U Mole Pipe Coil Trailers Used as Part of JCB’s Open House
U Mole (a division of Vp plc, operating within Groundforce) was recently invited to provide support equipment to an Open Day being held Nov. 11-12, 2009 at the World Headquarters of the JCB organization. The event, which was addressed by the then-Thames Water CEO David Owens, focused on the utilities sector.
Approximately 500 visitors attended the event over the two days, including major players in the service provision for gas, water, electricity and IT (Information Technology) networks.
As one of several suppliers that loaned equipment to JCB for the Open Days, U Mole provided a pipe coil trailer, which was needed for an exercise that showed the safe transportation and deployment of a 180-mm diameter coiled gas pipe, loaned by Radius Systems. It is interesting to note that there is more than 250 kg of inert energy stored in the coiled reel, which can be difficult to manage once the pipe coil ties have been cut and the pipe free from restraint on the trailer. The pipe and coil trailer was used as part of a simulated construction site and compound on which were established ‘live’ demonstrations of some 30 pieces of specialist equipment pertinent to the utility sector. These included the key JCB Utility package demonstrated on a JCB 8018X in ‘hi-vis’ yellow together with a 2CX Street master, 2CX Airmaster, Teletruk and other units. Also present were suppliers of recycling and concreting systems, as well as one of JCB’s new pipe grab machine attachments for which the pipe and coil trailer were utilized.
The object of this demonstration was to grab the pipe and pull it from the reel positioning it safely into a trench ready for connection without the need for a worker to enter the trench and physically manhandle it using the machine bucket.
The pipe coil trailer provided by U Mole was a CHUTE ROLLER V-series type with integrated re-rounder, loading winch, pipe end clamp and towing head, which meet current GIS standards.
The demonstration was a complete success with JCB commenting: “The demonstration of the new JCB pipe grab equipment was all the more impressive to delegates given that the pipe coil and trailer were available to us. Seeing these systems work ‘live’ can only help to get across the advantages of such innovative advances in the safe handing of pipe systems aimed at the Utility industry. We can only thank Radius and U Mole for their support of our Open Day, without their equipment it would not have been as effective and ‘life-like’ as it was.”
Russell Fairhurst, managing director U Mole said: “We were more than happy to support JCB in its Open Day with the support equipment necessary for its live demonstrations. Showing how effective pipe handling system can be and in particular how much safer they can make worksites, by minimizing the need for personnel intervention, has long been an objective of the design effort we place into our equipment. Working together with companies such as JCB has only helped us to maintain these efforts in the knowledge that such developments are not only needed by the industry but also welcomed by the workforces involved.”
EQUIPMENT RANGE
U Mole is the approved U.K. distributor for Earth Tool equipment and offers the company’s full range of products for trenchless installation and pipeline replacement for either sale or hire. These include: Active and standard head HAMMERHEAD impact moles (earth piercing tools), HAMMERHEAD ramming hammers, other HYDROBURST rod-based, hydraulic pipe bursting systems and the PORTABURST cable-based, hydraulic pipe burster range.
The company is also the representative for The Robbins Co. in respect of the Robbins SBU (Small Boring Unit) product line, including provision of all spares and consumables within the SBU range. The territory across which U Mole acts in this capacity includes France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the United Kingdom and Eire.
U Mole also supplies a full and extensive range of trenchless and limited dig equipment including: MTS/Vac-Tron vacuum excavation systems, coring equipment for keyhole technology for use in the small footprint excavation of utilities and services with minimum disruption to the local area and minimum damage to the buried service. Also available are Pipe to Site coiled pipe trailers, Acuster plastic pipe fusion systems, Rotair compressors, Reed Tools and a complete range of accessories such as pipe Cobra flexible rodding, towing heads, cable socks, pipe pigs, swivels, breakaway connectors.
This article was submitted by U Mole (part pf Vp Plc), Cambs, United Kingdom.
