Hertal Showcases Vacuum Excavation Systems at Open House
U Mole (part of the Groundforce division of Vp plc), alongside sister organizations ESS Safeforce and Groundforce’s Site Safe, recently attended an Open Day, hosted by Hertel, at the ConocoPhilips site in Seal Sands, Stockton-on-Tees, United Kingdom.
The event brought together many of the Vp plc divisions to help Hertel promote the many innovative and different services that the company can now offer throughout the site. The aim of the Open Day was to highlight the range of Hertel skills and experiences across the business that are now, or which could potentially be, utilized to meet ConocoPhilips’ needs, to the benefit of both companies.
Hertel showed particular interest in the U Mole range of Vacuum Excavation systems and were a major highlight of the day as part of the range of options demonstrated to ConocoPhilips. The demonstration showed how the vacuum excavation option could meet key objectives to maintain and increase the levels of efficiency and safety on site through ConocoPhilips’ “Better Tools Better Methods” initiative.
The event was very well attended with around 150 delegates, despite the weather not being at its best. These visitors enjoyed not only the equipment demonstrations but were also treated to a hog-roast, winter warmer lunch.
Commenting on the event Hertel event, U Mole sales and marketing director Frank Gowdy said: “Alongside our sister operations, we at U Mole were very pleased with the results of the Open Day. Since the event we have been back with Hertel to complete further equipment demonstrations to highlight the capabilities of the Vacuum Excavation systems we offer to the broader Hertel Group. We are looking forward to these and potential future visits being the start of mutually beneficial relationship with this highly respected company.”
VACUUM SYSTEMS
The vacuum excavation systems on display were the German-manufactured MTS Dino 3, and U.S.-built Vac-Tron units, both system being available as non-operated rental or for sale and for which U Mole is the exclusive United Kingdom and Ireland approved distributor.
The MTS Dino 3 vacuum excavation unit demonstrated at the Hertel Open Day is just one of a family of systems manufactured by MTS. The range comprises stand alone, truck and rail mounted equipment in spoil capacities from 1 m3 to 12.5 m3 or greater with road variants available on 2, 3 or 4 axle chassis from 7.5 to 40 tonne gross weight. Across the range the units feature the MTS patented cyclonic air movement system enabling the equipment to provide an industry leading performance with air flow rates of up to 40,000 m3/hour at up to 55,000 Pa depression. Being suitable for a wide range of wet and dry applications, all MTS equipment is supplied with a range of specialist air operated excavation tools for ground loosening prior to its removal in the air stream of the equipment.
Available in single, twin and quadruple fan configurations the equipment also features remote control hose booms in Standard Telescopic format, or more commonly in the full hydraulic Power Boom and Mega Boom configurations. All units provide hydraulic side tipping tanks for spoil removal.
The company’s Vac-Tron systems can be skid-, trailer- or truck-mounted and feature hydraulically opening and tipping spoil tanks in a range of capacities. Also now available is the LP Air variant featuring not only on-board high pressure water, but also high performance air compressors for safe dry excavations.
Across the range units are suitable for both wet and dry use with the Vac-Tron LP series offering end users high levels of performance across a wide range of applications. The equipment’s modular construction makes it highly flexible when it comes to mounting. Clients can mount equipment directly to stand alone skids, a vehicle chassis, flat-bed trucks or to bespoke trailers, making the equipment highly adaptable for works on the road, on-site, in mines/quarries etc.
The LP AIR models also feature an on-board 150-cfm air compressor as standard. This allows the equipment to excavate with water or air depending on prevailing ground conditions and eliminates the need for a separate air source on site. The systems are available with 1,135 to 2,000 l spoil tank capacities with diesel and super diesel options.
The high performance Vac-Tron reversible flow vacuum pumps, producing between 550 and 1,000 cfm at 15 to 20 in Hg depending on model choice, feature on all units.
All systems feature hydraulic door opening and tipping, super slick tank liner and an integral dump valve for fluid discharge. Tank-mounted manual or remote control hydraulic hose support booms are also available as an optional extra.
In closing, Gowdy commented: “Overall U Mole and the other Vp plc operations felt that the Open Day was a success and it is hoped this will lead to similar events over other sites in the near future.”
EQUIPMENT RANGE
U Mole is the direct factory United Kingdom and Ireland distributor for Earth Tool equipment offering the company’s full range of products for trenchless installation and pipeline replacement. This range includes: impact moles (earth piercing tools), pipe ramming hammers, twin capstan winches, static rod pipe bursting systems and the portable cable-based, hydraulic pipe burster range.
Further to this range and in addition to the suction/vacuum excavation systems mentioned previously, U Mole also supplies a full and extensive range of trenchless and limited dig equipment including: surface coring equipment for the ‘Keyhole’ excavation of utilities and services with minimum disruption to the local area and minimum damage to the buried service. Other trenchless related equipment available includes the market leading Robbins SBU equipment, Pipe to Site coiled pipe trailer range, pipe fusion systems, Reed Tools and a complete range of accessories such as Cobra flexible rodding, towing heads, cable socks, pipe pigs, swivels, breakaway connectors etc.
This article was provided by U Mole, based in Cambs, United Kingdom.
