Driven to ingenuity

Australian officials watch as Commander F-FDTL Brig-Gen Taur Matan Ruak examines field equipment given by Australia. Photo by WO2 Anna Mercieca, DCP-EM

From Cpl Cameron Jamieson in East Timor

THE men of steel have learnt to drive hard in East Timor – all in the name of field engineering.

A recent challenge by the OC Spt Coy, UN Security Force (UNSF), has seen ASM WO2 Steve Coppock and his team of tradesmen successfully create an improvised pile driver using scrap steel and ingenuity.

The engineers of Spt Coy needed the pile driver to hammer four-metre sheet piles into the ground to stabilise embankments for road construction.

The project started with basic drawings and steadily progressed into a skeleton of steel on the workshop floor.

Next, the hammer and winch mechanisms were developed so the sheet could be cleanly driven into the ground.
Finally, the pile driver was deemed ready for action and then trials started.

WO2 Coppock said the first trial run took 43 minutes to drive a sheet pile into the ground.

“However, with modifications and additional weight on the hammer, the last sheet took just under 10 minutes to knock in,” he said.

The modifications have also dramatically affected deployment times and manoeuvrability of the pile driver.

“It’s very quick to erect now, using a Merlo forklift and the four guide ropes,” WO2 Cappock said.

The pile driver has been baptised onsite and has plenty of work lined up.

OC Spt Coy UNSF Maj David Lavers, is very proud of his soldiers because of its design and manufacture.

“Technically there are a lot of complications in it, such as getting the hammer to freefall,” Maj Lavers said.

“And then there are the materials – it’s a six-metre tower made from scrap material.

“They basically found steel lying around – the structural steel is all recycled material.”

The improvised pile driver has now been given an Army registered number, and at the end of the operation the engineers intend to get it shipped back to SME to be displayed in the corps museum – a fitting home for an engineering marvel.