High Speed Mobile Cold Cutting System
A unique mobile Ultra High Pressure (UHP) abrasive waterjet mobile cutting system.
Powered by Aquablast UHP water at 2,750 bar (40,000 psi) Ragworm can cut up oil storage
tank bottoms up to 20 times faster than conventional oxy-acetylene - with no flame or sparks!
Abrasive "cold cutting" eliminates any concerns about levels of fumes, now heavily regulated
by the latest MAC requirements. There are no fumes; no risk of explosion or fire and no
heat-affected areas on external tank wall coatings.
Ragworm is a fully automated tracked vehicle which can deploy two bi-directional abrasive
water jet cutting heads simultaneously and has already been used, to great effect, on over
30 large storage tanks within the giant Europoort terminal at Rotterdam. It can be used for
any large-scale steel plate removal project whether or not in a hazardous atmosphere.
Cutting rates of up to 50m per hour with two jets have been achieved on 8mm tank bottoms in
total safety and with a minimum of abrasive to dispose of. The Aquablast UHP water pump
requires only eight litres of water per minute (0.5 tonne per hour) per abrasive waterjet
to maintain this extraordinarily high cutting speed. The indirect abrasive injection system,
which does not depend on pressurised abrasive vessels, also ensures very low abrasive consumption
in comparison to traditional direct-injection methods.
The robot is easily inserted into a storage tank via the standard manway entry and can be
rapidly assembled and deployed with a two-man crew. The working environment and air quality
in the tank is cleaner than ever before; the system makes a major contribution to greatly
enhanced worker safety in confined spaces.
Worn or corroded tank bottoms; side walls and floating roofs can all be tackled by variants
of the system.
Ragworm was developed, with Aquablast UHP technology, by JetSet Hydro Technics, an Aquablast
associate company in Holland at the request of Odfjell, a major oil products storage operator.
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