New product enables relining of Vaccum Waste Collection Systems.
Vacuum waste collection systems operate at a high negative pressure. They suck all rubbish from high buildings or an entire estate to an end collection
point. With this constant movement of rubbish inside the pipes, breaks, holes and catch points occur, particularly on bends, that need to be repaired.
In certain cases, excavation is not an option and therefore waste collection providers are looking for alternative solutions to repair these points.
As such Nuflow were approached to develop a solution.
Research and Development
In our research a product suitable to negative pressure was critical. If a blockage occurs inside the waste system, the negative pressure is even greater.
This is due to the system being turned up to the highest vacuum operation to alleviate and clear the blockage. In an example shown the steel collection
container was entirely collapsed due to this process.
During 2017, Nuflow Support Office worked closely with Dr David Rogers to develop a composite material liner and epoxy resin formulation that has the ability to repair such pipelines. This new formulation holds essential characteristics to endure high abrasion and high impact environments. It also demonstrates a good bond to the host pipe that withstands high negative pressure.
Trial in Progress
At the start of October 2017, International Business Manager Ryan Luxton travelled to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore to carry out trial projects for two
rubbish collection system providers.
The rubbish chutes had a pipe ID of 387mm and were composed of steel pipe.
Being in a remote location and amid a new environment presented some challenges to installation. These included:
- Effective cleaning of the pipes proved difficult, due to the thick aged internal scaling being present. In addition, only mechanical dry cleaning was allowed in some of the systems.
- An internal tooth profile had to be created to the cleaned pipe. This was to enable an acceptable and strong liner bond to the host pipe.
- Very high temperatures and some confined work space allowed for some interesting times during the install demonstration to the workers.
However two composite material liners were successfully installed and will now be monitored with the vacuum systems in operation. Use of the liner in these live conditions will evaluate it's effectiveness under the high volume of impact, abrasion and negative pressure.
Market Potential
Every vacuum waste collection provider, has a number of operational systems for buildings and estates. An example of this is Envac, who are pioneers
of the automated waste collection system and have numerous sites across the globe.
The provider in our Kuala Lumpur job, has sites in Singapore, Malaysia, and also United Arab Emirates, all facing problems with their pipe network. The need of a non-excavation solution is essential. The repair solution currently in these countries is to send a gentleman down the pipe to repair it with a low-quality product. This poses a high risk safety issue and therefore provides great market potential for our product.
Alternatively, we have also made a proposal to install a lower-grade liner with the same resin in a new estate in Singapore. This will extend the life of a brand-new automated waste collection system that is to be installed in the new estate. Using our product as a pre-liner for brand new systems is another attractive market and will alleviate the frequency of repairs to the pipes.
In Australia, nearly all high rise residential towers have a gravity garage chute in the building. This new technology is well suited for repair and maintenance of these chutes.
In addition, grain and powder transfer systems are also applicable to rehabilitation using this new technology.
Overall this product is ideal for any high wear and high impact environment.
Further feedback on our installed trial liners and the outcome of our pre-liner proposal will be provided once evaluation has been completed.
If you would like any further information on the product please contact us.