The conventional manner of driving piles into the ground is to use very large cranes capable of lifting a large weight along a boom by the use of a cable with the weight being guidingly released along the boom. The boom is aligned with a pile to be driven into the ground with the pile having a connecting cap at a top end thereof usually supporting a large piece of wood to absorb sound and transfer the impact force of the weight when dropped along the boom by releasing the cable. Accordingly, this large weight applies a blow onto the connecting cap to provide one impacting force on the top end of the pile. Such conventional pile driving equipment is very noisy and time-consuming to install and operate. The impact force of the large weight also generates vibrations into the soil which are often felt in surrounding buildings. The pile driving process is also very slow due to the fact that a large weight needs to be raised along a boom and then released to free-fall onto the connecting caps secured to the top ends of the pile being driven. Transportation of these large cranes is also expensive.
Another type of pile driving device is the diesel hammer which also requires to be mounted on a boom and the hammer is positioned on top of a pile to be driven. A piston is actuated in the diesel hammer by explosions in a combustion chamber and it generates impact frequencies which are much superior to that of the large pile drivers above-described. A typical example of a diesel engine pile driving hammer is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,497,376 where prior art problems of such hammers are described. Diesel pile driving hammers are also drop hammers which contact an anvil which is disposed in a connecting cap also seated on the top end of a pile to be driven. A large boom and hoist line is also required to hoist and release a ram from the hoist line to compress and heat entrapped air which has been captured within the piston cylinder casing between the ram and the handle and explode atomized diesel fuel which has been injected and mixed with the entrapped and compressed air. The explosion causes the hammer to apply blows onto the top of the pile. Diesel hammers are of less weight than the pile driver cranes described hereinabove but they provide more impact. They are also very noisy.