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Scottish water News
HIGH-TECH UK-FIRST TO SOLVE HISTORIC SEWER PROBLEM
Scottish Water has turned to ultra-high-pressure robotics in a UK-first to remove decades of industrial deposits blocking a strategic sewer in South Lanarkshire.
The ultra-high-pressure robotic cutter has been developed to clear sewers from 10cm to a metre in diameter.
Nearly a kilometre of Rutherglen’s Eastfield trunk sewer had become clogged with concrete-like calcite and suspected hazardous materials running under former industrial land. All efforts to safely remove them using conventional methods such as jetting, and diamond-tipped milling heads had proved unsuccessful.
But then Scottish Water Project Manager Marc McKinnie started speaking to people in the publicly owned utility’s supply chain, including delivery partner George Leslie Ltd.
He said: “As a project team we rapidly understood that typical methods would not work here and that we needed to be inventive."
“We started to ask around and one of our suppliers told us about a new robotic cutter on the market in Germany capable of operating at 40,000 pounds-per-square-inch with outstanding precision.
“This is the first of its kind to be used in the UK and one of only three worldwide, and it has made all the difference.
“In just three months we have been able to clean the entire kilometre of sewer – something we had been struggling to achieve for several years using conventional methods.”
The robot works by directing narrow, ultra-high-pressure jets of water onto the hard deposits, effectively ‘cutting’ them into smaller pieces.
The technique is safe for the environment and ensures potentially hazardous materials from historic industrial sites can be flushed out and safely disposed of.
Robert Emans, Operations Manager at Enviro-Clean (Scotland) Ltd said: “We are excited to have been able to support Scottish Water in finding an innovative approach to the problem and successfully demonstrating the capability of the Ultra High-Pressure Robotic Cutter."
“It really is a game changer for us, allowing greater versatility in tackling stubborn blockages in sewers from 10cm to a metre wide, coupled with constant CCTV monitoring allowing our team to ensure precision cutting.
“It also significantly reduces time on-site, cuts costs and lowers our carbon footprint providing a greener solution.
“Enviro-Clean continues to invest in cutting-edge technology, to provide the safest solutions possible, keeping us at the forefront of the wastewater industry.”
Nearly a kilometre of Rutherglen’s Eastfield trunk sewer had become clogged with concrete-like calcite and suspected hazardous materials running under former industrial land. All efforts to safely remove them using conventional methods such as jetting, and diamond-tipped milling heads had proved unsuccessful.
But then Scottish Water Project Manager Marc McKinnie started speaking to people in the publicly owned utility’s supply chain, including delivery partner George Leslie Ltd.
He said: “As a project team we rapidly understood that typical methods would not work here and that we needed to be inventive."
“We started to ask around and one of our suppliers told us about a new robotic cutter on the market in Germany capable of operating at 40,000 pounds-per-square-inch with outstanding precision.
“This is the first of its kind to be used in the UK and one of only three worldwide, and it has made all the difference.
“In just three months we have been able to clean the entire kilometre of sewer – something we had been struggling to achieve for several years using conventional methods.”
The robot works by directing narrow, ultra-high-pressure jets of water onto the hard deposits, effectively ‘cutting’ them into smaller pieces.
The technique is safe for the environment and ensures potentially hazardous materials from historic industrial sites can be flushed out and safely disposed of.
Robert Emans, Operations Manager at Enviro-Clean (Scotland) Ltd said: “We are excited to have been able to support Scottish Water in finding an innovative approach to the problem and successfully demonstrating the capability of the Ultra High-Pressure Robotic Cutter."
“It really is a game changer for us, allowing greater versatility in tackling stubborn blockages in sewers from 10cm to a metre wide, coupled with constant CCTV monitoring allowing our team to ensure precision cutting.
“It also significantly reduces time on-site, cuts costs and lowers our carbon footprint providing a greener solution.
“Enviro-Clean continues to invest in cutting-edge technology, to provide the safest solutions possible, keeping us at the forefront of the wastewater industry.”
www.scottishwater.co.uk
