The Giant Roller is a self-propelled machine, weighing up to 525 ton designed to compact and tamp surfaces for motorways, sport grounds, residential areas, airports and land reclamations.
Traditional soil compaction methods are often time-consuming, elaborate and expensive. The Giant Roller's unique design and construction gives it an edge over conventional compaction methods. The machine is easy to assemble and disassemble and easy to ship due to its individual components. It compacts the soil straight away, uniformly and almost silently.
Dynamic compaction is a method of soil compaction in which a heavy weight is repeatedly lifted and dropped from a considerable height. This is a time-consuming method that will take several weeks and multiple blows. The Giant Roller eliminates this process and compacts the soil uniformly in less time.
There are virtually no vibrations caused by driving the Giant Roller. This is in contrast to the vibrations that occur when hammering during classic forms of dynamic compaction.
The rolling of the Giant Roller hardly makes any sound in contrast to the classic forms of dynamic compaction. You only hear the water pumps do their job.
Most of the times an area to be compacted consists of a number of layers of different types of soil. Each of which has its own structure, weight, saturation and porosity. By properly investigating the soil (by means of probing and/or drilling), the decision will be made as to how and when to use the Giant Roller.
Nowadays, to speed up the compaction process, vertical drains are utilised to facilitate water extraction. In these very cases, the Giant Roller can be deployed.
The Giant Roller will not and cannot perform compaction in one single step! Depending on the soil structure, it will take three or even more passes for an optimal outcome. As the ground becomes firmer, the force per square metres increases automatically. This process is so subtle that it prevents the layers from floating and hence avoids damage to the surrounding areas.
The applications of the Giant Roller are extensive. Growing economies all over the world need more transportation and hence more roads. Cities are built on limited stable soil. Therefore, the continued expansion needed for new residential areas must be on unstable grounds demanding enormous investments. For instance, the concept of relocating Schiphol airport in the sea on reclaimed land could very well become reality. The use of the Giant Roller can substantially reduce these costs.
The fifth runway at Schiphol airport needed 22,000 truckloads of sand! For land reclamation such as the second ‘Maasvlakte’ in the Netherlands and the Palm Island in Dubai, the new land required compaction before there could be built on.
The Giant Roller body is made up of twelve watertight compartments around a central axis. Depending on the required weight, a number of the compartments are filled with water. The flow of water into and from each compartment is controlled by a computer. The software measures the content of each compartment and decides which one needs to be filled to change the centre of gravity and force the roller to move. This continuous process can move the roller forward and backwards up to 800 metres in 24 hours.
The Giant Roller is a complex machine. It has a water system with pumps and valves, an electrical system with a generator, a compressed air system and solenoids, an air compensating system, a computer and a communication network on board. The machine has no external connections. The power generator and the air compressor are mounted onto a revolving cage. The Giant Roller is self-propelled; it follows the programmed path and can operate continuously.
Reduce the soil preparation time from months to weeks.
No bypass roads for local traffic.
No special roads for sand trucks.
Save thousands of sand loads to and from the construction area.
Low energy consumption and environment saving.
Straightforward shipment; empty compartments are shipped individually.
Specifications of the Ø10 metres model.
The outer diameter of the roller is 9.66 metres
Each compartment is 2.52 metres wide, 3.60 metres high, 8 metres long
The inner diameter is 2.46 metres
There are 12 compartments
1 Empty compartment weighs 10,000 kg
1 full compartment contains 45 m3 of water
The total weight of the roller with 9 water filled compartments is: (12 * 10,000) + (9 * 45,000) = 525,000 kg
1 Compartment when full contains 45 m3 of water
A 200 m3/h pump is mounted on each side of the roller
In addition to the standard Giant Roller, the patent includes possible variations of this design in order to carry out alternative compaction tasks.
Three variants: the standard, flat and cylindrical Giant Roller.
Sometimes, when a constant force is not sufficient, adding vibration can amplify the force to obtain the desired power and consequently generate the necessary effect. The Giant Roller with its flat surface parts can generate a vibration when rolling to the next position.
The separated cylindrical compartments will produce a long-lasting vibration after the roller rotates to the next position. Depending on the required effect, other models and shapes can be designed.
The Giant Roller consists of a 2-pump system and optimization software that fills 3 to 9 components of the machine.
The smaller version of the Giant Roller has a diameter of 4 metres and is 3 metres wide. With the 2-pump system you can fill 38 segments in an hour. The distance that the small machine can cover in 24 hours is 1000 metres.
The Giant Roller has a diameter of 10 metres and is 8 metres wide. With the 2-pump system you can fill 12 segments in an hour. The distance that the machine can cover in 24 hours is 800 meters.
Each compartment is a ‘part of the circle’ and therefore can be transported separately. After arrival on site, the compartments are mounted onto each other, and one or more of which must be filled from the local water supply. The inner circle of the roller is open and although the outer diameter is 9.66 metres, the total height of one segment is just 3.60 metres. Thus, it is low enough for normal transport on a loader. The base of one segment is 2.52 metres wide. Thus, a segment is small enough for normal transport. A single compartment weighs 10,000 kg. Neither is this an issue for normal transport.
The steel compartments of the roller can be built locally. The control units and the software are produced by us in the Netherlands. The Giant Roller is a patented machine.
Please contact us for the patent details or any other questions about the Giant Roller.
Patent in 20 countries, among them USA and BRIC
Working prototype of The Giant Roller – 4 metres high model
Control software
All construction CAD files of the 4 and 10 metres model
Website and web-adress
Corporate identity – logo
If you are interested, please e-mail to Peter Buijsman by filling in the form.
Delfweg 48
2211VN Noordwijkerhout
The Netherlands