Suction excavation utilizes high-powered fans to safely excavate up to 141 feet (43 meters) of depth depending on the configuration. First, a small surface area hole of about 10 inches (250mm) is created. Then, the suction excavator hose removes materials below the surface. Compressed air is used to fracture the ground for the suction excavator to remove the material safely. No manual hand tooling is used in the process.
History of fan-based suction technology
RSP[1] has been making suction excavators and stationary suction units since 1993. Since 2000, RSP developed a new suction principle,[2] the ESE series. These vehicles work with the internationally patented suction principle which guarantees the highest degree of gravity separation, lowest contamination of the filters, and thus consistently high suction performance.
Since 1998, the Mobile Tiefbau Saugsysteme[3] has produced another type of suction excavator. It is said to have a newly designed air flow principle, and thus a considerably improved suction performance compared to MTS's previous designs.
Design and operation
RSP
Since 1993 RSP[1] have produced[4] suction superstructures mounted onto two, three and four-axle vehicles, stationary suction units as well as custom-made machines.
The suction unit is roughly rectangular-block-shaped, about 2.5 meters wide and 3.6 meters high, and is usually mounted and used on the back of a truck, which must have power takeoffs to run the suction unit's air impeller and hydraulics. When it is emptying its load, the spoil tank lid (with the hose connection) hinges off to the right, and then the spoil tank (with the filters) tips about 90° over to the left to tip out its load.
Possible applications include:
Replacement of pipes and fittings
Renovation and new installation of gas, water or heating pipes, cables, and sewage lines
Operations involving the use of horizontal boring units
Leaf removal
Application for special operations
Suction excavators eliminate the need for costly and time-consuming manual labour. Buried pipe systems do not suffer damage. The output is up to sixteen times that achieved by conventional excavation.
In the ESE 32/7:
The suction pipe's internal diameter is 25cm (9.8in)
The fan produces a maximum pressure reduction of about 30 kilopascals (0.30atm; 4.4psi). Across a circular suction diameter of 25 centimetres (9.8in) that gives an entry air speed of about 600km/h (400mph) and a maximum suction power of about 150kg (340lb). It can suck objects up to 25cm (9.8in) across that weigh up to 30kg (66lb).
Described as able to suck up "earth, stones, vegetable waste, sand, mud, water, pebbles, rubble, asbestos, railway-type ballast".
The suction pipe has a detachable extension nozzle narrowing from 25 to 10 centimetres (10 to 4in) internal diameter, with handles on a rotatable panel to open or close side vents to let the operator drop over-large objects that it has picked up.
Expected spoil extraction rates are rough, in cubic metres per hour:
Material
m3/hour
Time for 1m3
heavy soil with buried cables and pipes
1.66
36 min
dry heavy soil
2.5
24 min
wet heavy soil or clay
3
20 min
moderately heavy soil with buried cables and pipes
4
15 min
muddy soil, gravel, crushed rock
6
10 min
sandy soil
10
6 min
water
30
2 min
heavy soil with buried cables and pipes excavated by hand
With the Mega-Vac the suction power across a 250mm (9.84in) wide hose entry would be about 500kg.[clarification needed]
MTS suction excavator Dino Tridem
Saugmaster
Saugmaster[14] is a RSP ESE model;[15] it can suck 8m3/s of air, and its suction tube is 23cm (9.1in) wide inside.
History of vacuum-pump-based suction technology
Pacific Tek
Pacific Tek[16] was founded in 1993 and went into the valve exerciser and vacuum excavator industry. Pacific Tek founders have created innovations, such as the Angled Vacuum Excavator Tank (1997) and 180° Swivel Mount Valve Operator (1999).
Ditch Witch
The American firm Ditch Witch makes four models of suction excavators:[17] FX20, FX25, HX30, HX50, FX50, FXT50, FX65, FXT65, and HX65; the number is its approximate horsepower. It is mounted on a semitrailer or rigid truck. It has its own engine (petrol for FX20 & FX25, the others diesel). Its spoils tank is cylindrical with somewhat rounded ends. Its suction hose is 3 to 4 inches diameter inside. Its spoil tank can be various sizes from 150 gallons (570 litres) to (4560 litres.)
Airex
Airex[18] in the UK makes two current models of vacuum excavator: AX-68 and AX-180. Both systems are mounted on the back of rigid 7.5-ton trucks and designed for use in inner-city streets. The smaller design of these trucks gives less impact on their surroundings. The AX-68 uses a 4-inch hose but the AX-180 uses an 8-inch hose which can remove a tonne of earth in six minutes.
Ring-O-Matic
Ring-O-Matic[19] in the U.S. makes several models of gasoline and diesel vacuum excavation units. They offer both trailer-mounted and skid-mounted models. Spoils tanks range in size from 150 gallons up to 2000 gallon tanks.
Vac-Tron Equipment
Vac-Tron Equipment[20] in the U.S. makes more than 50 models of hydroexcavation and dry excavation gasoline and diesel vacuum excavators.
Cappellotto
Cappelotto[21] makes various powered cleansing equipment including Capgeo (a model of suction excavator). Its arm is said to reach 7 meters and to swivel 250 degrees.[22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]
They also make Capbora,[32] which is specifically for sucking up loose material. Cappelotto was founded in 1953 and is based at Gaiarine in the province of Treviso in Italy.
The Cappellotto products are also distributed to 40 countries in the world, with KOR Equipment Solutions[33] being the distributor for Australia and New Zealand.
Uses
Suction excavators are useful for removing earth around buried utilities and tree roots with less risk of damaging them than using a conventional excavator with a metal bucket.
This type of excavation is held to be a safe and efficient form of excavation. However, it is unsuitable for archaeological excavation.[citation needed] Using a powerful vacuum and high-pressure water, precise holes, trenches, and tunnels can be cut to the required size and proportion. Because compressed air or water is used to loosen the earth, the risk of damaging underground utilities is less, and contractors can safely find and expose them. Often excavation reveals unknown utilities, saving lives, money, and time.
It is also referred to as "daylighting", as the underground utilities are exposed to daylight during the process.
This type of excavating is quickly becoming recognized as a best practice[34] when working in areas with underground utility congestion and frozen ground. Hydro excavation lessens the risk of damaging utilities, which may be inaccurately mapped, located, or marked on the surface.
A suction excavator is useful in bulk excavation in confined areas, where its suction hose can reach in, over, or through barriers, e.g. digging a swimming pool in a courtyard.
It can be used on railways (perhaps mounted on a railroad car base) to suck old track ballast off the track when re-ballasting the track.
It can be used as a very heavy-duty vacuum cleaner to pick up miscellaneous debris, e, g, rubble, or big accumulations of fallen leaves or litter.
It can suck up liquids, e.g. water from a hollow. In case of opting for air vacuum excavation,[35] the Positive Displacement Blower should be properly checked because it can move great volumes of air and a malfunction can cause a serious accident. When digging on rocky soils, it is better to opt for water instead.
As of July 2009 in England, the North West Gas Alliance[38] has three German-made suction excavators.
Vacuum-excavation hire provider Utility Site Solutions work with utility and civil engineering companies throughout the UK to provide safer no-dig excavation. Projects include relocating underground utility lines to accommodate wider road lanes and filter lanes, and street works to provide essential maintenance of street lighting.
Utility Site Solutions specialist image library shows various uses of the new excavation technology including bridge refurbishment, clearing culverts, clearance of holding tanks, extension hose excavation, substations. rail excavations, airports, filter beds, lighthouse, and many more applications.[39] Vacuum/suction excavators can excavate up to 140m horizontally and up to 20m depth depending on the type of material being excavated.
Specific jobs
Some significant suction excavation works achieved in Italy by RSP GmbH are the following:[citation needed]
Cleaning deep silt (accumulated over nearly 40 years) out of the Rio Terà San Polo, which was formerly a narrow open canal, but is now a roofed sewer under a busy street. The excavator sucked through a long hose. Access damage to its roof and the street above was limited to four manhole-sized holes, which afterward were fitted with manhole covers for future access. This avoided a long smelly traffic-obstruction-causing manual job.
Cleaning 1.6 meters deep silt out of the Rio Terà San Leonardo (a roofed sewer, 230 m long, 6 to 13 m wide): similarly.
The south loggia of the Palazzo della Ragione in Padua: Sucking out a big accumulation of rubble and dust and bird droppings. The space is roofed by medieval vaulting through which only one small access hole was allowed. A 150-meter-long suction hose was used. (In the accompanying photographs the rubble seems to be largely plaster removed from the walls.)
In Siena: removing about 150m3 of rubble left by building restoration works, which had been dumped in old tunnels cut in tuff.
Vacuum excavation
A suction excavator with vacuum excavation equipment operating in the Netherlands
Vacuum excavation significantly reduces the risk of loss of property and injury to workers associated with contacting or cutting underground utilities, as often happens if backhoe, auger, hand digging, or other mechanical methods are used.
Portable vacuum excavation equipment such as suction excavators can quickly dig small deep precisely-controlled holes to uncover buried utilities. Soft excavation technology can dig around buried pipe or cable without the risk of damage inherent with backhoes, excavators, or other mechanical tools.
Typically, vacuum excavation loosens the soil with a blunt-nosed high pressure air lance or water source and immediately vacuums away loosened material. Air and water, when used appropriately, are far less likely than sharp-edged tools to damage underground structures.
Depending on the machine used and soil conditions, a 12-inch-square 5-foot-deep pothole can be completed in 20 minutes or less. Most models are capable of digging deeper, but utility potholes seldom need to be more than six feet deep.[40]
Vacuum excavation is best used in conjunction with conventional underground (one-call) locating services. Because of a preponderance of overlapping buried utility lines, locating devices often miss some of the buried utilities on a site or cannot completely or accurately mark a site.
According to New Mexico One Call 811: Aligning Change, Locating with Potholing, "One-call paint marks and flags are the first steps in making the process of locating underground utilities safer, the use of vacuum excavation technology adds an additional margin of safety."[41]
Potholing (which here means exposing buried utilities to find where and how deep they are) using vacuum excavation, has made it safer to find underground utilities.
When conventional locating is unworkable due to high densities of buried utilities, potholing can also be used to verify the route of each buried line within the excavation zone. In some cases, the contractor may choose to perform the entire excavation using vacuum excavation.
Today, according to "In the Pipeline" in an article on enewsbuilder.net,[42] "As vacuum excavation technology and techniques for locating underground utilities has become both readily available and affordable, it's already considered by many municipalities as a Best Practice." Many governmental entities and municipalities no longer allow the use of backhoes to find underground utilities, citing the risk of damaging them. Many have ordered the use of vacuum excavation only.
To prevent utility strikes, the use of underground locating services has become the norm, and in most places, is required by law. However, the practice of underground location, while very useful, has its limitations. Locators have been known to miss some of the buried utilities or be unable to completely or accurately mark a site because there are many overlapping buried utility lines.
For these reasons, vacuum excavation can be an effective way to find, with virtually 100% accuracy, all underground structures in an excavation zone. Vacuum excavation is also typically more cost-effective than hand digging.
Through aggressive educational efforts about the safety of vacuum excavation, vacuum excavation is now being mandated in many states and municipalities, and efforts are underway to achieve universal acceptance of vacuum excavation as the preferred technology.
Some street sweeper vehicles include a suction hose that the operator can control, but with less powerful suction and only able to pick up light loose litter and leaves.
Sometimes,[43][44] "suction excavator" is used to mean a floating suction dredger for dredging underwater
A vacuum cleaner, also known simply as a vacuum, is a device that causes suction in order to remove dirt from floors, upholstery, draperies, and other surfaces. It is generally electrically driven.
A fire hose is a high-pressure hose that carries water or other fire retardant to a fire to extinguish it. Outdoors, it attaches either to a fire engine, fire hydrant, or a portable fire pump. Indoors, it can permanently attach to a building's standpipe or plumbing system.
A trench is a type of excavation or depression in the ground that is generally deeper than it is wide, and narrow compared with its length.
Excavators are heavy construction equipment consisting of a boom, dipper, bucket and cab on a rotating platform known as the "house". The house sits atop an undercarriage with tracks or wheels. They are a natural progression from the steam shovels and often mistakenly called power shovels, as power shovels may have similar looking buckets. All movement and functions of a hydraulic excavator are accomplished through the use of hydraulic fluid, with hydraulic cylinders and hydraulic motors. Due to the linear actuation of hydraulic cylinders, their mode of operation is fundamentally different from cable-operated excavators, which use winches and steel ropes to accomplish the movements.
A loader is a heavy equipment machine used in construction to move or load materials such as soil, rock, sand, demolition debris, etc. into or onto another type of machinery.
Utility location is the process of identifying and labeling public utility mains that are underground. These mains may include lines for telecommunication, electricity distribution, natural gas, cable television, fiber optics, traffic lights, street lights, storm drains, water mains, and wastewater pipes. In some locations, major oil and gas pipelines, national defense communication lines, mass transit, rail, and road tunnels also compete for space underground.
Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing dams, dikes, and other controls for streams and shorelines; and recovering valuable mineral deposits or marine life having commercial value. In all but a few situations the excavation is undertaken by a specialist floating plant, known as a dredger.
A hose is a flexible hollow tube designed to carry fluids from one location to another. Hoses are also sometimes called pipes, or more generally tubing. The shape of a hose is usually cylindrical.
This is a glossary of firefighting equipment.
Underground Service Alert (USA) is a non-profit mutual benefit organization that links the excavation community and the owners of underground lines. Underground Service Alert has two separate call centers for California: Underground Service Alert of Northern California and Underground Service Alert of Southern California. Although they are not affiliated and are run by separate boards of directors, they share the common goal of safe digging. USA North handles Northern and Central California as well as Nevada. DigAlert handles nine Southern California counties. Calls to either center are free for all homeowners, excavators and professional contractors who are digging, blasting, trenching, drilling, grading, excavating, or otherwise moving any earth.
A water eductor or water dredge is an eductor-jet pump-based tool used by underwater archaeologists to remove sediments from an underwater archaeological site. Airlifts may be used for the same purpose.
A gully emptier is a type of specialized tank truck with suction gear which can suck wastewater and mud and sludge out of hollows such as the hollows below drain grids in street gutters and carry it to a suitable disposal point. It needs to be able to suck out and pump through into its tank any road grit and miscellaneous solids that have entered the hollow.
The manual vacuum cleaner was a type of non-electric vacuum cleaner, using suction to remove dirt from carpets, being powered by human muscle, similar in use to a manual lawn mower. Its invention is dated to the second half of the 19th century, when patents were granted to inventors in the United States, Britain, France, and elsewhere.
Flexible suction hose, not to be confused with hard suction hose in U.S., is a specific type of fire hose used in drafting operations, when a fire engine uses a vacuum to draw water from a portable water tank, pool, or other static water source. It is built to withstand vacuum, rather than pressure, abrasion, and heat. Conversely, hard suction is capable of withstanding up to 200 PSIG, as well as vacuum. In the United States, it is standard equipment according to the National Fire Protection Association standards for fire engines. It is used in both structural and wildland firefighting throughout the world, and is made in various diameters and connection types.
A truckmount carpet cleaner is a carpet and upholstery cleaning unit that is generally mounted to the floor of a van or trailer. Its cleaning method is hot water extraction. The operator would park the van near the premises, connect the vacuum hose and solution line hose into the machine, bring the hoses into the building, and connect a carpet cleaning wand to the end of the hoses.
A vacuum truck, vacuum tanker, vactor truck, vactor, vac-con truck, vac-con is a tank truck that has a pump and a tank. The pump is designed to pneumatically suck liquids, sludges, slurries, or the like from a location into the tank of the truck. The objective is to enable transport of the liquid material via road to another location. Vacuum trucks transport the collected material to a treatment or disposal site, for example a sewage treatment plant.
A central vacuum cleaner is a type of vacuum cleaner appliance installed into a building as a semi-permanent fixture. Central vacuum systems are designed to remove dirt and debris from homes and buildings, sending dirt particles through piping installed inside the walls to a collection container in a remote utility space. The power unit is a permanent fixture, usually installed in a basement, garage, or storage room, along with the collection container. Inlets are installed in walls throughout the building that attach to power hoses and other central vacuum accessories to remove dust, particles, and small debris from interior rooms. Most power hoses have a power switch located on the handle.
A trailing suction hopper dredger is a ship that has a full sailing capacity used to maintain navigable waterways, deepening the maritime canals that are threatened to become silted, to construct new land elsewhere or to replace sand eroded by storms or wave action on the beaches. This is made possible by large powerful pumps and engines able to suck sand, clay, silt and gravel.
Digging, also referred to as excavation, is the process of using some implement such as claws, hands, manual tools or heavy equipment, to remove material from a solid surface, usually soil, sand or rock on the surface of Earth. Digging is actually the combination of two processes, the first being the breaking or cutting of the surface, and the second being the removal and relocation of the material found there. In a simple digging situation, this may be accomplished in a single motion, with the digging implement being used to break the surface and immediately fling the material away from the hole or other structure being dug.
A cable locator or cable avoidance tool (CAT) is an instrument used for detecting the presence and approximate location of buried services in advance of undertaking excavation works. It aims to avoid accidents while excavating. A number of types of detecting technology can be employed by such instruments, including use of magnetic fields, radio frequencies, signal generation, metal detectors, ground-penetrating radar and RFID.
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