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Quality HDD Support Equipment |
Revolutionary New Recycler delivered to A VanEgmond
In the
spring of 2001, Surface to Surface Inc. introduced their new line of SAC-4
Bentonite Reclaiming units. Due to increased costs and pressure being
introduced to clean up Bentonite waste, StS realized a need for a unique
product. This product, although not a new innovation, is unique in it’s
patented reclaiming system. “ Most systems will recycle the product through
it’s screens and cones once. Our unit will continuously recycle the reclaimed
product. This is what the patent is based upon.” states Doug Pullman, one of
the innovators of the machine.
In May of 2001, A. VanEgmond, from Smithsville, Ontario, purchased the first machine and has never looked back. In the spring of 2000 Bechtel Canada Co., representing 3554864 Canada Ltd., awarded A. VanEgmond a large project of duct installations in the city of Toronto. Immediately, Andy Blokker recognized a need for a mud cleaning system. A portion of the job included a river crossing, drilling through rock. This part of the job entailed crossing the Humber River; a total distance of 310 meters. After drilling through, Andy’s crew hooked onto a 16” low torque hole opener from Sharewell. Once the hole was opened, a 14” swab was attached to ensure the hole was sufficient for the 12” High Density casing that would be placed. This 12” casing will house 24 ducts
Prior to the purchase of the C-150S unit, the slurry would be vacuumed by a vac truck and carried to a designated dumping site. “This is a 6 week job. At $1,000.00 per day that vac truck would have cost us $30,000 dollars in clean up alone.” says Blokker. In terms of savings on the Bentonite due to recycling, “For this job, we would have used 1,060 bags of Bentonite. Instead, we used only 300. That equates to savings of about $11,370. If you consider those two savings alone, totaling $41,370, you can see it is an investment well worth while. That does not take into consideration any of the downtime while the vac truck was away disposing. This is only one job. It should pay for itself within the year.” says an excited Blokker.
A. VanEgmond was running a Vermeer D50x100. The Surface to Surface C150-S was supplying a 5,000-gallon tanker truck with the mixed mud. The C150-S is a StS configuration that includes a SAC-4 Recycler as well as an M-750 mud mixing unit mounted onto a skid. The M-750H is a 750-gallon unit that allows you to transfer 750 gallons to a rear tank while continuing to mix another 750 gallons in the front tank. This allows for continuous mud without stopping. The C150-S was set up in front of the Vermeer drill. VanEgmond dug a 2,500-gallon “two stage” pit for the mud. The first pit would collect all of the larger cuttings while the smaller cuttings would spill over into the 2nd pit. The SAC-4 cleaner would then draw from the 2nd pit containing the finer cuttings. “It takes approximately 16 min to 17 min to empty the 2,500 gallon pit. It keeps up great with the D-50. It’s compact, easy to operate and very user friendly. The guys really appreciate the fact that it is one level and there is no climbing involved. Most other cleaners are electric while this one is hydraulic. The men feel safer working around hydraulics and water vs electricity and water. Also, hydraulics is much easier to repair in the field than electric units. This unit allows you to separate the cleaner from the 750H-mixing unit. If we needed to move to the other side of the river, we could do it quite quickly and easily.” claims Blokker. When asked why recycle, Andy responded with “It saves money due to time, it saves money due to the reduced amount of Bentonite used and it’s environmentally friendly.”
Surface to Surface is located in Petrolia, Ontario. They specialize in HDD products including mud mixing and mud recycling.