We felt excited to see our headquarters come to life like never before! For the first time ever we opened the doors of our pile manufacturing facility to the public, and invited guests from across the Americas to join us in a festive and fun open-house factory tour. Nearly one hundred esteemed guests from around the U.S., as well as Canada, Mexico and South America took part. We were pleasantly surrounded by veterans of the Industry, as well as new pioneers venturing into the helical pile side of Foundation Construction.
LIVE DRILLING AND PILE INSTALLATIONS
Some of the biggest attractions people enjoyed were the live demonstrations of the powerful HD drivers, provided by American Piledriving Equipment, installing our helical piling products as well as demonstrating our custom drill bit tools in the field. Literally. We premiered a completed working model of our Composite Pile, which is a cost-effective drilled shaft alternative, an innovative steel foundation solution for power lines and utility towers of all kinds. We also demonstrated installations of two grouted piles, used our down-the-hole hammer bit to break apart tough underground geologies and pre-drilled a 20 ft. hole using our pre-drill bit within minutes. One of the benefits that caught everyone’s eye was how fast APE’s HD Drivers were able to use the clamps to release a pile or drill bit and quickly grab and insert another tool into the driver’s hex-head socket driver interface. We dazzled the audience at how simple, user-friendly, and no-nonsense helical solutions were to the Industry.
Pileworks General Manager, Matt Fenwick, explaining the grouted pile benefits to our U.S. and international guests
APE’s HD150 driver installing Pileworks grouted piling
MEALS, MUSIC & MEMORABLE MESSAGES
As always, Texas prides itself (as it should) on doing one very important thing right: barbecue! We enjoyed a fantastic lunch and delicious array of country cookin’ from our catering friends, Dream Events, shortly followed by smooth but sensational musical entertainment from the Jon Young band. One key premiere that took place during lunchtime was a special speech presentation by Robert Fern from Texas AirSystems. He graciously provided his time to show our guests the details and benefits of our new hybrid Geo-Exchange™ Foundations, which are solid steel deep foundations that use underground temperatures in a ground loop system to provide heading & cooling. This provides economic and stable heating & cooling for building interiors – the most successful example happens to be our Pileworks HQ building, itself!
Robert Fern from Texas AirSystems giving a presentation on the cost savings while using the Geo-Exchange™ Foundation as the main source of heating and cooling for building projects
Some good eats!
The Jon Young band performing after lunch
GUESTS GOT HANDS-ON WITH OUR DRIVERS IN THE REAL WORLD AND IN VIRTUAL REALITY
“No experience necessary!” could have been our slogan for APE’s excavator-mounted HD™ Drivers, judging by how easily never-before participants took to the excavator controls and were able to install our 20ft. lead piles. As an added and bonus, guests were able to try installing pile in virtual reality, designed by Ravenlight Entertainment, LLC. Using cutting-edge VR headsets to immerse themselves in virtual jobsites and install piling with every bit of realism as… well… reality! We’ve found this genuine hands-on experience helps our clients to see just how user-friendly we’ve designed these systems to be — anyone can use them.
One of our guests installing Pileworks helical lead piles for the first time
One of our guests walking around our foundation products in Virtual Reality
NEW FRIENDS AND NEW FOUNDATIONS
At every event we’re privileged to meet extraordinary people doing incredible things in the Construction Industry. Contractors are forming new ideas and creating innovative designs to tackle (and eliminate) age-old problems. Inasmuch as we introduce new technology into the market, we also get the chance to hear the new methods and products that are working to help create a better world and better infrastructure. Much to our gratitude, Pileworks helical foundation solutions are among the list of fast-paced, reliable foundation technology that the crews are raving about. We get excited about every new opportunity to meet new professionals, new friends, and to help create a greener and better world.
A sincere thanks to all of our guests who joined us at our open-house event. We look forward to venturing with you onto even more amazing foundations for the future of construction projects. See you in the field!