The Tracto-Technik horizontal bore unit type Grundodrill 13X drills through hard-rock cave walls in Postojna, Slovenia.
The Slovenian company Vilkograd carried out its first large-scale rock drilling task at the famous Postojna cave labyrinth using the Grundodrill 13X bore rig, manufactured by Tracto-Technik, the bore tool specialist from Lennestadt, Germany.
The secret, underground chalky world in Postojna is an area that used to form the sea in the southwest Slovenia. The cave system, stretching more than 27 km with its stalactites and sintering pillars, is known as one of the most impressive natural wonders in Europe.
A main tourist attraction in Slovenia, the cave offers an ideal environment for the cave lurch, an endangered species of amphibian. The cave tour starts by entering the cave by rail, followed by a round tour through the rows of lit-up cave halls and underground pathways. The battery-operated cave paths are regularly re-loaded at a central loading station.
After many years in operation, plans were made to install a sanitation system in the tour loading station. For practical reasons, the cave administration team decided to re-locate the loading station from the inside to outside the cave, making it necessary to install a direct pipeline connection. The open-trench method could not be employed due to the installation length, awkward installation paths, and extremely stony ground.
A direct connection required two rock drillings through the cave wall, each at 30-m-lengths at a distance of 1m from the outside to the inside. Steel pipes had to be installed as protection pipes into the expanded rock bore hole in order to retain power cables.
Grundodrill bore rig during the pilot bore
Specializing in horizontal bores and trenchless pipe rehabilitation for 10 years, Vilkograd won the contract. The company has 60 employees and operates in Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro.
A horizontal bore unit type Grundodrill 13X, bought by Vilkograd in 2002, was used in this project, according to Viljem Kolar, the owner of the company. Its first large-scale rock drilling task, Vilkograd called in René Schrinner, the bore tool specialist from Tracto-Technik, to support the bore team.
To determine the optimal starting point, the team used a laser-theodolite to measure the direction and the inclination percentage. Operators used the Grundorock-Mudmotor to complete the pilot bore through extremely hard chalkstone, which took approximately 30 to 40 minutes for the 3-m-long drill rods. The Grundorock-Mudmotor requires only a relatively small quantity of drilling fluid for the operation, which is an advantage. The cable guided measuring system precisely controlled the roll and pitch of the mud motor.
Starting the cable-guided pilot bore
The expanding bore then followed with a 10-in hole-opener (equals a diameter of 250 mm). The steel pipe ND 219 was built into the borehole with the support of an Olymp rammer. Due to the surroundings, only short steel pipe lengths could be rammed in at a time, which had to be welded one after the other. Finally, the power cable was installed and connected to the new loading station. Vilkograd completed the construction work around the rock drilling in six days.
Tracto-Technik GmbH
Spezialmaschinen
Lennestadt, Germany
Shaney Construction Company Inc. (USA) awarded an order for 12 modified clarifiers to Eimco Water Technologies LLC, a division of Groupe Laperriére & Verreault Inc.
Eimco will modify twelve 155-foot diameter suction clarifiers, installed 20 years ago, to include new Eimco C60P drives, energy dissipating inlets (EDI), and extended trough skimmers at the Back River Waste Water Treatment Plant, Baltimore, Maryland. These upgrades will extend the service life of the clarifiers for another 20 years. Delivery is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2006.
This project is part of a major upgrade to improve the quality of the discharged effluent from the treatment plant in response to the increasing demand of a growing industrial city. The plant treats 180 million gallons of sewage each day for 1.3 million residents. The project is scheduled for completion by 2008
Many types of municipal wastewater clarifiers are available, but their principal purposes are the same: settle suspended solids, collect and withdraw the settled solids, remove surface scum, and collect clarified effluent. Equipment furnished for a clarifier mechanism typically includes an access bridge walkway, a center drive assembly and operations platform, influent piping, a flocculating feedwell, sludge collection equipment, scum removal equipment, and effluent weir plates and scum baffles. Other features, such as an energy-dissipating inlet or control panels, are also often included.
Eimco groups municipal wastewater clarifiers into two broad categories based on how the mechanism is supported. Bridge supported units are supported by walkway beams spanning the entire width of the clarifier tank, and all of the equipment is then suspended from these bridge beams or the tank walls. Bridge supported units are usually less than 50 feet in diameter. Column supported units are supported primarily by a column in the center of the tank, and this type of support style is usually used for diameters greater than 30 feet.
Within each of the bridge and column supported categories, an additional distinction is made based on the type of sludge collection equipment that is used. Sludge is collected either by blades or by a suction device, or by a combination of the two. A number of surface skimming and scum collection equipment designs can also be incorporated with each type of mechanism, and the end user will want to select the option that best meets their needs.
Eimco Water Technologies LLC
Salt Lake City, Utah USA
Enquiry no. 100
The Kärcher Water Bottling Plant 700 will be ready for use in Central Asia beginning October 2006. High-quality water bottling will also be soon available through this system at the ISAF mission of the Federal German Armed Forces (Bundeswehr) in Afghanistan.
The system, which is called Water Filling Station (WAS) in the Bundeswehr jargon, will be set up in Mazar-e Sharif as a pilot project in connection with the relocation of the German Mission Forces from Kabul to North Afghanistan. Following the WTC 1600 GT-BW and WTC 6000 BW water purification systems, the Water Bottling Plant 700 is another Kärcher system which has found its way to Afghanistan.
In the WBP 700, PET bottles with a capacity of one liter are produced from small lightweight pre-forms in the field. These bottles are filled with freshly purified drinking water produced by the WTC 1600 GT-BW and WTC 6000 BW, and then capped and labeled under hygienic conditions.
Starting the cable-guided pilot bore
This reduces the logistical effort for the field camp and helps to save enormous expenditures on personnel, fuel, trucks and convoy accompanying vehicles.
By using pre-forms, volume handling is reduced by more than 90% while its weight is reduced by more than 95%. Up to 15,000 bottles can be filled every day. “The Bottling Plant 700 is a logical further development of our systems in the area of mobile water purification and has a huge potential“, according to Managing Director of Kärcher Futuretech, Helmut Stelzmüller.
Kärcher Futuretech GmbH Winnenden, Germany
Enquiry no. 101
