Water Management Review

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Aug 26, 2014

BTS has a wide and all-encompassing range of products for this critical industry segment comprising of equipment for personal and material including tripods, crane davits, inertia reels, rescue and recovery winches and safety harnesses to name a few. BTS has a strong history of not only being able to offer their clients a readily available off-the-shelf range but also have an enviable reputation within the industry of designing b-spoke product solutions for unique and custom situations.

In these tough economic times, cost-effectiveness has become increasingly important to managers in all industries. The Water and Wastewater Treatment industry is no exception. Products that can be used for multiple applications or which are portable are preferable and more cost-effective compared to single-application products.

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At BTS, we totally understand this drive to find cost-effective product solutions for when accessing areas that require the operators to use fall protection and confined space gear. All products feature unique and innovative modular designs that allow operators to utilise the products in multiple areas within a plant facility with the added luxury of being easily transportable by a single person off site if required to use in a field type application.

An applied example of this level of innovation is that a 10’ or 3mtr BTS Tripod that has a WLL of 1,000kgs weighs only 19kgs, when not in use the tripod compactly folds down to 5’ or 1.5mtrs allowing for the tripod to be stored easily in the back of a work vehicle and transported across to other sites. Being of modular design, the tripod can be easily mated with additional tripods and when used in conjunction with an optional horizontal man rated beam arrangement, transforms the conventional tripod into a portable A-frame system that has the capacity to span over an open pit of up to 8mtrs in length. The horizontal beams are factory made in 1.5mtr sections and can be effortlessly assembled on site.

Innovative design features are not only limited to the tripods but transferred to other product types within the BTS range. All products feature as standard ‘Tuff-Klik’, a clever design feature using pin-less technology for adjustments in heights and offsets. Utilising ‘Tuff-Klik’, eliminates the opportunity for lost or damaged adjustment and locking pins on site which could render the equipment useless.

Raising and lowering of individuals for deep entry work has always been a concern for not only managers but also for the worker on-site. With deeper and more confined work areas being accessed and on a more frequent basis, the question has always been posed ‘how do I rescue my mate when he gets in trouble 30+mtrs down a shaft?’ In the early days, most relied on rope and pulley haul packs to lower and raise individuals working in confined spaces. In recent times, most companies updated their confined space kits to include a rescue recovery mechanical winch which somewhat simplified the process but the manual handling issue of cranking the handle to raise and lower the unit still remained. BTS recognised this manual handling issue with the activity of hauling and lowering individuals and now offers a power drill drive adaptor as an optional accessory on all their mechanical rescue recovery winches. With a built in overload clutch and a gear reducer, the operator can control the operation of the rescue recovery winch using the power drill drive adaptor and a portable battery pack drill. A fully charged drill will be able to raise and lower an individual down a shaft or pit multiple times or up to 180mtrs of travel. With the added advantage of still being able to use the winch handle to raise or lower the operator in the event that the operator experiences a low battery charge on the drill pack.

Raising and lowering of personnel within pump stations, elevated tanks, wet wells and other work areas is one of the other significant activities facing the worker on-site today. Along with raising and lowering of personnel, material and equipment also need to be raised and lowered in to these work areas which often means the use of mobile cranes or similar types of external equipment that often leads to a further increase in costs in conducting the work.

Use of equipment rated for personal use is not recommended, as personal rated equipment work on a different safety factors vs. equipment ratio used for lifting material and equipment. The absence of a strong local source of portable davit cranes has also meant that sites have relied sorely on mobile cranes and other similar equipment until now. BTS recently introduced to their range a collection of modular davit cranes for the water and wastewater industry. By installing independent bases where needed around your work site, you can serve multiple work stations with a single portable davit crane. Available in a range of sizes and capacities of up to 1,000kg’s, all our davit cranes are fitted with hand or power winches and are available in 304 or 316 stainless steel construction. We also offer a choice of finishes including electrostatic powder, epoxy or galvanized coating for superior corrosion resistance. Winches feature the Quick Disconnect Cable which lets you remove the cable from the crane leaving it hooked to the load. This is especially useful in handling submerged pumps where disconnecting and reconnecting the cable at the pump is difficult or impossible.


For more information, log onto
www.beavergrp.com.au
or contact the National Sales & Marketing Manager on
nbuksh@beavergrp.com.au