Yorkshire Water Engineers Blown Away By Whirlwind!
31/12/2008
Yorkshire Water engineers have been blown away by the success of a new technology which cleans iron water mains from the inside using a whirlwind of air.
Over 126 miles of Yorkshire Water pipes have been cleaned in 2008, blasting away the build-up of deposits in iron pipes which can lead to poor water quality and low pressure in the mains.
Customers may see the Whirlwind "phantom" cleaning machine, which looks a little like a road-sweeper, out and about in Yorkshire. The new machine can clean pipes up to 12 inches in diameter prior to lining.
The new cleaning technique is similar to sand-blasting and can clean up to 200 metres of water main in a single hour, reducing supply interruptions to customers and avoiding water waste.
Whirlwind has now largely replaced the traditional scraping technique, where a mechanical rack is dragged through the main to remove deposits. Large volumes of water were also used to flush out the debris, which then had to be disposed of.
Yorkshire Water invests approximately £40 million every year in cleaning and relining water mains to improve the quality of customers’ water and is the only water company in the UK to use the new technology on a regular operational basis.
R&D manager at Yorkshire Water Tim Pears said: “Following a successful pilot, Whirlwind is now part of our normal operations. Next year, we will look to clean even longer lengths of up to 1km in just two hours. The new technique is not only more environmentally friendly, but is safer to use in practice because it does not have any accessible moving parts or the large forces associated with scraping.”
The Whirlwind technique is one of a number of industry-leading breakthroughs announced by Yorkshire Water recently, following the announcement last month of a Platelet technology which plugs leaks from the inside without the need to dig up roads.
