Demolish and rebuild with the MB Drum Cutter
The MB-R800 drum cutter worked to perfect the diaphragm walls of a new shopping mall in Mexico
This is a story of demolition. And of construction. Or, as in the best fairy tales, we might say, once upon a time in Mexico City there was a factory which, after closing down, was due to be demolished to make room for a new shopping mall. So there was the old and the new and, in the middle, an MB Crusher MB-R800 drum cutter, operated by Pilotec SA de CV, the Mexican company commissioned to do the construction works.
The site
First of all a part of the old factory was demolished. Then the basement of the new building was excavated and diaphragm walls (or underground bulkheads) were built, i.e. walls made of reinforced concrete that prevent the earth next to the excavated area from collapsing. Real effective supports for the perimeter structures.
These are usually used to protect areas excavated to accommodate underground floors (garage, car parks, etc.), or as a support of bridge foundations or on the building sites for jetties and docks, as well as for the construction of deep wells.
The MB Crusher drum cutter at work
After completing the diaphragm walls, Pilotec was left with a problem: how to eliminate all the excess material left on the wall, inert material that made it shapeless and occupied space. And of course, as everyone knows, on a construction site gaining even an extra centimetre means less expenditure and less work.
At this point the MB-R800 drum cutter came into play. Mounted on a 20 ton Cat excavator, the drum cutter removed the excess part of the wall in as little as two weeks. So it was not necessary to construct a revetment wall, as is often the case in such worksites. No further costs were incurred and the construction of the new shopping mall was completed within the delivery data requested by the Client.
An excavator-friendly drum cutter
The MB Crusher drum cutter enabled Pilotec SA to save time and money.
But it also brought great advantages in terms of productivity, safety in the workplace and maintenance time. MB drum cutters are equipped with an integrated safety system which triggers if the excavator settings are not properly regulated. And that’s not all. The two drums can be disassembled directly on-site, without the drum cutter having to be taken to a specialised workshop. Moreover, their unique design allows them to work underwater as well.
The excavator is thankful too when it works with an MB drum cutter. That’s right, because the drum cutter uses an AAA+ type hydraulic system with an integrated Power Booster, which reduces the demand for hydraulic power from the work vehicle, with consequent fuel savings.
The direct drive twin motor system, on the other hand, is a patented system that makes it possible to distribute the force of the two rock cutter heads in different ways. The advantage is huge, since the power of the two drums is managed on the basis of the toughness of the material, and the vibrations transmitted to the excavator arm are absorbed.
Thus it is possible to cut various different kinds of material, from hard to less resistant, using the same drum cutter: simply choose between the low and the full set of picks to be used depending of the material to be cut.
So as the site manager of Pilotec confirms: “With the MB Crusher drum cutter, our customer saved money on costs and we finished the work in record time. So we are both very satisfied”.
