Helical Former Ltd

HelicalFormer® is fast, safe, near silent, operator friendly with no specialist skill required, and has revolutionized the helical flight forming industry worldwide and in the US and Canada particularly where the helicals industry is booming.

Flights are produced at speed, hands free, with no need for any dies, tooling or mechanical changes from one design to another, and the machine itself built rugged for rigorous continuous flight production. HelicalFormer® dominates the global flight forming market for helical piering and screw piling as a result.

HelicalFormer® can form flights in singles or multiples at a time and provided the blank fits into the jaws and the material is within thickness limits of the machine, anything can be formed up to 50% pitch. Our larger machines can form up to 50mm (2”) thickness in singles and up to 4 flights at a time in multiples. 

As press and die machinery heaves its last, fabricators are replacing their legacy equipment with the HelicalFormer® and our early uptake clients bear testament to just how effective our machinery is. Having become giants in this booming and ever-growing industry, some of our core clients have their original HelicalFormer® machines still producing smaller domestic piling and our massive HF80 and HF80+ models churning out ultra large diameter flights for commercial piling applications.

HelicalFormer® has changed the game in flight production, and is the machinery of choice in the helical piling fabrication industry globally.

With the pressure on industry to reduce the environmental impact of concrete in sub-structures, HelicalFormer® actively supports that effort by enabling structural engineers to design ever larger, more sophisticated helical piling solutions to replace grouted piling. 

Helical piling eliminates the need for heavy excavation, full displacement piling and grouted/concrete footings and foundations. The wider benefits to the environment are extensive but specifically relevant when considering the impact that concrete in substructures have on our environment. Concrete is responsible for 50–85% of the embodied carbon in any building project, and the cement industry is responsible for about 8% of the world's anthropogenic CO2 emissions. HelicalFormer® plays a significant role in cutting the volume of concrete in any building project where helical piles are used.

Secondary pipe and steel can be used in the manufacture of helical piling and helical piling itself is also completely recyclable. The pile screws out of the ground as easily as it is screwed into the ground with zero percussion, and no soil displacement.

There are wider implications for this specifically when developing in sensitive environments, built up areas, on made up and reclaimed land and in greenfield sites. Solar farms and wind farms on agricultural land must consider the natural environment making a helical pile the ideal foundation solution.

We are active members of the Smart Electric Power Alliance and Solar Industries Energy Association and participate in numerous focus groups, the most recent being the 20th RE+ Expo in Anaheim, California. This keeps us on the leading edge of green technologies and initiatives globally, better equipped to understand the direction construction is headed toward and better able to support our clients to supply these markets.

The full circle loop of what the HelicalFormer® brings to the global NetZero drive is difficult to ignore and near impossible to fully quantify.

Bigger than these obvious environmental wins is the economy that helical piling has created in the USA and Canada specifically. An article published in Helical Pile World in August 2023 gave research statistics as follows;

(https://helicalpileworld.com/heilcal_pile_industry_growth_why_no_consolidation.html)

HPW’s research reveals there are now at least (25) helical pile manufacturers located in the U.S., which is an increase of (8) manufacturers since HPW last published this statistic in 2015

Also impressive is the number of Canadian-based manufacturers now totaling at least (16) or twice as many as reported in 2015

The combined total of (41) manufacturers is four times the number of companies that were manufacturing and selling helical piles in 2001 - a 400% increase in (22) years!
A market sector forecast report published in August 2023 by Data Bridge Market Research estimates the market as follows;

 (https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-screw-piles-market) 

 "...the global screw piles market was valued at USD 815.50 million in 2022, is expected to reach USD 1,080.52 million by 2030, and is expected to undergo a CAGR of 3.58% during the forecast period of 2023 to 2030."
What is pertinent to note here is that we have 37 HelicalFormer® machines in the USA and Canada.  It would be fair to say that the industry is backboned by our innovative product, business approach and service. It is, by extension, safe to say, that HelicalFormer® underpins the lot.

As a prosperity driven business, our driving motivation is our commitment to the sustainable, reputable and responsible growth of the global helical piling industry. Consequently, our efforts stretch well beyond the manufacture of a superb machine and extends to sharing our expert knowledge with our clients to ensure their success, advocating for change in attitudes to design and environmental responsibilities, and championing our youngsters into our dynamic industry. Our mission is to lead the way for others to follow. 

Advocate, Participate, Educate, Innovate, Invigorate. There is no other way.