Emission-free foundation with multi-purpose foundation machine

Electrification is a hot topic among equipment builders. Generic construction equipment is generally relatively easy to electrify. In the world of large foundation machines it is different. Fundex Equipment will soon change that. At bauma, the world's first large electric foundation machine will be presented for serious work. The F4800E is based on the "standard" F4800 launched earlier this year with up to 50 meters of leader and 500kNm full-length drilling torque.

The F4800 is a recent development of Fundex Equipment, intended as an answer to the increasing demand for longer pile lengths in the market. The machine is multifunctional for various drilling and piling methods as well as soil mixing, sheet pile pressing and vibration. With an eye on the future Fundex is now building the F4800E. Because, in addition to multifunctional use, the basic machine of the F4800 lends itself to multiple energy sources. "The conversion of an excavator is just a little easier than the electrification of a large foundation machine, where much higher powers are required," states Arjan Roubos, sales manager at Fundex Equipment rightly. 

Switching between energy sources

The starting point for the design of the F4800E is being able to switch between different energy sources in the construction pit in the future. "We don't know now what the future will bring us: a big battery pack, grid power, fuel cell or something else," says John Brakman, sales manager at Fundex Equipment. "That's why we came up with a 'be ready, be flexible' concept. The basic machine is completely electric, including electric winches, permanent magnet motors from Danfoss, electric pump units for hydraulics and a battery pack. We understand all this to mean the "be ready" part. It's just a matter of connecting a power source to it and the machine can do its work completely emission-free." But the latter is still a "thingy" right now. "Such power supplies do not exist in every construction pit. The 'be flexible' part is filled in first by a generator set with compact diesel engine feeding the electric machine. The generator set supplements the battery pack on the base machine, with which peak loads are absorbed (peakshaving). Incidentally, this configuration already reduces energy consumption by nearly 25%. As soon as other energy sources become available, we can respond very quickly with the flexible part of the F4800E. This gives the customer a high return on investment."

MYRIX

For some time now, Fundex Equipment has been making all machine and pole data transparent to its customers via the online portal MYRIX, among other things. "In view of the new F4800E, we will soon add an Energy & Emission dashboard to that," continues Roubos. "The amount of energy required depends entirely on the pile system. By collecting and analyzing all this data, we can very well estimate the power requirements for a similar other project." Brakman adds: "In the future, the Energy & Emission dashboard is going to help users plan for the energy needed to get through the day as efficiently as possible. A specific new development within MYRIX and completely grafted on being able to do as much emission-free foundations as possible."

The F4800E will be grandly presented at bauma 2022. "There is already quite a lot of interest from the market in this prestige project," says Roubos. "Logical too, because CO₂-reduction is an important pillar in the awarding of projects." Parallel to this F4800E, Fundex is also developing a CD20E in the compact range, which will also be presented at bauma. And it does not stop there ... "We have all the knowledge in house to develop these types of concepts from the first sketch to the actual building and servicing. And all under one roof. So keep an eye on us!"