U Mole Staff Gets In-depth Training at IBG
U Mole (a division of Vp plc) recently undertook responsibility for the rental dealership across the United Kingdom for Germany-based IBG Hydro-Tech GmbH, manufacturer of the HydroCut range of milling robots, cleaning and lining systems. U Mole’s responsibility currently covers the range of HydroCut robotic systems.
IBG Hydro-Tech develops and manufactures a variety of robot milling systems for relined pipes with the capability to negotiate various curve configurations. The robots are powered with high water pressure and are applicable for either circular and egg shaped pipes. All robots are easy to handle using a mobile control unit or an integrated in-vehicle control panel. The complete range offers four innovative robots for pipe diameters from 100 mm up to 800 mm ID. The HydroCut 60 and 100 models are ideal for house connections and main pipelines with the larger unit being self-propelled. All cutting robots have the same high resilience and can be centred using guide rails and a bracing unit. A high milling performance is guaranteed with all cutting heads usable for a wide range of pipe material. Both the HydroCut 60 and 100 models are also available as compact versions combined with a control unit, making them very flexible even at sites with the most difficult access.
To ensure that U Mole staff and technicians are fully conversant with the intricacies of the IBG robots and to enable them to provide customers with the best available service and support both in the workshop and in the field, in depth product and maintenance training has been undertaken at IBG in Germany. The two-day course, which offers Certificated Factory Training, covered maintenance and use of equipment, selection of cutting heads, application types etc.
Frank Gowdy, sales and marketing director at U Mole, and Dave Lilley, a maintenance fitter at U Mole’s Wigan depot, both attended the training sessions. Similar training sessions had previously been attended by a further three U Mole staff. Subsequently, U Mole can now offer customers full back-up in the form of sales support, training and maintenance for the range of IBG Hydrocut Systems for cutting/milling in pipes from 100 mm to 600 mm ID.
This is only a first step for the U Mole/IBG venture. Future training of U Mole staff is planned later in 2013 to cover the IBG range of UV cure pipe lining systems, which can be combined with robot cutter systems into fully functional rehabilitation vehicles if required. This will then enable U Mole to offer full support for the full IBG product range in terms of rental equipment across the UK in the growing relining and cutting market.
U Mole managing director Russell Fairhurst said of the new rental agreement: “We are glad to take up this new opportunity to extend the capability of the company. Having first met IBG Hydro-Tech GmbH at NO-DIG Brazil at the end of 2012 the first contact was most satisfactory for both companies.”
After the exhibition in São Paulo, Frank Claassen, sales manager of IBG Hydro-Tech, met Russell in Great Gransden, one of U Mole’s 12 nationwide depots, to finalize arrangements to rent IBG Hydro-Tech’s HydroCut Lateral Cutter through U Mole. Since January 2013, U Mole has been the official rental partner of IBG Hydro-Tech in the U.K. Frank said: “As one of the U.K.’s leading providers for trenchless technology equipment, U Mole proved an excellent partner for both the sale and rental of IBG equipment because of its reputation for support and service across the United Kingdom and Ireland, a reputation that has been established over more than 25 years.”
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.
U Mole also supplies a full and extensive range of trenchless and limited dig equipment including: Suction/vacuum excavation systems (including MTS systems alongside Vac-Tron systems) and 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, Cambs, United Kingdom.
