Dundrum Civil Pty Ltd (Dundrum) is the first contractor in Australia to buy the new Movax DH-20 excavator-mounted drop hammer.

Dundrum is based in Brisbane, but supplies wet and dry hire equipment to tier one contractors working on civil, pipeline, energy and mining projects around the country.

A key element of winning and retaining this business is to have the most advanced equipment, suppled in top order and operated by skilled wet hire operators.

When Dundrum heard good reports about Movax piling attachments for excavators, it bought the brand to the attention of Premier Rock Machinery, with which it had a relationship through the supply and support of Montabert hammers.

Premier Rock Machinery became Australasian distributor of Movax piling attachments, and Dundrum bought a new Movax SG-75 side grip vibratory driver in 2014; following this six months later with the purchase of a Movax IH-25D drop hammer after it completed a project for a major contractor.

Dundrum allocated a dedicated Komatsu PC450 excavator for use with these Movax attachments, and continues to do so.

The most recent Movax purchase, the DH-20 drop hammer, was only unveiled at bauma this year, so the Dundrum machine is also one of the first of these units in the world to go to work.

The Dundrum hammer is fully optioned with tilt of +/-15 degrees and rotation of +/- 60 degrees; and the MCS Pro control system.

The MCS Pro system provides the operator with single joystick control, with rollers and switches on the joystick to control a range of functions. An auto control feature takes over a demanding part of the boom control to ensure that the piling hammer travels in a straight line.

The DH-20 piling hammer has a drop height up to 1200 millimetres and can strike at up to 100 blows per minute, imparting an impact energy of up to 22 kilonewton metres. It has a weight of 4390 kilograms, excluding the weight of the adaptor.

A 1.3-metre leader is standard with the DH-20 hammer, but Movax also released a 12-metre Leader Mast EML-12 at the same time as it released the DH-20 and DH-30 piling hammers. The Dundrum hammer is fitted with the 1.3-metre leader mast.

With the combination of the Movax SG-75 side grip vibratory driver and DH-20 drop hammer, Dundrum now offers civil contractors a piling combination where the vibratory driver can be used to drive a pile to refusal, after which the DH-20 hammer can be used to drive the pile to the specified founding depth.

Dundrum has an experienced and highly skilled operator for the Movax equipment and this, combined with the advanced Movax Pile Pro control system that can be used with both systems, ensures a high quality, productive piling outcome for its clients.

In addition to this, the Movax M-logbook™ can provide the client with reporting and documentation of piling for “as built” records.

By investing in the latest excavator-mounted piling equipment from Movax, Dundrum is providing civil contractors with a cost-effective alternative to either investing in the equipment itself or hiring a subcontractor with specialised piling equipment at higher rate, and generally with higher transport costs.

The most recent purchase continues a long and productive relationship between Dundrum and Premier Rock Machinery, where the expertise and responsiveness of Premier Rock Machinery led Dundrum to initially support its bid to distribute Movax equipment in Australia, and subsequently purchase equipment from it.

Premier Rock Machinery MD Mike Davis praised Dundrum and its MD Michael O’Brien as being a leader in its field in continually being prepared to invest in new and improved technology that provides real benefits for its Tier One clients.