Methods, devices and machinery for making foundations;

Engineering with the ends of making foundations or underground structures involving the disturbance of the ground surface.

Investigation of foundation soil in situ;

Improving soil or rock;

Structural elements adapted to foundation engineering and equipment and methods of placing or removing them;

Preventing excavation walls or embankments from collapsing;

Keeping dry of foundation sites in the ground;

Caissons and the joining of caissons;

Testing, repairing, straightening, lowering or lifting foundation structures.

E02F covers soil-shifting and dredging independent from the purpose of foundations;

E21B covers drilling of earth or rock in general and without the intent of making foundations;

G01N covers investigating or analysing materials by determining their chemical or physical properties;

G01V covers geophysics in general and prospecting;

E02B covers hydraulic engineering.

Any investigation of a soil with respect to envisaged activities of building foundations on surface of that soil or partially or completely embedded in that soil covered by the investigation.

The investigations may be carried out before or after work for making the foundation is being done.

Investigations may also be done while the foundation work is in progress.

The investigations may comprise evaluation of physical properties, e.g. Young's modulus, compressibility, density, water saturation, weight, bearing capacity, pore-water pressure, permeability etc.

The investigation may comprise evaluation of chemical properties e.g. ph value.

The investigation distinguishes between soil itself and the fluids circulating in it.

The investigation in situ.

Sampling of probes like soil or water for off-site investigation.

The group covers the devices for exerting the investigation work as well as the method.

E21B covers drilling of earth or rock in general;

G01N covers investigating or analysing materials by deteremining their chemical or physical properties.

G01V covers geophysics in general and prospecting.

Improving of soil by adding or mixing with materials such as fibres, filaments, open mesh, stones, lost bodies, water, sand, gravel, chemical agents like grout or cement.

Improving of soil by compacting using mechanical, thermal, electrical or electro-chemical means.

Mechanical means include rolling, tamping, vibrating etc. of the soil on its surface or by penetrating the soil.

A01 covers soil working in agriculture or forestry;

E01C covers paving of roadway surface;

E21D covers rock anchoring in tunnels or mining pits.

Sheet piles made of steel and their locking forms;

Sheet piles of concrete and their locking forms;

Bulkheads made of concrete in situ, of prefabricated parts and concrete in situ;

Piles made of timber, steel or concrete;

Prefabricated piles or piles cast in position, e.g. concrete piles;

Concrete piles cast in position with or without the use of mould-pipes or moulds;

Mould-pipes or moulds for making piles or bulkheads;

Pile shoes;

Means for anchoring piles or bulkheads.

Inserting sheet piles, piles or mould-pipes for purpose of foundation into a soil.

Specifying the process of placing the above elements which may be done by driving, by vibrating, by pressure or pulling power, by screwing down, by using fluid jets, by using several means simultaneously, by means arranged inside a hollow pipe or mould pipe.

Machines and equipment for exerting these operations.

E21B covers earth drilling, e.g. deep drilling per se. In contrast, this class is aiming to insert a foundation element such as a pile or to inject e.g. grout in a soil to form a foundation element like a pile.

E04H covers sockets for posts and how to insert them in a ground.

Removing the top section of piles,

Removing by withdrawing,

Removing by cutting-off an element under water

E02D 7/00 covers the placing of sheet piles, piles, mould-pipes or other moulds;

E21B is about earth drilling including the withdrawal of the equipment.

Methods or apparatus equally suitable for placing and removing foundation elements such as sheet piles, piles or mould-pipes. In contrast, E02D 7/00 only covers the placing of foundation elements, E02D 9/00 only covers the removing of such elements.

see E02D 7/00

Accessories adapted to remove bulkheads, enabling control during the process of placing, removing of obstacles, follow-blocks and guide devices assisting in placing foundation elements.

E21B covers earth drilling in general

Handling materials when used for hydraulic engineering or for foundations;

Handling of bulk concrete including filling into shuttering, mould-pipes, pile tubes, bore-holes or narrow shafts and under water;

Sinking workpieces into water;

Placing gravel or light material under water.

E02F 1/00 covers general working methods with dredgers or soil-shifting machines;

E04G 21/00 covers preparing, conveying, or working-up building materials or building elements in situ;

E02B covers hydraulic engineering.

Pits for foundations and their borderings;

Narrow shafts or ditches and trenches for foundation;

Stiffening or bordering the sides of ditches or trenches by using travelling trench shores and shoring struts;

Covering and back-filling of those trenches;

Machines for making foundation slots, i.e. diaphragm walls;

Securing of slopes or inclines, e.g. to counter erosion, by flexible securing means e.g. geotextiles, prefabricated modular blocks or by sheet piles and piles.

E02F covers general working methods with dredgers or soil-shifting machines;

Protecting areas, particularly foundation areas like foundation pits, from the entry of water;

Water may arise as open water or underground water;

Lining sumps when in trenches, ditches or other foundation pits.

The methods comprising the building of coffer-dams, making open ditches or trenches, lowering the level of ground water, e.g. by pumping, interrupting the waters passage by freezing, damming, making sealing aprons or forcing out the water by e.g. compressed air.

Caissons and pneumatic caissons, their use involving bringing materials and persons in there;

Particularities of the use of such caissons comprising lowering and sinking, increasing lowering, jointing caissons to the foundation soil, solving problems such as skin friction while lowering.

Underwater connection of elements used for foundation underwater such as caissons, sinkers, or other units

Foundations when flat on the foundation soil, deeply embedded foundations such as pile foundations;

Foundations for special purposes, e.g. in earthquake territories, in frozen ground, in moors, for masts or machines;

special type of fixing the foundation to the ground such as anchoring or building underneath existing buildings for their recovery.

Looping references between E02D 27/34 and E04H 9/02 have been identified. Until this inconsistency is resolved, the current classification practice in CPC is as follows: both references should be treated as informative.

Underground or underwater structures as independent buildings or constructions, e.g. retaining or protecting walls, caverns, tunnels, siphons;

Tunnels for conduits;

Manhole shafts and covers therefore;

Joints in constructions and their arrangement;

Retaining walls

Protecting foundations from harmful influence such as water, humidity, noxious gases, corrosion by soil or water, transmission of vibrations, soil pressure, upward hydraulic pressure or frost heave.

Testing of foundation structures such as piles or other foundation structure

Altering the level of a foundation

Repairing improper foundations