Eiffel Trading 101: Sheet Pile Connectors

Sheet pile is defined as a rolled structural steel section with interlocks on the flange tips that allows the sections to be joined to form a continuous wall. A continuous wall doesn’t necessarily mean a straight wall without corners or angles. When you are driving a cofferdam in the middle of a lake or river, you are going to typically have 4 corners where the sheet pile will need to interlock. How do you keep the wall continuously interlocked – the solution is fabricated sheet pile connectors or extruded sheet pile connectors.

Fabricated Sheet Pile Connectors

Fabricated Sheet Pile Connectors can be purchased from the sheet pile manufacturer. The fabricated sheet pile connector is made of up the interlock flange tips, plates and angles all bolted together. The bolts are spaced approximately on 3” centers. These sheet pile connectors can be arranged in all sorts of configurations from 90 degree corners, crosses, tees and bent corners at various angles. Due to the man power of drilling holes, hardware and bolting the pieces together, these sheet pile connectors can be very expensive. Fabricated Sheet Pile Connectors are made for both Z-Section and Flat sheet pile.

Extruded Sheet Pile Connectors

Extruded Connectors are a sheet pile connector that manufactured at the steel mill in one seamless piece. Due to the one-piece construction, the extruded connectors pose less corrosion risk than a comparable fabricated sheet pile connector. Extruded connectors are much lighter than a fabricated connector, which equates to being easier and more cost effective to transport. Here are some of the configurations you can use an extruded connector for: Colt (45 degree), PZ90 (90 degree), Cobra (135 degree), Tee (PZTEE, Joker, Bullhead, CBF) and many more. The extruded connectors are manufactured for both Z-Section and Flat sheet pile.

Our friends over at PilePro have brought extruded connectors into the 21st Century. In addition to the typical connectors mentioned above, they manufacture connectors for sheet pile with different interlock types. For example, they have a 90 degree connector that will work with any sheet pile interlock type, whether it’s cold-formed, larssen or ball and socket. In addition to the angled connectors, they also offer extruded connectors that allow you to drive a straight wall with different sheet pile interlocks. If you are on a project that has existing sheet pile with larssen interlocks and you need to tie into those sheets with a ball and socket interlocked sheet pile, they have a solution for that.

With multiple solutions to connect your sheet pile, driving sheet pile in different configurations is easier than ever. If you are looking to buy or sell used sheet pile, give us a call at 1-800-541-7998 or email sales@eiffeltrading.com.

Cheers,

Andrew

Andrew Norman is one of the co-founders of Eiffel Trading. His background is in Heavy-Civil and Marine Construction in Project Management and Procurement. While working in Project Management he worked on several projects using both extruded and fabricated sheet pile connectors.

P.S. Check out the MarketScale Podcast with Andrew Norman talking about e-commerce in construction.