TPi January 2011

developments products &

New ATEX-compliant hood positioning devices

Drainage pipes have to meet ever more severe requirements in the under- drainage of traffic structures and underground engineering. This is due to changing weather conditions, with less frequent rainfalls yet considerably more water per rainfall. The collection, drain and seepage of surface water and soakage needs optimised drain systems that are able to cope with floods. Tunnel-shaped drainage pipes have been used for nearly 35 years, to cope with huge amounts of water. These are mostly made from PVC, since plastic provides high annular rigidity. The flat bottom of the pipe in contact with the soil provides better drainage than single walled pipes with fully circular corrugation. The German DIN standard, increasingly adopted in European countries, refers to it as Type C1 with profiled inner and outer surface and smooth flat flow bottom. Flextraction Ltd, a supplier and manufacturer of local exhaust ventilation (LEV) products, has introduced a new range of totally self supporting hood positioning devices (HPD), including the Flextractor HPD, Extended HPD, Mini HPD and Flextender HPD. Most of the new range are now available certified as ATEX-compliant. The HPDs all incorporate new mounting brackets, hoods and hoses for the capture and extraction of industrial dusts and fumes including hazardous and corrosive fumes at the point of source in surface grinding, welding, product tipping and drum filling as well as food processing and all manufacturing applications, where dust and fumes are emitted. Being ATEX-compliant means that products are coated with an anti- static paint so that they can be used in hazardous area zones, which are based on the frequency and duration of where there can be an occurrence of an explosive atmosphere in which a mixture of air with dangerous substances in the

form of gas, vapour, mist or combustible dust is likely to occasionally occur in normal operations. Features of the HPDs include a rear casing that is fully enclosed, giving an improved aesthetic appearance and protection against dirt ingress, a rear boom extension giving a 270° working radius, and a new 360° rotating swivel hood enabling more accurate hood positioning, while quick release clips are used to attach a range of flexible hoses including ATEX-certified hoses. Flextractor HPDs are suitable for standard wall or stanchion mounting, as well as upward and downward swivel, joist and ceiling mountings, and are available in five standard lengths between 1.5m and 4m. The Extended HPD provides the user with the additional option of a longer reach up to a maximum of 8m. The wall or bench mounted mini HPD is available in three standard diameters – 75mm, 100mm and 125mm – with either a 1m or 1.5m reach.

A range of hoods is available in a wide variety of designs including bell

mouth, flare, fish tail, flat screen and custom designed.

The new Flextender HPD extraction arms are ATEX-compliant

Flextraction Ltd – UK sales@flextraction.co.uk www.flextraction.co.uk

Tunnel pipe optimises flow properties of plastic drainage pipes

step. The first plants are now being put into operation in southern Europe, and further machines are in production.

To meet increasing demand for plastic tunnel shaped drain pipes, Unicor GmbH has developed new tools for the corrugators types UC 250 and UC 315. The newly developed perforating process allows these machines to

Unicor GmbH – Germany www.unicor.com

produce tunnel pipes with anOD of DN 100 at a rate of up to 11m per minute. The company states that this is twice the previous standard production speed of tunnel pipes. Another benefit of the UC 250 and UC 315 is that at constantly high speeds the sockets can be produced in-line. This dispenses completely with the need for a separate production

A mould block with typical tunnel profile and a tunnel-shaped drainage pipe

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January 2011 Tube Products International