Abstract: A tool is provided for use in submerged condition for installing anchor or foundation elements such as piles in a ground formation that is submerged under a body of water. A hammer body is fixedly supported in axial alignment with the head of a pile that is to be driven and carries a reaction body guided for movement thereon in a direction that is axial to the pile. The hammer body and reaction body define opposed first and second ends of an expansion chamber. A pyrotechnic charge is initiated to create a rapidly expanding volume of high pressure gas in the expansion chamber to generate a downwards pressure force pulse to drive the pile, an equal and opposite upwards pressure force pulse being applied to the reaction body. Damping structure operatively associated with the reaction body interacts with the water in which the tool is submerged using the inertia of the water to resist upwards movement of reaction body.

Abstract: A pile hammer for driving down hollow piles from an upper end thereof includes a hollow pile cap adapted to rest and support the hammer on a upper end of the pile being driven. The cap has an anvil surface for receiving blows from a ram which is slidably disposed on a hollow tubular base extending downwardly from the pile cap and having a lower end portion extending into the hollow pile being driven below the level of the pile cap. The ram is slidable on an upper portion of the hollow tubular base and has an annular lower end face adapted to strike the anvil surface of the pile cap when the ram is released to drop from an elevated position above the pile cap. A ram lift system is provided in an upper portion of the hollow tubular base for lifting the ram to an elevated position a selected predetermined height above the pile for release to drop downwardly and strike a driving blow against the anvil surface on the pile cap.

Abstract: A multi-purpose water-driven rotary tool having improved torque that has a housing with first and second cavities, one of the cavities housing an impeller, the other housing a main drive shaft connected to a rotatable mounting pad or backing pad that contains a disk with a grinding or sanding surface that is removably attached thereto. The high pressure water inlet conduit includes a changeable nozzle to allow using the tool with different water sources. Water is strategically diverted through a bearing mounting plate having holes by a shroud having an angular periphery or angular flange that allows the expended water from the impeller to be efficiently expelled peripherally around the outside of the main cavity of the housing. The device also includes a manually-actuated trigger for the inlet water valve which can be held at the same time with a saddle handle that is pivotal that allows the user to effectively move the device comfortably to a desired working position.

Abstract: The disclosure relates to an underwater excavation apparatus comprising a tube (10) in which a propeller (18) is mounted for rotation. The tips of the propeller blades are formed with jets (30) supplied from a high pressure water supply through passages in the propeller blades. The jets impinge on vanes (31) mounted on the tube wall around the propeller to cause the propeller to rotate and thereby draw water through the tube from an inlet at one end to an outlet at the other end to act on the seabed. The apparatus is particularly useful for excavating trenches on the seabed and exposing previously covered installations on the seabed.

Abstract: Method for driving a hydraulic submerged tool whereby the hydraulic pressure energy is generated in a submerged power converter, being driven by pressurized surrounding water which after the energy transfer is exhausted into the surrounding water, said power converter consisting of one or more work cylinders (1, 2), each by means of a floating piston (3, 4) being divided in a space (5, 6) filled with the pressurized surrounding water and a space (7, 8), filled with a hydraulic work medium, switching means (17, 18) being provided, for alternately connecting said space (5, 6) either to a feed conduct (13) for pressurized surrounding water, or to an exhaust (14).

Abstract: For driving of ramming parts under water, a first ramming device is suspended on the supporting element and a second ramming device is suspended on a further supporting element, a submergible electrohydraulic drive unit is located laterally near or under one of the ramming device and connected with both ramming devices by hose conduits, the ramming devices with the drive unit are lowered so that at least one ramming device is placed on one ramming part and after driving it in over a predetermined path it is transferred to another ramming part, while the other ramming device drives further the first ramming part or a further ramming part, and both ramming devices are driven one after the other or simultaneously with one another by the same drive unit.

Abstract: A compliant rotary powered tool that has been designed with the ability to be gripped by a mechanical arm yet which allows the power tool to be operated against a three dimensional surface as effectively as if operated in the hands of a human operator. To allow accurate and sensitive control of the tool without requiring a mechanical arm beyond the capabilities of the present state of the art, a degree of compliance is designed into the tool itself. The structure which produces the compliant nature of the tool allows the tool itself to maintain an appropriate predetermined contact force between the tool and the work surface regardless of imprecise control of the mechanical arm. The structure which produces this compliance also compensates for lack of touch and feel in the mechanical arm and allows the tool to follow a three dimensional shape while maintaining a constant pressure of the operating surface of the tool against the work surface.

Abstract: For driving of ramming parts under water, a first ramming device is suspended on the supporting element and a second ramming device is suspended on a further supporting element, a submergible electrohydraulic drive unit is located laterally near or under one of the ramming device and connected with both ramming devices by hose conduits, the ramming devices with the drive unit are lowered so that at least one ramming device is placed on one ramming part and after driving it in over a predetermined path it is transferred to another ramming part, while the other ramming device drives further the first ramming part or a further ramming part, and both ramming devices are driven one after the other or simultaneously with one another by the same drive unit.

Abstract: A submergible electrohydraulic drive unit is a multi-purpose device for driving different underwater ramming and working devices and has a housing with a throughgoing central receiving space for a ramming pile or a respective ramming or working device, ring-shaped upper and lower supporting plates, an outer wall, an inner wall which forms the receiving space, and a plurality of pump units arranged between the inner wall and the outer wall and each having a hydraulic pump and an associated electric motor and individually or jointly limitedly movably spring-biased relative to the housing, one supporting plate having means for exchangeably mounting said device adjusted relative to said receiving space.

Abstract: An underwater tapping machine having a body equipped for attachment to a fitting secured to a pipeline and a rotatable boring bar within the body, a gear case affixed to the body to activate the boring bar, a containment vessel supported by the tapping machine body having a first opening communicating with the vessel exterior and thus to the pressure of fluid in which the tapping machine is employed, the containment vessel having a second opening and a fluid barrier pressure transmitting member dividing the interior of the vessel into a first portion having the first opening therein and a second portion communicating with the second opening, the second portion having liquid lubricant therein, and conduits extending from the containment vessel second opening to the interior of the tapping machine body and gear case so that the pressure of fluid in which the tapping machine is employed is applied by way of the pressure transmitting member to the liquid lubricant and thus to the interior of the tapping machine t

Abstract: An underwater hydraulic tool has a hydraulic motor with an inlet port and an outlet port for receiving and discharging water under pressure and a rotating shaft rotated by water under pressure with the front end protruding from said motor for holding a working tool. A rear mounting member is attached to a rear part of the hydraulic motor and has openings spaced circumferentially therearound. A front mounting member is attached to a front part of the hydraulic motor and also openings spaced circumferentially therearound. At least portions of the openings in both members are located outwards of the outer circumferential wall of the hydraulic motor.

Abstract: A submerging ramming arrangement has a housing, an impacting body axially displaceable in the housing for delivering ramming impacts against a ramming pile, a hydraulic drive for displacing the impacting body in the housing, a hydraulic cylinder-and-piston unit arranged in an upper portion of the housing and having a cylinder, a piston sealingly displaceable in the cylinder and subdividing the same into first and second chambers, a piston rod connected with the piston and having a portion extending from the first chamber coaxially outwardly beyond the cylinder, a holding element for mounting the arrangement on a supporting element and provided on the outwardly extending portion of the piston, a hydraulic accumulator communicating with the first chamber of the cylinder-and-piston unit and arranged for receiving excess hydraulic medium under pressure, and an indicating element actuated by the piston of the cylinder-and-piston unit within a predetermined distance from a respective end of the cylinder-and-piston

Abstract: The hammer of an underwater pile driving apparatus is movable upwards and downwards in a housing which, in operation, is filled with a liquid which is present both above and below the hammer, the hammer being driven at least on the upwards direction by a driving liquid which is pressurized by a motor driven pump located on or adjacent the housing and which is the same as the liquid in which the hammer moves.

Abstract: An underwater pile driver assembly that includes a vertically disposed tubular housing that may slidably engage the upper end portion of a pile, with the housing having an upper open end, and the housing supporting an anvil that may be placed in abutting contact with the pile. An impact imparting ram is slidably and sealingly mounted in the housing, and may be successively raised to a first position therein. Pump means are provided to successively evacuate water from the interior of the housing between the ram and anvil. After each evacuation the ram is released to be forced downwardly by the hydrostatic head imposed on the upper surface thereof to impact the anvil, with the force imparted to the anvil being transverse to the pile to drive the latter downwardly. The greater the distance of the upper end of the housing from the surface of the water, the greater will be the magnitude of the downward force exerted on the pile each time the ram impacts the anvil.

Abstract: A hydraulic nailing pistol with force or energy-accumulators for reciprocally driving a nail driver (5) formed as a piston with associated piston rod (5). The outer end of the rod is intended for applying to the nail head of the nail to be driven. The piston is arranged in a hydraulic cylinder (26) and the end of the cylinder facing away from the nailing end of the rod is connected, by the intermediary of an openable and closeable valve (3), to a first hydraulic operating cylinder (A) provided with a piston (4), actuable by a force or energy-accumulating component, e.g. a spring (6). The other end of the hydraulic cylinder (26) is connected to a second hydraulic operating cylinder (B), provided with a piston (11), also actuable by a force or energy-accumulating component, e.g. a spring (12). The first operating cylinder (A) with its cylinder (4) is adapted for driving the driver forwards, and the second operating cylinder (B) with its piston (11) is adapted for providing the return movement of the driver (5).

Abstract: Apparatus for under water pile driving comprises a pile hammer and a drive unit connected by high pressure hoses to the hammer. The hammer is guided for relative vertical movement within an auxiliary guide frame on top of which the drive unit is permanently attached, said frame being suspended from a hoisting device.

Abstract: Piles are driven underwater by feeding them through spaced apart, aligned, tubular guides mounted on a structure to be anchored by the piles. When the piles reach the sea bed an elongated follower is fed down through the guide sleeves to the top of the piles. A compressible fluid driven hammer is arranged to drive against the upper end of the follower which in turn drives the pile. The submerged depth of the hammer at the upper end of the follower is less than it would be at the top of the pile and accordingly the exhaust pressure at the hammer is minimized and the hammer effectiveness is enhanced.

Abstract: An elongated hollow tube 2 is secured to the top of a pile driver 1, and the assembled unit is lowered to the head of an anchoring pile 12on the sea bottom via spaced guide rings 13 on a submerged tower 10. The flexible hose string 5 for conveying hydraulic, electric, pneumatic, etc. power and control to the pile driver is accommodated in a loop fashion within the tube 2 via a weighted and floating pulley(s) 7, and feeds out during the lowering of the unit through guide rings 13 spaced on the tower over a pulley 4 mounted on a detachable surface ring 3. The various hoses and cables in the string 5 are maintained in a parallel relation by periodic clamping means 14, and smooth surface reel winding is implemented by periodic spacers 26 secured to the outboard tension cables 15, 16 in the string.

Abstract: An underwater hammer, of the gas discharge type, is provided with a surrounding casing arranged in the nature of a diving bell from which liquid can be purged so that the hammer ram may move up and down with minimum resistance. A reflood tube extends down through the upper end of the casing and opens into an axial reflood passageway in the ram and liquid is pumped through this tube to obtain reflooding after each cycle of operation.

Abstract: A submersible pile driving support and guide apparatus includes a tripod-like frame 8 having vertically adjustable foot pads 16, 17, a lower guide ring 21 horizontally positionable by pivotally mounted hydraulic cylinders 19, upper guiding and clamping rods 23 fully retractable into cylinders 22, and a floodable ballast tank 18. The pile 7 may be positioned vertically or at an angle by suitably adjusting the foot pads, the lower guide ring and the rods. Once it is driven down to the top of the apparatus the rods 23 are retracted into their cylinders, and the driving head 26 thereafter reciprocates within the vertical posts 9 of the frame to complete the driving.

Abstract: An underwater hammer, of the gas discharge type, is provided with a circumferential control valve on the hammer ram to allow free flow of water and gas upwardly along the ram in the annular clearance between the ram and a tubular sleeve in which it is guided, but to interrupt the flow of water downwardly along the ram. The control valve allows the region under the ram to be purged of water when the ram is driven upwardly in the sleeve and it prevents water thereafter from flowing back down under the ram where it would otherwise cushion ram impact on an anvil.

Abstract: An apparatus and a method for driving piles onshore or offshore, including driving a tubular pile within a submersed tubular jacket leg of an offshore structure and field disassembly.The apparatus hammer includes a displaceable ram structure, mounted within a pressurized air-filled housing, which is reciprocated by a pressurized working liquid against a pile-engaging anvil structure, which is in dry contact with a pile inserted within one end of the pressurized housing. The ram structure compresses air within the housing near the end of its firing stroke to preload the anvil structure for better energy transfer to the pile. The ram structure also compresses the air within the housing near the end of its loading stroke to slow the ram structure and permit full charging of working liquid accumulators, which discharge during the firing stroke to maintain working liquid pressure and prevent cavitation.

Abstract: A submersible pile driving apparatus includes a drop hammer 7 reciprocably mounted in a guideframe on vertical posts 8. Either the drop hammer or the guideframe is guided on cables 4 secured to a crossbar 5 attached to the pile 6, and the guideframe is suspended from the surface ship by a rigid column of tube sections 10 or the like to which the guideframe has been rigidly connected. The apparatus is provided with a guide sleeve 12 or 13 having a funnel-shaped mouth to center the pile during descent. The overall arrangement maintains even very long piles in a vertical position during driving, and prevents tilting or tipping at the pile head - drop hammer interface.

Abstract: Underwater pile driving is implemented by a pile-driving apparatus 14 releasably coupled to a guide sleeve 5 secured to the top of a pile 10. The assembly may be performed on the surface vessel 1 through an opening 4 in a laterally extending platform 2 with the aid of a crane 13, or underwater. The components are lowered on guide cables 8, 9, and after the driving operation is completed, the coupled apparatus 14 and sleeve 5 are raised together. The striking plate 22 for the pile-driving hammer is carried by the apparatus 14.

Abstract: An underwater gas discharge type hammer is provided with a gas reservoir into which expended ram driving gas exhausts to avoid aeration of incoming water which surrounds the gas discharge device of the hammer. The gas resevoir is also arranged as a diving bell to minimize pressure changes under the hammer ram and thereby to maximize ram stroke and improve sharpness of ram impact on the hammer anvil.

Abstract: A pile driving apparatus to be lowered onto the head of a previously submerged pile positioned in a caisson is guided in its descent on cables. The cables are secured to a crossbar attached near the head of the pile. The crossbar must be attached sufficiently close to the head of the pile so that the funnel shaped mouth of the pile driving apparatus is guided onto the head of the pile even if the surface ship has drifted laterally to pull the cables away from the vertical, or if the pile itself is positioned in the caisson at an angle to the vertical.The crossbar is attached to the pile by retractable pins extending through longitudinal slots in the pile, or by extendable pressure pads that engage the circumference of the pile. Means are provided for automatically retracting the pins or pads whenever the crossbar bears against the pile driving apparatus.

Abstract: The pile-driving arrangement can drive piles both above and below water. It includes a housing containing a gas-filled motion chamber and an impact body movable upward and downward in the motion chamber. A cylinder-and-piston mover includes a cylinder part and a piston part, one part connected with the housing and the other with the impact body, for effecting relative movement between the impact body and the housing. A drive unit on the housing includes a drive motor, a pump driven by the motor and a pressure fluid tank. The drive unit is connected with the housing for limited movement relative to the housing. The cylinder part and the pressure fluid pump are interconnected by flexible conduits leading from the pump to the opposite working chambers of the cylinder part, and a direction-changing device controls fluid flow through the conduits.

Abstract: What follows is a description of a unique hammer for driving pile members onshore or offshore, an apparatus for driving pile members offshore, and a method of driving a pile member.The hammer includes a displaceable ram structure which is reciprocated by a pressurized working fluid against a pile member-engaging anvil structure. The anvil structure is preloaded by a quantity of fluid compressed by the ram structure in the course of its impact delivering displacement. This preload causes the anvil structure to also be displaced in the impact delivering direction, but at a lower rate than the ram structure.

Abstract: A water-weighted corer comprising a cylindrical tank mounted concentrically n a core barrel intermediate the coring tube and the shackle is provided. The tank has a water inlet at its bottom and an air vent at its top so that during descent water enters the tank through the bottom inlet, forcing air out the top vent. During free fall the falling speed imparts a substantial amount of kinetic energy to the water mass in the tank, providing the driving force required for the corer to penetrate deeply into a sediment bed.