TRACTO’s popular “Hands on Days” took place for the 12th time at the company’s headquarters in Lennestadt-Saalhausen on 15 – 19 April, offering their customers and partners the opportunity to look behind the scenes of their innovations, and provide unique insight into the world of trenchless technology.
TRACTO-CITY” was set up especially for the event in the form of a tent city where the whole world of trenchless technology and its applications were clearly presented with 20 machines on display. Around 1,000 visitors from 30 countries were able to obtain comprehensive information on products and tailor-made services from experts in individual themed tents. More than 30 factory tours gave interested visitors an additional insight into TRACTO’s production and quality management, and the No-Dig systems could be seen in action in more than 100 live demonstrations.
Technology and knowledge for the future
TRACTO is playing a major role in shaping the future of trenchless construction. The first HDD drilling rig with an electric motor, the GRUNDODRILL JCS 130E, could also be seen at work on the demonstration site. A broad programme of 15 presentations in four blocks covering markets, applications and technology trends focused on current topics in pipeline construction, namely fibre optics, power lines, pipe rehabilitation and future topics.
The future of drilling technology and its continued automation, as well as environmental and sustainability issues, were also explored in depth in the presentations, as was advancing digitalisation. The presentations were dedicated to these areas, but there were also separate information tents where these important topics could be explored in greater depth in personal dialogue with the experts. Further evidence of TRACTO’s innovative strength was provided by the presentation of an interactive network called the “Trenchless Platform”, which allows users to participate in digital development initiatives for the drilling rig of the future.
TRACTO’s head of R&D, Elmar Koch, states “The long-term goal is to achieve fully autonomous drilling, their HDD rigs already use a variety of support systems, for example, cameras already monitor the drilling process, GPS is used to digitally document the drilling, sensors on the drill head provide information on ground conditions, and other sensors measure distances around the machine and detect hazards.”
Comprehensive data is also analysed and evaluated to help the operator assess and react to unexpected events during the drilling process.
“Cameras already monitor the drilling process, GPS is used to digitally document the drilling, sensors on the drill head provide information on ground conditions, and other sensors measure distances around the machine and detect hazards.”
ORFEUS
With the world innovation ORFEUS, which is still under development, it will soon be possible to use radar antennas to detect unexpected obstacles in the drilling process at about 0.5m from the drill head, such as incorrectly mapped supply lines. The hardware evaluates the detected obstacles and triggers a warning if necessary. All obstacles are shown in real time on the drill’s display using traffic light colours. The drill stops automatically when the colour changes to red. The ORFEUS ground-penetrating radar makes the HDD process even safer and is an important step towards autonomous drilling. It will be ready for the market by bauma 2025.