CONSTRUCTION SERVICES & EQUIPMENT
capable of washing site-based dump trucks with a gross vehicle weight of 106.5 tonnes (in fact the system can accommodate up to 120 tonnes). The system was sold to Mul- tiserve (now Harsco) who work for Tata Steels’ steel-making plant in Port Talbot, South Wales. Harsco runs the metals re- cycling operation for Tata, recovering as much as 60% of metal from slurry found all over the site.
When wet the slurry is transferred over the site and adjacent roads, causing massive contamination; when dry it turns to dust and is blown all over the local community. Well, that was before Hippowash came along anyway. The site (directed by PM10, a European directive) is in the throes of purchasing an additional 26 such systems. During the post-installation trials at Har- sco, a series of modifi cations were carried out, resulting in the most powerful and cost-effective system that Hippowash has ever built – arguably the best wheel-wash- er available anywhere in the world. Mc- Cumesky said: “Sure, the competition will look to copy our ideas, but we won’t stand still – we’ll keep ahead of them through passionate, continuous product and cus- tomer development.”
The modifi cations made on the Harsco unit are now standard features of even the smallest Hippowash system.
Water recycling systems
At the time of the prototype, the only wa- ter recycling systems available were con- crete lagoons and steel settlement tanks. The fi rst machine he built had a combined settlement tank, control panel and header tank and pump house.
It was trialled on a quarry where the owner had a sticky clay site and a 50m haul road between the wash and the road; at the time the most challenging conditions that he could fi nd in existence. The system was a hit. However, the quarry owner didn’t have a budget, so McCumesky offered a peppercorn rent in return for showing potential clients the site. “That job was the birth of Hippowash really,” he said.
Two years later and McCumesky was getting restless with the product. “I was trying to develop a system better than the one we had. It was all still settlement tanks or lagoons. Water recycling is all about surface area, so we knew we would need a lot of settlement tanks to improve the system, while concreting is expensive and not portable. Then we learned about the lamella clarifi er,” he said.
60 | rail technology magazine Feb/Mar 12
Top: Low profi le targeted spray
Middle:
Hippowash JSL System
Bottom:
Powerful high pressure spray
It uses rows of diagonal lamella plates to increase fi ltering surface area – it is equiv- alent to a 120,000-litre settlement tank. And unlike a lagoon or a tank, the solids only have to settle around 30mm, speeding up the fi ltering process.
McCumesky developed SiltEater and a few months later the product was born.
Pressing issues
Fast-forward a couple more years and the Hippo is mutating again. Although it is early days, this time it has developed a 32-chamber fi lter press from Micronics, something McCumesky was keen to add a while ago. It has always been a matter of cost,” he said.
“When Hippowash was £30,000-40,000, a press would have been the same price, which
And so the Hippo continues to evolve, making waves in pools used to still water, something McCumesky plans to keep doing. He concluded: “It is about fi nding the right solution for customers. In the end all we have is our customers.”
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Used for removing surplus site water and discharging it into watercourses at a con- tamination level acceptable to the Environ- ment Agency, the technology caught Mc- Cumesky’s eye.
always frustrated me because I knew it would be perfect. Prices are more acceptable now.”
It works by sucking the muck from the hopper bottom with minimal operator involvement. It is connected to the hoppers at the bottom of the SiltEater; the valve is opened and the press draws in the sludge using a vacuum pump.
However, while shown to work in the lab, the press still needs a few bugs removing before it becomes a practical reality. This became clear at Hillhead where the system was dewatering sludge in the discharge pipe, leaving a blockage.
But Micronics says it is on the case and McCumesky is confi dent the problems will soon be rectifi ed. He is looking for a site to test the press (readers who are interested in this can give him a ring).
The future
And when the press has bedded in, he feels he will have pushed the envelope as far as it will go in terms of the Hippowash offering. But with CDM Steels currently manufacturing its 250th Hippowash system and seeking to change its company name to Hippowash, he said he won’t become complacent with the product.
But at the same time he is not a man to sit still. Already coming off the drawing board is a design for a small, easy to set up washing recycling system that can be drawn behind a four-wheel drive. And there is something bigger in the offi ng for plant hire fi rms.
“We have in the pipeline a mobile wash down pad with water recycling,” McCumesky said. “Most plant hirers clean plant with high pressure washers and steam cleaners on to a concrete pad and all the mud and contaminants go down the drain. They can’t do that any more, but the civils involved with meeting legislation are costly, especially for jobs that only take a couple of years. So the mobile system will allow them to take wash down plant from job to job.”
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