IQIP: Driving Innovation in Offshore Foundations and Lifting Solutions
IQIP is a global leader in installation and foundation projects. This innovative company is pushing the boundaries of possibility ahead of the curve so that as demands grow, it will always be able to supply. Director Strategy & Business Development Alfred Maas tells Energy Focus that onshore and offshore, in piling or lifting and handling, IQIP has a solution.
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Exclusive Interview with Alfred Maas, Director Strategy & Business Development
IQIP has spent the past decade quietly becoming one of the most influential service providers in global energy infrastructure, supplying the equipment that quite literally holds some of the world’s most ambitious projects together. From foundation piling to complex lifting and handling challenges, the company’s tools sit at the critical interface between engineering theory and offshore reality. As demand for offshore wind accelerates and project complexity increases, IQIP’s growth story is inseparable from the wider transformation of the energy sector.
Originally formed through the merger of several specialist businesses in 2015, IQIP’s foundations are firmly rooted in Dutch engineering heritage. That consolidation brought together decades of experience in piling, handling and offshore construction under one roof, creating a business capable of delivering complete foundation installation solutions. The company’s evolution took another decisive step in 2023 when it separated from Royal IHC and became a standalone organisation backed by HAL Investments, providing the financial strength needed to invest at scale in new technologies and rental fleets.
Today, IQIP employs over 400 people across 10 locations worldwide, with a significant concentration of expertise in the Netherlands. As Director Alfred Maas explains: “We are truly international including operations in Australia, China, Singapore, Middle East, several locations in Europe, and the USA.” While global in reach, the company’s roots remain Dutch, originating from a strong maritime cluster in The Netherlands.
That heritage underpins IQIP’s positioning as a service provider rather than a pure equipment supplier. Its business model is built around renting high‑value, highly specialised technology to major contractors, supported by in‑house expertise. “In principle, IQIP does everything required for foundation installation and handling,” Maas says. “If you have a pile, you have to lift it, you have to hold it, and you need to drive it into the ground. Those activities are the core business for us. It is not something we do only through the provision of equipment, but it is done with our in-depth industry knowledge.”
CORE MARKETS
IQIP operates across four distinct but interconnected market segments, each placing different demands on its equipment and people. Onshore, marine and coastal projects remain a steady backbone of the business, particularly within the Coastal & Civil segment, where our Hydrohammer® technology — combined with our vibrohammer range — is consistently used for infrastructure, coastal and nearshore developments. “In that market, contractors are typically driving piles for quaysides or ports and that is a 365 day a year job,” Maas notes. “It is smaller hammers – 90 up to 350 kilojoule – that are working all the time. Our key offering there is reliability.”
That emphasis on reliability has translated directly into offshore wind, now one of IQIP’s most important growth markets. Offshore projects compress installation schedules and dramatically increase the cost of downtime, making equipment performance mission‑critical. “We took that core knowledge to the offshore wind market where it is not 365 days working on multiple piles, but it is more like one pile per day and is absolutely about reliability to ensure no downtime,” Maas explains. “With downtime, the project cost increase significantly, and that is not good for the viability of offshore wind projects.”
Oil and gas continues to play a vital role, particularly in lifting and handling applications for jacket foundations and large structures. The experience gained in this demanding environment has fed directly into offshore wind. “The other side of the business grew in oil and gas with the handling of piles for jackets, lifting of jackets, and similar functions,” Maas says. “We do that in a failsafe way, and that experience has allowed us to grow into offshore wind which is a booming market.”
Beyond installation, IQIP is also positioning itself for the full lifecycle of energy assets. “We know that everything we put into the ground will need to be lifted out at some point in time, and that is why we have our decommissioning market,” Maas adds, reflecting a long‑term view that aligns with the growing focus on responsible end‑of‑life strategies for offshore infrastructure.
PILE DRIVING PORTFOLIO
At the heart of IQIP’s offering is its hammer technology, led by the Hydrohammer® series. Offshore wind, in particular, has driven rapid increases in monopile size and penetration depth, pushing the limits of impact piling. Over the past three years, IQIP has responded with significant investment in its rental fleet and engineering capabilities. “Over the last years, the market needed us to step up — and we did,” Maas smiles. “In principle, we are a knowledge and rental company, and we do major projects where we rent technology, equipment and people. To work like this, you need to be able to invest, and for that you need a strong shareholder.”
Those investments have paid off. “Almost 75% of all offshore windfarms are driven with our equipment and that is something to be proud of,” Maas notes, underlining the company’s scale of deployment. The Hydrohammer® IQ-series has become synonymous with offshore wind piling, culminating in the introduction of the IQ6 in 2022. “Now, the IQ6 can produce 6600 kilojoule and is the currently the biggest working hammer in the world,” Maas says. “This is something we are very proud of and we believe our team has done a fantastic job with this product. With this hammer, we have driven more than 400 monopiles in the last two years.”
As soil conditions become more challenging and monopiles continue to grow, development is already underway on the next generation. “We also see that driving in tougher soil types means that you need more energy and that is why our team is currently working on the IQ8,” Maas explains. “When the market needs that, we are capable of producing and delivering the IQ8 – probably in the next few years.”
This trajectory mirrors broader industry research highlighting the technical challenges associated with deeper water sites, denser soils and stricter environmental controls resulting in an increased size and weight of monopiles. Academic studies have pointed to the need for higher energy installation methods combined with effective noise mitigation, an area where IQIP has focused considerable attention.
NOISE SOLUTIONS
Environmental regulation, particularly around underwater noise, has become one of the defining constraints on offshore construction. “The major challenge is to deliver the necessary force to overcome soil resistance while significantly reducing underwater noise levels without the need for additional bubble curtains whilst remaining within noise legislations,” Maas says of IQIP’s customers. “That is a trade‑off. Hitting hard will get it in, but it will make noise. It’s a balancing act”.
IQIP’s response has been a series of innovations designed to reduce noise without compromising performance. The PULSE® system, developed over several years, has become a cornerstone of this strategy. “We have been developing PULSE for the past few years, and we took that to the market for use on monopiles with bigger hammers,” Maas explains. Its successful subsea deployment for jacket pin pile foundations marked a significant milestone. “The question came about whether we could do it subsea for jackets and that is something we have delivered successfully on Hai Long, installing 219 piles without major issue, and reducing noise by up to 6dB.”
That project, delivered in Taiwan using the Hydrohammer® IQ2 combined with a subsea PULSE unit, demonstrated how targeted innovation can unlock complex installations in environmentally sensitive regions. “We have been working for CDWE on what is a regionally critical project,” Maas says, pointing to the growing international footprint of IQIP’s offshore wind operations.
The company’s most recent step change in noise reduction comes through the EQ-Piling technology, which challenges the fundamentals of impact piling. “With the hit on the anvil involved in piling, you inevitable create noise,” Maas explains. “With EQ-Piling, there is not a hit but a push.” By converting potential energy into a controlled force, the system dramatically reduces acoustic output. “That reduces noise to under 160dB and that is a real achievement as monopiles grow,” Maas adds. “Building on the successful inshore demonstration carried out at Maasvlakte 2 in Rotterdam, we are now preparing for a full‑scale offshore monopile installation later this year. Following this installation, EQ‑Piling will transition from a development-phase innovation to project‑ready technology. We have strong confidence in validating the technology’s potential and its commercial application.”
BEYOND HAMMERS
While piling remains central, IQIP has deliberately broadened its portfolio to cover the full handling chain. “We are not only a hammer company,” Maas says. “We offer a broad range of solutions; all related to foundation installations.” This includes tools designed to reduce offshore time, improve safety and simplify logistics.
The launch of the VibroLift® VQ-series in 2025 reflects that integrated approach. “We launched that product in 2025. It is a lifting and vibratory tool in one, and can be easily combined with our hammer so that we can make use of the same power, same technicians, and same knowledge,” Maas explains. In parallel, innovations such as the Combi Lifting Spread (CLS) address the growing pressure to minimise vessel days. “Our CLS is a quick connect system that can connect to different tools very quickly, reducing the time needed offshore,” Maas notes. “Time offshore is expensive and there is a real requirement for efficiency.”
IQIP has also responded to the rapid growth in monopile dimensions. “Currently, the largest monopiles are going up to 2500 tonnes and so we have built our next generation of Flanged Pile Upending tools,” Maas says. “We decided to invest in another tool capable of lifting 3500 tonnes. It’s first application is on the Inch Cape project in Scotland.”
STRONG PIPELINE
Across offshore wind, oil and gas, and onshore markets, IQIP’s strategy is defined by anticipation rather than reaction. “We constantly remain ahead of the curve and we need to do that because the things we develop now must be ready to go on projects two or three years from now,” Maas says. That forward focus is reinforced by data, digitalisation and an expanding in‑house knowledge base. “Our equipment is now equipped with sensors and is very connected,” Maas explains, describing how data collection feeds back into continuous improvement.
With thousands of piles already installed worldwide, the company’s experience continues to compound. “By doing that, we have gained a lot of knowledge about how soil types interact with our hammers and how our equipment works best,” Maas says. “We learn how we can reduce noise and how we can innovate to make improvements.”
As offshore wind projects move into deeper waters and tougher conditions, and oil and gas assets are increasingly decommissioned, IQIP’s role is set to become even more central. “As piles get bigger, our ideas get bigger,” Maas concludes, capturing a growth philosophy built on innovation, close collaboration with contractors, developers and regulative bodies and a determination to stay one step ahead of the industry’s next challenge.