Moving On Up with Movax

During my recent visit to Finland, I spent a couple of days in the beautiful city of Hämeenlinna, where I spent some time catching up with good friends, and did a bit of sightseeing. However, I also took the opportunity to make a flying visit to the Movax Oy factory on the outskirts of the city.

The specialist piling equipment manufacturer have recently completed a major expansion to their facility in Hämeenlinna, which we reported about here on the blog in March, so it seemed like the perfect chance to go and take a look for myself.

The privately owned Movax company was founded in 1993 and they are specialists in side grip vibratory piling technology, piling hammers, piling drills and control systems, they have customers in over 60 countries, across 6 continents.

The company has invested heavily in the extension to the factory, which now covers some 7500 m² of floor space. Unfortunately, my British contact at the factory Jack Brogan, who I was due to meet, had been called back to the UK for a product technical emergency, so I was not able to take the tour with him, I was still given a tour though, but no photography was allowed inside the facility.

However, the company do have a demonstration and training plot within the grounds of the factory, and they even have their own Caterpillar 330D LN hydraulic excavator on the site, so I was given a demo of firstly the SG-60V, a side grip vibratory pile driver suitable for excavators ranging from 28-tonne to 32-tonnes.

Following that the operator switched to DH-25, a double acting impact-type, piling hammer utilised for driving load-bearing piles or assisting in sheet pile driving. This unit is commonly matched to excavators ranging from 30-tonnes to 50-tonnes.

In this test, the pile cannot be driven any further into the ground, as it is set up on a heavy-duty steel plate in the ground. This is primarily used for ‘hot testing’ of the products before final finishing, and for training purposes.

Checkout my video from the visit below.

As a side note, I was also delighted once again to realise the global reach, power and influence of the Digger Man Blog brand, as following my social media coverage from the Movax factory that very morning, in the evening I was contacted by one of our readers/followers, who said he wanted to purchase a unit, and I’m very pleased to report, that I put him in touch with the relevant people and a deal has been done!

I would like to thank Jack Brogan for organizing this last-minute visit to the factory.