The background information discussed below is presented to better illustrate the novelty and usefulness of the present invention. This background information is not admitted prior art.
Piles are commonly used to support structures such as buildings, docks, piers, pipeline tie-downs, bridges and the like where the soil is unstable, shallow, covered by water or where a geotechnical engineer might recommend a deep foundation. They are often necessary for building foundations where the ground is not compacted, or strong enough or of variable capacity to carry a building structure. Pile(s) may be driven into the ground using pile driver or drilled/screwed into the ground, much like a screw into wood, using rotary powerheads. Typically, after installation, only a small portion of the pile remains above ground.
Piles may be made of wood, concrete, steel or other suitably strong material. When made of steel they are typically manufactured using varying sizes of tubular hollow sections for the pile or anchor shaft. Piles usually have a circular cross-section (when this cross-section is on a plane that's perpendicular to the pile's longitudinal axis), but they may have other cross-sectional shapes (e.g. having a square cross-section, an octagonal cross-section or an H-shaped cross-section). The pile shaft transfers at least a portion of the structure's load into the pile and the ground.
In order to properly connect the pile(s) to the relevant structural foundation elements of the building, dock, bridge or other structure that is to be supported, adjacent steel tubular piles are typically driven into the ground so that their above-ground portions are at the desired heights. Alternatively, a pile cutter may be employed to cut a plurality of piles to the desired vertical elevation above ground. Pile caps are often employed to finish off the piles and put them into a condition to accept the structural foundation elements and the structural load.
Often these pile caps simply comprise a flat plate of steel that is welded onto the end of the pile, with the welding performed on the underside of the cap; see, for example, FIG. 1. However, there are significant costs involved in hiring a welder. It also often takes considerable time to weld each cap onto a pile. Moreover, if the top of the pile only extends above the ground a short distance, the welder will have limited space to work and/or may have to dig out some of the surrounding dirt to obtain sufficient clearance. Additionally, if the pile is made of wood or concrete, welding a pile cap onto such a pile is impossible and another fastening method will need to be employed for such piles.
As such, this conventional method of capping piles is both time consuming and expensive. Therefore, what is needed is a pile cap that is easier and quicker to install than conventional caps and which can be installed on piles made of a range of different materials.