Equipment of choice of the German Army

January 8, 2014

When it comes to choosing the right equipment to categorise soil for selecting the right locations for aircraft landing strips then the German Army picked a new Penetrologger developed over three years ago by Eijkelkamp Agrisearch Equipment and the German Federal Defense Force. The German army required a Penetrologger for its ground troops who search for, among other things, suitable locations that can serve as landing strips. Here it is essential to determine the loadbearing capacity of the ground and using our new simple-to-operate Penetrologger, it is possible to measure the load-bearing capacity to a depth of 60cm.

This new Penetrologger is lighter, more compact and the handles can be removed. This makes transporting it even easier. Special batteries and specifically developed software are used in this equipment and, in addition, the measuring unit meets the specifications of the California Bearing Ratio (CBR), a penetration test for evaluation of the mechanical strength of road subgrades and base-courses. It was developed by the California Department of Transportation before World War II and is performed by measuring the pressure required to penetrate a soil sample with a plunger of standard area. The CBR can also be used for measuring the load-bearing capacity of unimproved airstrips or for soils under paved airstrips and the harder the surface, the higher the CBR rating. A CBR of 3 equates to tilled farmland, a CBR of 4.75 equates to turf or moist clay, while moist sand may have a CBR of 10. High quality crushed rock has a CBR over 80. The standard material for this test is crushed California limestone which has a value of 100.

The United States Army Corps of engineers has used the California Bearing Ratio test since the 1940’s and this method is now used throughout the world to easily determine the load-bearing capacity of ground and foundation material. The Penetrologger CBR is therefore extremely suitable for both military and civil applications.

For more information on the Penetrologger call Van Walt on +44 (0)1428 661 660 or click here.