TPT September 2011

W elding E quipment

Giant welding project in Bosnia Herzegovina

IN Zeljusa, about 10Km from Mostar, Bosnia Herzegovina – scene of terrible fighting during the war of the 1990s – an ambitious project is about to be completed: a state- of-the-art irrigation system built on a 300 hectare vineyard. The carrying out of such an irrigation system entails the use of 45km of HDPE tube, divided into the main duct and the junctions. The main duct is made of Ø250mm plastic pipes, SDR 17; the junctions, respectively: 15km of Ø125mm pipe, SDR 26 PN6; 15km of 110mm Ø pipe, SDR 26 PN6; and 15km of Ø90mm, SDR 26 PN6 to finally end with a sophisticated drop-by- drop irrigation system made of decoders connected with a central programmer. For the welding, the local firm Procedo, supported by the experience of PlusPipe Srl, has chosen the Italian technology of Ritmo SpA. In particular, two butt fusion welders of the Basic Line: Basic 160 (working range from 40 to 160mm) and Basic 250 (working range from 75 to 250mm), both supplied with adapters. The third machine involved is Elektra 400, an electrofusion welding machine. The Basic machines were responsible for the main ducts welding, while Elektra 400 had to finalise the joining of the pipes connecting to the drop-by-drop system. The environment – 300 hectares of construction site that requires constant movement – brought out the best characteristics of the Basic machines: robustness and manoeuvrability, reliability and precision. In particular, two are the features esteemed by the operators. The first one regards the electronic thermo-regulator Digital Dragon that guarantees a precise control of the heating plate’s temperature and is very easy to read and set up. The other preferred feature is the SMARTLock adapters system (Ritmo patent) that allows the setting up of a new working range of the welder’s clamp in a very short time, a substantial time-saving for all operators. The Elektra 400 is very reliable – it can weld couplings from Ø20 to 400mm, offering something that welders really appreciate: the machine can work continuously, with no cooling time, under 40°C. Furthermore, thanks to a scanner-reading system that allows the automatic setting of welding parameters and a memory able to record up to 4,000 welding cycles, Elektra 400 has highlighted its qualities inside the construction site. While the welding

presented no issues, the extremely rocky soil of the site forced the operators to overfill the bed where the pipes will be placed, handling the duct with utmost care.

Ritmo SpA – Italy Email: info@ritmo.it Website: www.ritmo.it

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S eptember 2011

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