WHAT IS THE "GRIPPER SYSTEM" AND HOW DOES THE GRIPPER WORK?
The "Gripper System" is a fully engineered, cost effective, labour reducing, structurally superior environmental solution to sandbag stability. It provides a stronger more flexible solution than traditional concrete block, rock and other hardscapes.
Any plant that will grow in the environment where the project is located will grow in the "Gripper System" bar none. The "Gripper System" is the most advanced evolution of technology for "Terra Wall" applications that is available in the industry today.
The term “Terra Wall” has many forms and other commonality in name would be Mechanically Stabilized Earth (MSE) Walls, Reinforced Soil Slopes (RSS), Slope Stabilization, River Bank Stabilizations and any type of Retaining Wall to include vertical applications.
When used in projects, the “Gripper System” has provided end users with cost savings of 30% or more over traditional building methods, while providing a truly environmentally friendly engineered solution.
WHAT DO THEY DO?
The Gripper - Getting to grips with the challenge!
The Gripper has been approved for every job where its use has been required and where an engineered tender has been submitted on its behalf. This is the type of praise that has enabled The Gripper to service the needs of many end users. It really has been thoroughly evaluated from all sides.
The “Gripper System” is a complete environmental system that features The Gripper.
It is this active component that makes such bagged structures much stronger, durable and hence more widely useful in their application.
Each gripper can be used singularly by being placed across a pair of sandbags. As this build phase is repeated and extended throughout the full structure of the sandbag construction, The Gripper works by mobilizing more of the resting inertia of the constituent bags so resisting to a much greater degree any force that such a structure is subjected to.
Another useful feature of The Gripper is its unique patented interlocking capability.
Grippers can be clipped together in a variety of ways forming an unlimited supportive three dimensional structure to reflect the needs of the structure being constructed at any given time.
Saratoga Technologies refers to this design feature as its ‘endoskeleton’ capability onto which the constituent bags are placed as well as any meshwork or sheeting materials. Because of this flexibility, technicians in the field refer to it as a form of 'plastic mortar'.
As is often the case in projects such as riverbank stability, a fully green credential is sought with the soil in the bag usually a mixture of 70% sand and 30% topsoil. This can vary accordingly to the required end product. Where speed is of the essence such as in the construction of a handy flood preventive wall, local material and labour can be easily harnessed to meet the needs of the situation with minimum training needed to fully understand how the construction needs to be assembled.
As a result, what are achievable with The Gripper are improved construction techniques with far greater shear and pull out strengths (exceeding 3,500 lbs. per bag). The reinforced structure thus provides significantly superior strength to resist high tide or riverbank breaches. It also increases the scope of works that a Terra Wall can be used for.
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO RE-ENGINEER A SLOPE BECAUSE OF WATER?
Virtually nothing, as the gripper cost goes hand in hand with either a cost of a bag of sand or earth. The properties of the Gripper System reduce construction time because the Gripper system can eliminate the need for expensive engineering solutions.
WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BUILD A "GRIPPER SYSTEM" WALL?
For this we quote known feedback for our Gripper System whilst constructed using standard labour.
The cost of labour and the engineering ability of the Gripper System is comparable or better than competitive systems, whether hardscapes or softscapes.
Although the Gripper system is straight forward, there are building techniques which can greatly improve the efficiency and productivity of the installation with the end result achieving the highest quality bio-engineered system in the market today.
As each row of bags are placed tightly in a continuous row from end-to-end, a layer of Grippers are interconnected and placed on top, spanning the entire row from end-to-end, providing continuous connection strength. This system is fully patented. Whether a Government Agency, large contractor, or private homeowner, the "Gripper System" can be implemented to achieve a fully vegetated environmental solution spanning a wide variety of applications whether large or small.