'Lightweight' CPT tower

They are usually cumbersome and heavy equipment. As market leader in equipment for soil and water research, Royal Eijkelkamp now presents an alternative: the Parvus CPT. A compact sounding device for use on an excavator, on a pickup truck, in a van or even on the back of a quad.

"CPTs are often heavy equipment because a lot of force is needed to push the cone into the ground," explains Rutger van Goethem of Royal Eijkelkamp. "The CPT cone measures the status of the soil based on a large number of geotechnical parameters. We have a large range of such survey equipment within our company for geotechnical investigations and are constantly improving and developing new equipment that we market worldwide. Several users of our equipment needed a more compact sounding device. Reason for us to start developing the Parvus CPT in cooperation with Geonius, user from the very beginning."

35 KN compression force

Parvus stands for small. The device weighs only 50 kilograms and has a compressive force of 35 KN. "The weight of the vehicle in which the device is placed is used as a counterweight," says van Goethem. "For an average van, for example, the loading weight is 3.5 tons. With the van you can then drive very comfortably to your destination to position the vehicle here and carry out the probing. This is also perfectly possible along a quay wall or on a dike. A pickup may offer a better alternative for difficult locations. We do not care where or on which the Parvus CPT is mounted, as long as the frame of the unit can be locked to the vehicle or the ground. Mounting on the arm of an excavator or on the back of a quad or tractor is also a possibility, using the machine's hydraulics or any 230-volt mains supply. You can thus cover longer distances and still gather the right information very quickly."

Logically, the Parvus CPT has a smaller CPT tower and lower pressure weight than a CPT in a large truck. Van Goethem: "We use a smaller cone diameter that requires less pressure force but still gives the same result. There is a choice of a 2 cm cone². It records point pressure, adhesion to the mantle and inclination. The 5 cm² cone also records the pore pressure. This allows you to make a full-fledged sounding. We supply the Parvus CPT as a total solution and have meanwhile built one that is now being tested by Geonius in various applications. Production is expected to start before the summer of this year."