Product Spotlight: Melfred Borzall FastBack System
A large gas distribution contractor was facing a tough challenge: it had a short horizontal directional drilling (HDD) job that required crossing six different utilities.
This 120-ft bore, to install a 3-in. polyethylene gas main, meant weaving through one 6-in. high pressure gas main, one 6-in. low pressure cast iron gas main, one 6-in. water main and three communications lines. It was a three-dimensional puzzle buried in the ground. Though the red clay soil made for relatively easy drilling, this job required precision and careful attention. There was no room for error.
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Before work began, the crew was skeptical and asked, “Why not just trench the job?” There was the inevitable grumbling that comes with trying something new.
When the bore was completed, the crew was blown away with the amount of time it saved. With the FastBack System from Melfred Borzall, the whole job was completed in a single day. The drilling only took a couple of hours. Most the time was spent manually hollowing out the areas surrounding the existing lines. The amount of time the contractor saved was enough to convince the company to invest in several additional FastBack Systems to put to work in other scenarios.
The FastBack System was the perfect solution to a complicated job like this one. Melfred Brozall’s original impetus to develop this groundbreaking (no pun intended) tooling was to make drillers safer and more efficient. The FastBack System reduces the need to haul a breakout system down into the pit to install the reamer. Now crews can simply install FastReam cutter blocks directly to the housing by using a set of Allen wrenches and other small tools. Cleaning the housing and installing the cutter blocks can be completed in a few minutes. The result is safer, quicker and easier to manage equipment that helps drillers get the job done better.
