Here is an excerpt from the Young Company Finance Scotland magazine. Originally published in issue #192 – December 2014.
“When YCF last featured CCPS in December 2013 the company had won a SMART Feasibility Award of £100k to assess the feasibility of a method for testing ground anchor reinforcements without any destructive force. The team channelled 10 years of field experience to develop the now patented ‘ROKTEL’ ground anchor corrosion analysis system.
Ground anchors, usually tensioned steel ground anchor bolts, are used to support ground reinforcement systems in mines, tunnels, dams and wind turbine foundations. Traditionally the only method of testing ground anchor bolts is to attach an often heavy and awkward hydraulic ram to try and pull them out of the rock or ground. This is often destructive, as it loosens the bolt’s attachment to the rock and can result in the needless breakage or removal of otherwise ‘good’ bolts.
ROKTEL is now the most advanced, non-destructive ground reinforcement testing system available today. The small, light and flexible system comprises an intelligent electronic actuator which taps the end of the ground reinforcement with a precise and optimal force to achieve clear data. Its dual sensors capture the reinforcement’s response to the stimulus and analyse it to help inform decision making.
The fast, reliable and user-friendly system allows the triaging of up to 200 bolts per operator per shift – a vast improvement on the existing method which only allows a few tests to be carried out in a single day. ‘Good’ and ‘bad’ bolts can be identified, together with the remaining length, level of corrosion, grout adhesion and voids. In addition to the on-site indications of condition, internet-based comprehensive support and in-depth analysis is available on-line, with individual test reports provided. Client access is provided through the CCPS RokWeb interface.
At the time it was granted the SMART Feasibility Award, CCPS had already made prototypes for the consistent, programmable percussive excitation of bolts, with data capture electronics and software to analyse the results. The first versions of ROKTEL were developed by CCPS in 2008. Early models have been used and tested in many countries for several years and have been proven, by extraction in many ground stabilisation applications, to be capable of a high degree of accuracy in assessing in-situ bolt condition.
CCPS completed its SMART Feasibility project last month and was successful in all aspects, albeit a little later than anticipated. The project was put back by two months in order to incorporate a previously unplanned acoustic sensor. However it has proven a successful addition to its vibration counterpart.
CCPS director Nigel Scott commented “It is still early days, but as there are no competitive products available we believe that within a short space of time the product will be very significant in the civil engineering and mining industries.”
The company has received two orders already, from Canada and Australia, and has had significant interest from the Rio Tinto mining group and other potentially major customers, such as Hydro Tasmania. Distributors have been identified in Australia for the Asia-Pacific region, Washington for the Americas and UK for Europe. Establishing agencies in these areas is the company’s medium-term goal. The company has other products in the pipeline and has received enquiries for fixed monitoring systems as opposed to a manual, handheld device.
This new device could be used remotely via the internet and is being considered a potential area for further development.