The FFL 100© is a state of the art designed measuring device developed in close co-operation between Geomil Equipment B.V. and German GIESA mbH and fits all Geomil twin ram penetrometer pushers.

With a nominal torque of 100 Nm all standard but also customised vanes dimensions can be applied, allowing for the determination of the un-drained shear strength of cohesive soils.

While existing manual and electrical vane testers often suffer from low measuring accuracy and unsteady and thus imprecise rotational speeds, the FFL 100 overcomes these limitations by a PLC controlled high precision drive gear with torque sensor and an adjustable rotational speed, ranging from 0.1° to 15° per second. Furthermore, the testing process and the data acquisition are fully software controlled. The easy to use control and recording software is based on a Visual Basic module in an Excl user environment, allowing for user defined testing procedures and data analyses.

The measured values are graphically visualised in real-time and plotted against the rotational angle. Simultaneously all measured values, sample number and time are logged in a separate spread sheet.

Skin friction forces along the turning rod string, masked in the real shear failure force, can be eliminated by actuating the vane with CPT tubes running in a casing string or by using vane protection shoes. Also, when the skin friction is determined by applying a slip coupling, the recording software automatically subtracts the friction from the failure force.