Yorkshire Water workers blown away by new technology (From Darlington and Stockton Times)

Yorkshire Water workers blown away by new technology

2:29pm Wednesday 31st December 2008

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WATER engineers have been blown away by the success of a new technology that cleans water mains from the inside using a whirlwind of air.

The workers from Yorkshire Water have used the technology to clean more than 126 miles of iron pipes throughout 2008, blasting away the build-up of deposits that can lead to poor water quality and low pressure in the mains.

The Whirlwind Phantom cleaning machine looks a little like a road-sweeper and can clean pipes up to 12 inches in diameter prior to lining.

The technique is similar to sand-blasting and can clean up to 200 metres of water main in an hour, reducing supply interruptions to customers and avoiding water waste.

It 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 used to flush out the debris, which then had to be disposed of.

The company invests about £40 million each 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 Whirlwind technology on a regular operational basis.

Yorkshire Water’s 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 one kilometre 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."

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