The Sozokan is the first structure of its kind in the world, employing steel sheet piles as the main structural materials and using confined ground seismic dampers to create a steel spread foundation over soft ground.
STRUCTURE
In addition, the exterior design has been registered in Japan as an “architectural design”.
[Registration No.: 1744615, 1744616]
Confined Ground Seismic Damper
By enclosing the foundation ground, liquefaction caused by an earthquake and the associated lateral flow of the liquefied ground can be controlled.
HISTORIC MACHINE
The 1st SILENT PILER™ KGK-100A
certified as Mechanical Engineering Heritage
This machine was born in 1975 to be the first in the world to practise the press-in principle discovered by the company's founder, Akio Kitamura, and it led to the realisation of an environmentally friendly construction method that eliminates the vibration and noise of piling work, which was said to be the leading cause of construction pollution.
In August 2021, the first SILENT PILER™ KGK-100A was certificated as Mechanical Engineering Heritage by The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers. Kochi-born piling machine "SILENT PILER" recognized as one of Japan's leading machines.
OTHER MACHINES
Examples of the exhibited machines
Man-powered Excavation Method
This equipment hails from a time before mechanisation, when iron or wooden weights were lifted and dropped manually to drive piles into the ground.
Impact Driving System
Piles are driven into the ground using hammers and weights powered by steam or diesel engines.
Vibro-driving System and Inner Excavation Method
Other pile drivers with different principles are also displayed. One such type is the vibratory pile driver, which generates vertical vibrations to make the pile sink by its own weight. Another type is the inner excavation-type pile driver, which excavates the ground beforehand and embeds a pile.
SILENT PILER for 400-mm wide U sheet piles
Models for 400 mm wide U sheet piles are the most commonly used in Japan.
SILENT PILER for Hard Ground
These were developed to enable pile installations into rock and other hard ground.
Wide Range of Applicable Pile Types
These models were developed to cater to various pile materials and shapes, including Z-shaped sheet piles widely used in Europe and the USA.
GYRO PILER™
Gyropress Method™ enables tube piles to penetrate into hard ground and to core through buried concrete obstructions by using a rotary jacking-in methodology with cutting ring bits on pile toes.
Other piling machines developed by GIKEN
We had also developed press-in machines other than SILENT PILER such as pile extracting machines.