The expertise of Bennett Associates, the South Yorkshire
based mechanical and structural design consulting engineers, has again been used
by Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering Ltd, this time on the Heathrow Express
contract currently under construction for the BAA.
The brief was a fixed price contract to design and supply a novel
segment manipulator which could be attached to, and operated from, a Case 888
excavator.
Bob Wood, a Senior Design Engineer at Bennett Associates, worked
closely with the Heathrow Express team and various local manufacturers to design
and produce the apparatus in a very short time scale.
The method of operation is simple and commences when the excavator
driver unhitches the conventional digger bucket, using cab controls, and then
hitches the segment manipulator to the excavator by the same method.
The hydraulic power for the segment manipulator is taken directly
from the excavator. Using the conventional controls of the excavator the driver
attaches the segment to the manipulator and positions it to within 100mm of its
final location.
Final accurate placing of the segment is then carried out by the
Ring Builders using the hydraulic control located on the manipulator.
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