know that in Belgium alone, approximately 150,000 full displacement screw piles are drilled into the ground on construction sites each year? And that previously, each one required a lost drill tip to seal the drilling tube?

That metal lost drill tip serves an important function: it prevents soil and water from entering the drill tube before it is filled with concrete and screwed back out — which would otherwise result in a significant loss of load-bearing capacity. While effective, it’s easy to imagine the cost and material waste caused by discarding drill tips after each pile. To overcome this major drawback, Olivier developed a flap system. Thanks to this innovation, the drill tip is no longer lost — it can be reused again and again. This system was granted an international patent in 2017. Today, lost drill tips are no longer needed for full displacement piling. During last year’s Matexpo, the flap system was the highlight of Olivier’s booth.

More benefits

The use of the flap system for full displacement screw piles offers more than just cost and material savings. Users report, for example, that the new system allows for much more precise positioning of the auger. Safety is also significantly improved: since there’s no longer a need to manually place a lost drill tip under the auger, the risk of workplace accidents is greatly reduced. Another major advantage is that when drilling an Olivier pile from d36/56 to d56/76 using the patented system, the full reinforcement and concrete can be placed without any issue. The double full displacement Olivier auger head ensures that little to no soil is brought to the surface — a result made possible in part by its screw-shaped shaft.

Foundation accessories

Olivier has been known for over a quarter of a century as a manufacturer of drilling tools for foundation works. These tools were originally developed for the company’s own contracting activities. Since that chapter has come to a close, the Rumbeke-based company now offers its available foundation accessories to all foundation contractors. This includes Olivier drilling couplings in three sizes, auger heads for both the Olivier screw pile and smooth shaft pile, drill tubes, and finally the innovative flap system. Production and maintenance take place in the in-house workshop in Rumbeke, where similar custom-made accessories can also be manufactured according to client specifications.

Always innovating

We go back to 1996 — the year Gerdi Vankeirsbilck filed a patent for his Olivier pile, named after his former company, Olivier Betonfabriek en Funderingstechnieken. The Olivier pile has proven particularly effective in the Low Countries, where soft clay and loam dominate the subsoil. Thanks to its screw-shaped shaft, it is especially suitable for construction on low load-bearing soil layers. The Olivier pile consists of a metal tube that is screwed into the ground without vibrations, displacing the soil laterally. A key characteristic is that no soil is brought to the surface during installation. Hence the name: full displacement screw pile.

Source: Grond Weg Waterbouw, 9 June 2020