ENGINEER TO ENGINEER
In brief Laser metal cutting and fabrication specialist LaserMaster has switched from
bulk delivery of nitrogen to an Atlas Copco on-site, high pressure nitrogen
generation container unit. It’s a move that is said to save the company around
£2,500 a month. The HPN2 skid 8 package came with a GA VSD+ FF rotary
screw compressor, an NGP100+ nitrogen generator, air and nitrogen receivers,
plus a booster, dryers, and filters, all integrated into one unit.
Helicopters help railway engineers
deep in Peak District tunnel
Construction materials have been airlifted into
position by helicopter for essential repairs to a
ventilation shaft in one of the deepest railway
tunnels in Britain.
Network Rail has completed essential
maintenance to Cowburn Tunnel on the Hope
Valley line as part of a major £800,000 Great
North Rail Project investment.
The tunnel, between Edale
and Chinley, goes underneath
key peaks near Kinder Scout
and Mam Tor in the Peak District
National Park.
Because of its remote
location, helicopter pilots were
drafted in to transport vital
materials and components for
work on the tunnel’s ventilation shaft. Vertically
dug 241m into the hillside, it’s one of the
deepest railway ventilation shafts in the country.
If it were a building it would be taller than Canary
Wharf in London.
But for nearly 130 years, as well as providing
air to the tunnel more than 250 metres below,
the ventilation shaft has also inadvertently acted
Network Rail develops innovative
tunnel drill in collaboration with Amey
Network Rail has worked with Amey’s rail team
to create a new overhead line tunnel drill,
the first of its kind, that not only improves
operational delivery but the safety of the
operatives working at height.
Working with Foulstone Forge, Network
Rail, and Amey, the team created a drilling rig
machine for work undertaken in railway tunnels.
The Overhead Line Electrification Drill (OLED)
machine is mounted on a flat bed of a road
rail vehicle. The machine can be operated by a
member of the team who not only controls the
base unit but the drilling arm via the remote
control as well, removing the risk involved of
operatives working at height and using rotarypercussive
power tools. The machine also has a
comprehensive dust extraction system fitted to
like a huge drainpipe. When rain falls on the land
above, it seeps through the soil before making
its way through the ventilation shaft’s brickwork,
cascading like a massive shower head into the
tunnel and tracks below.
To solve this Network Rail engineers has
installed a sophisticated system of drainage
pipes to collect the water in
a controlled way so it can be
diverted into drains in the tunnel
itself.
For the new pipes and water
collecting devices to be installed,
engineers built a temporary lift
platform to work from using
winches and pulleys. Network
Rail teams were lowered into the ventilation
shaft in a custom-built cradle, similar to their
Victorian predecessors who excavated the shaft
127 years before them. Doing the work this
way meant trains could still run in the tunnel
below without disrupting passenger or freight
services. Drainage improvements at track level
could only take place on Saturday nights when
trains weren't running.
the unit to eliminate
any dust from the
drilling, improving
the working
environment for
operatives.
The machine
was first tested
at High Marnham Test track on a section of
brick tunnel works. Having a four-head drill
capacity built in, this new drill has quadrupled
the outputs, making the process more efficient
and cost effective. The machine now takes just
under two minutes to drill four holes 450mm
deep into concrete using 28mm drill bits.
The progress and accuracy of the drill is now
controlled using a remote-control unit.
meet the foreseeable needs of the
pumping station. However, where
assets were undersized but still in
good working order, they would be
moved to stations that experienced
lower levels of demand. Some 47
Sulzer pumps were installed, most
of which were the company’s XFP
CB Plus units. These use Sulzer’s
Contrablock (CB+) impeller, an
innovative design that can cope
with high concentrations of solid
material.
LEADA Engineering has created a
mobile chemical dosing system for
water and industrial applications,
with technical support from
Mitsubishi Electric. The mobile
chemical dosing system has an
on-board solar-photovoltaic (PV),
self-generating power supply and
offers remote access.
Sika has supplied a carbon
fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP)
plate system to enhance the load
carrying capacity of a bridge to
ensure its suitability to transport
exceptionally heavy materials
being used to construct a nearby
wind farm in Dalemellington,
East Ayrshire. Additionally, Sika
provided a corrosion management
system in order to extend the
structure’s lifespan.
ReNew ELP, a UK-based
advanced recycling company, has
selected Emerson as its digital
automation partner for its new
plastics recycling plant in Teesside,
north-east England. Emerson’s
automation technology and
software will help achieve safe,
efficient operation of an innovative
hydrothermal process to convert
end-of-life plastics back into their
original feedstock to produce
new plastic products, reducing
waste and pollution. Emerson will
be responsible for developing a
complete automation and control
solution to ensure safe, efficient
operation of the demanding
production process with minimum
operator intervention. Emerson
will provide an integrated control
and safety system, incorporating its
DeltaV distributed control system.
Winter 2021 www.operationsengineer.org.uk 89
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