Foundation specialist continues to innovate

Hundreds of foundation machines have rolled out of the Lebotec factory in Wijchen over the past decades. And almost all of them were different. In addition, the company of founder and owner Jacques Bouten developed systems for more and more machines with which foundation work can be largely automated. For the past year and a half, Lebotec has had a second owner in Rick van Oostwaard, ensuring the future of the company. 

Rick van Oostwaard had his own construction company and had been working with Bouten and Lebotec for some time. Since 2022, he has been co-owner of the foundation machinery manufacturer. "Not that much will change with my arrival, by the way," Rick says. "We will continue to do what we are good at." 

And that is building state-of-the-art foundation machines that are mostly custom-built and built to customers' exact requirements. Lebotec prefers to sell not only the foundation machines themselves, but the entire process. "From drilling rig to concrete or grout pumps. The whole chain from supply to actually making the piles," Rick says. "After all, for a smoothly running process, it's best to have one party take care of the whole chain. That's what we are good at."

Take mini vibro-piles, for example, which serve as foundations much under high load-bearing floors - think distribution centers and warehouses. Of these, so many piles are set at short intervals that Lebotec has fully automated the foundation machines. Rick: "The operator drives to the picket, presses start and then the machine independently puts a steel tube into the ground. And once it is at depth, it is immediately poured. The concrete pump starts up fully automatically and delivers exactly the right amount of concrete. Our machines then pull the steel pipe back up again fully automatically. The operator only has to drive the machine to the next picket." 

Fall Heights

Not only do Lebotec's foundation machines work fully automatically, the grout units can also do their work fully automatically. "And our pile-driving machines are all equipped with pile-driving automatics that allow you to set the different drop heights, for example," Rick says. "The screw injection pile machines can be equipped with an automatic system, which supports an operator in producing the foundation pile." 

Almost no foundation machine from Lebotec is the same. And that's because every customer has their own requirements and working methods. Customers ask for different mast lengths, for outriggers of all sorts and sizes, different widths of the undercarriage, you name it. That sometimes makes our work difficult, because if you change one thing, the whole drawing has to change immediately. But mostly we find it fun and challenging. It never gets boring."