A tunnel 70 metres deep
Yes, that's right, a railway tunnel to speed up trains 70 metres underground, not far from Italy, in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Cannoni Conrad was called in to eliminate the excessive dust produced by the Liebherr 944 excavator during its work (see header image). On the excavator arm, the cutter head moves and grinds the ground, which is then collected and taken out.
This process made the environment highly unhealthy and dangerous, not least because the powerful suction systems were unable to suck up large volumes of dust and the operator in the excavator cab often had great visibility problems during the cutting phase.
A new approach for a new challenge
For this job we chose a versatile machine: the Conrad C42. This model has an integrated high-pressure pump and covers up to 4,700 m², able to dose the amount of water sparingly and to select the type of fine atomisation according to the type of dust raised by the cutter.
Versatility was certainly the key to this job. In addition to the popular articulated arm, we also added a 3-wheel pneumatic-tyre trolley with stabilisers. This combination offered great advantages to the operators. Thanks to the articulated arm, the cannon was aimed precisely at the source of the dust. The trolley with pneumatic tyres made it easy to tow throughout the tunnel, and the stabilisers made it possible to position the machine close to cuts and holes in the ground, allowing the cannon to reach everywhere.
