Cobra Technologies UK solves rebar cutting problem
No one else would even attempt it.
The Problem:
A 625mm (24.5") pipe with two iron rebars through it catching debris and reducing flow. The pipe was a storm pipe under a highway with access only through the road gully. One rebar was approximately 20m (65ft) and the second was 80m (260ft) from the entry gully.
The Solution:
Utilizing our experience in both cutting and inspection to amalgamate the two technologies Cobra engineered a solution that utilized a Cobra Crawler to transport a cutter to the rebar. A 9" cutter with a right angled fully rotatable cutting arm provided the cutting power and the Cobra Mainline Crawler provided the transport along with the forward motion for the cutter.
We mounted the cutter on an adjustable gantry both for vertical and horizontal positioning in the pipe. With the rebar coming in at 2 o'clock it was important for us to position the cutter inline with the rebar.
The cut took no more than twenty minutes. The advantage of having the camera vertically inline with the cutting head is clear for all to see. The zoom function on the Cobra PTZ Camera came into its own as the camera was 500mm (20") from the cutting head but we had the ability to zoom in on the 10mm rebar to perform an accurate cut.
We are confident the current joint product will be capable of cutting and grinding in a 1000mm (40") pipe and 115m (375ft) from a single point of access. We are developing a system that will utilize our automated gantry for an increased level of precision with the added bonus of being fitted to a Cobra Steerable Crawler. (non-steerable unit pictured)
Cobra Technologies UK has a demonstration vehicle with the capability of inspecting up to a 4m (12ft) pipe/culvert with a steerable crawler along with the ability to mount the cutter to cut or grind in 1m (3ft) pipes from a single point of access. To our knowledge, Cobra has the only solution that can provide a cutter and crawler with these capabilities in the same vehicle for either inspection, renovation or together for both principles.
This video has been editied, actual cutting time was 12 minutes.