CONSTRUCTION SERVICES & EQUIPMENT
A wheel-washer that not only saves money, but may even turn waste into profi t.
Hippowash MD Chris McCumesky explains more about the company’s cutting edge site-based vehicle decontamination and cleaning system, its origins and the future direction of the product, which is pushing the envelope in an industry area not normally known for its drive towards innovation.
T
hreats to national stability are a wellspring for invention. The Cold War, for example, created a raft of products we now take
as commonplace such as the microwave oven, the smoke detector, GPS and even hang gliders.
But it is not just perceived global annihila- tion that can act as the mother of invention. More localised economic turbulence can introduce the necessity for a new product. A good example of this was the foot-and- mouth outbreak in 2001.
Vehicle contamination played a large role in the spread of the virus. Many farmers used a ford or water splash to clean the wheels – as they did during the recent outbreak in Sussex. And, as the eradication of the virus was the focus of attention, any disinfectant used normally ended up in watercourses.
Birth of an idea
However, steel fabrication company boss Chris McCumesky thought there could be a better way. Together with a fabrication design engineer he created a machine that would disinfect vehicle tyres while re-circu- lating the disinfectant.
“It was called CemKleen,” he explained. “We don’t really make it anymore but we
58 | rail technology magazine Feb/Mar 12 Below:
Bespoke car wheelwash at Bristol Airport
Bottom: Hippowash Classic System – Oxford
get the occasional call. We got a lot of in- terest at the time of avian fl u outbreak. It was the birth of the principle behind our current, much larger system of wheel- washing.”
McCumesky, MD of CDM Steels and a for- mer nuclear submarine mechanic, is refer- ring to Hippowash, a versatile wheel-wash- er that deserves the label ‘innovative’ in an industry niche not known for its blue-sky thinking.
He explained: “With Hippowash our aim was to develop a unit that really worked for our customers, as well as saving them money through new innovations.”
It’s the contaminant removing equivalent of an evolutionary mutation, with inverter drives powering the water pumps and a la- mella clarifi er known as SiltEater for doing away with the need for lagoons – as well as the costs associated with them.
And this is not all. After years of wheel- washer systems being viewed as a costly necessary evil, they are about to undertake another evolutionary jump. McCumesky is proposing Hippowash systems help make operators some money in the process.
He explained: “We always fancied the idea of a fi lter press removing the solids from liquids in a system. Traditionally, however, they have been very expensive and wheel- washers already suffer from price pressure.
“But we kept an eye on the market and now have a solution. At the least, the fi lter press
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