Improved safety was the key driver when Austrack Equipment developed its SafeVac Lifting Systems™ vacuum lifter.
Austrack is no stranger to bringing innovative ideas and advanced technology to the table and the in-house design and fabrication of its new lifting system’s SV400 Vac Lift unit comes as no surprise.
The Brisbane-based company has already put impressive industry runs on the board, partnering with Superior to be the Australian distributor for the company’s advanced range of crawlers and padders.
In the case of the SV400 Vac Lift, Austrack decided to go it alone and develop its own system after owner Michael Benson saw an opportunity to bring a safer, more productive unit to the industry.
And Austrack efforts have paid off, with the SV400 Vac Lift unit already out in the field and being heralded as among the safest vacuum lifting systems on the market.
“For a long while, vacuum pipe lifting equipment represented a gap in Austrack service offering and we generally relied on hired-in units to meet our customers’ needs,” Benson said.
“And while those units did the job, we could clearly see there were areas where the vac lifts on the market could be improved, so we decided to build our own to meet that market need.”
According to Benson, building such a powerful machine took a village.
“We didn’t do it in isolation,” he said. “We went to the industry and collaborated with contractors, operators and engineers to ensure the significant safety, quality and productivity outcomes we believed could be achieved were specifically designed into our methodology and, ultimately, into our SV400 Vac Lift units.
“Our team has been around the pipeline business for a long time and knows what the market requires, and we believe our SafeVac Lifting Systems™ SV400 vacuum unit meets that need. From the clean lines of the dropped beam spreader bar to the high-tech in-cabin control system right through to the precisely engineered vacuum shoes, we think it brings pipelifting to new level.”
This all-terrain lifting system is already an industry favourite.
“The whole unit speaks power and precision thanks to our integration of leading-edge design, and it is this focus that ensures our units can deliver best-practice form and functionality,” Benson said.
The SafeVac Lifting Systems™ has been designed to specifically meet European standard EN13155, which exceeds Australian Standard AS 4991.
The productivity benefits of the unit’s vacuum lifting pipes are fully complimented by a fail-safe control system.
The SV400 Vac Lift unit brings a new level of confidence in pipe lifting, rendering unintended pipe drops a thing of the past.
“The SV400 Vac Lift’s rear-mounted vacuum tank assembly is matched by additional vacuum storage in the lifting end spreader beam, and a non-return valve arrangement ensures, even in a catastrophic destruction of the main vacuum line, the lifted pipe will not be released,” Benson said.
“That’s the type of confidence I think will truly resonate in an industry that is always seeking systems that bring additional safety to operations and keeps people safe.”
But Benson believes the Austrack SV400 Vac Lift unit goes even further.
“During the design phase of its development, our team invested heavily into operator controls, because at the end of the day, and the pipe, there’s an operator and they are key,” he said.
The key features of the machine are many. The SV400 Vac Lift unit features a large cabin control screen that gives operators a clear display of reserve tank pressure, vacuum shoe pressures, pitch and roll angles of spreader bar, and latch and release control icons to improve operator controls.
The screen also has extensive datalogging capabilities, including numbers of lifts for the life of the unit, by day or by shift.
“It’s also fully flexible, with the spreader bar at 4.5m in standard format,” Benson said. “But through clever design it can provide a bolt-on 2m extension either side for when operators are moving longer HDPE pipes.
“In fact, the range of shoes available ensure all pipe sizes are catered for and depending on the size of the host excavator the vacuum unit is capable of lifting even the heaviest pipes.”
Austrack firmly believes that safety and productivity go hand in hand.
“And while safe operation is always our first consideration at Austrack, maintaining productivity and efficiency while vac lifting pipes has also been a key focus during our design,” Benson said.
“Our team’s design and development of this leading-edge vac lift unit has taken a lot of time and effort, but to now see these units in the field providing a higher level of safety for workers and instilling confidence in our customers, it makes the effort all worthwhile.
“The Safe Vac Lifting System is a new era in pipe lifting and the Austrack team is proud to be behind its introduction to our industry.”
This article featured in the September edition of The Australian Pipeliner.
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