Greater Accuracy and Less Downtime from Automatic Soil Compactor

The latest Automatic Soil Compactor, manufactured by ELE International (UK), the world’s leading supplier of construction materials testing and environmental instrumentation, is designed to improve the accuracy
and repeatability of soil compaction tests, while reducing labour time and costs. The Automatic Soil Compactor has been developed to comply with the most recent BS and ASTM standards and can be used for both Proctor and CBR tests; in addition, the latest system is robust, long lasting and compact, and is easy to setup and use.
The Automatic Soil Compactor incorporates a rotating mould table and vertically mounted rammer to produce the rotational and vertical movement required to compact a sample to the required specification.
The rammer can easily be adjusted for drop height and weight, while the turntable is automatically rotated through approximately 40 degrees after each blow as the rammer rises. Changing the rammer or adjusting the weight is carried out from the front rather than the top of the unit, while the rammer shaft is safely contained within the system housing.
Unlike a number of competing machines, where the turntable has to be moved laterally as well as rotationally on its support bearings, the Automatic Soil Compactor uses a single heavy duty bearing to support a rotating turntable, with the rammer alignment being changed using a unique solenoid controlled mechanism ensuring optimum compaction for each layer of soil. This configuration offers greater simplicity and reliability with a considerably longer operating life.
By comparison with hand compaction methods, the latest Automatic Soil Compactor can be left operating unattended for pre-determined periods and, as importantly, produces far more consistent results as each compaction stroke is identical in downward force and angle of alignment. The latest system can be used to compact samples in both 100/101mm diameter moulds, where each blow acts on a single radius, and 150/152mm moulds where consecutive blows are struck on an inner and
outer radius. The number of blows can be set via a simple front mounted control panel, with a digital display that resets to zero on completion of each test. The Automatic Soil Compactor conforms to a wide range of nationally and internationally recognised standards, including both BS1277-4 and ASTM D698, and is available from and supported by ELE and its network of distributors worldwide.