During excavation work along the coastline with (raised) digging machines there is a serious risk these machines will sink. Sometimes such machine can even not be recovered before high tide is arriving. The machine is flooded in sea water and is heavily damaged or even is completely out of order.

Floats for emergency situations

Buitink Technology developed a float system to have these excavation machine floating on the water in case of emergency. Practically no damage will occur.

The example on this page deals with the recovery of a raised excavation machine, having a total weight of 90 tons.

'Swimming floats' for excavation machines

Inflatable floats or "swimming floats" can be inflated using air pumps, included in the delivery of floats. However these floats can also be inflated through the use of high pressure air cylinders. They can be activated manually or automatically by a sensor in contact with water.

Engineering emergency float system

Inflate floaters