Hydrascan's water mains cleaning system wins award

Hydrascan's Typhoon system designed to clean water mains, has gained recognition at this year's United Kingdom Society for Trenchless Technology (UKSTT) Awards.

The new pipeline technology system was developed in association with Northumbrian Water, who set a challenge for an efficient means of cleaning the larger trunk mains as part of its four year mains cleaning programme.

The scheme will improve drinking water quality to 500,000 people in South East Northumberland, North Tyneside and the north of Newcastle.

In 2007, the water company tested a number of systems during field trials.

Northumbrian Water awarded Hydrascan, a subsidiary of Killbride Industrial Services, a contract with Lumsden and Carroll Civil Engineers to clean approximately 50 miles of water mains in Northumberland.

The system is now attracting interest from water authorities and contractors across the UK.

The water jetting technology uses a tethered pig system developed from technology used in the oil and gas industry.

It enables contractors to clean pipes ranging from 6 to 60 inches in diameter.

Requiring only a single entry point the system cleans up to 1km of pipe at one time and will save water authorities and their contractors millions of pounds in the cost of excavating and re-routing traffic for extended maintenance projects in both rural and urban environments.

Hydrascan technology achieves high levels of cleaning in pipes lined with concrete, cement, bitumen or PE and can be fitted with imaging equipment for surveying pipe condition.

Dr Neil Stutchbury, technical director, explained: "The hydro powered pig is jetted along a length of pipe where it will switch between propulsion and cleaning operations.

"On its return, multi directional controlled water jets remove any build up on pipe walls allowing for expedient, thorough and environmentally friendly cleaning at ranges of up to 500 meters - totalling 1km in both directions from a single entry point.

"Compared to the Typhoon system, current pigging and swabbing methods require substantially more plant, equipment and machine operatives on site - each pipe length that requires cleaning necessitates an excavation at each end of the pipe length as access to both ends of the pipe is required and only average cleaning results can be obtained''.

Hydrascan engineers have a professional background in the design of tethered and free swimming pigs in the oil and gas industries and the system is able to pass around pipe bends and flush out all waste to be pumped off-site and disposed of.

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