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Hydrodemolition Robot Crushes With Water
Roland Piquepaille writes "In 'Robot pummels roads with water', the Augusta Chronicle says that a hydrodemolition robot is going to restore seven bridges in Georgia. "It's a robot that destroys everything in its path with a crushing stream of water 15 times more powerful than a jackhammer. The robot looks like a street cleaner machine on steroids and is expected to begin use August 1 to resurface seven bridges on Gordon Highway from Walton Way to the bridge at the South Carolina state line." This kind of robot needs only two workers to operate it, instead of 15 workers for a jackhammer, is less noisy and more gentle for the foundations. You'll find more details in this summary."
If they could figure out a way to use the old concrete with the waste water to immediatly make new concrete it would be like a Zamboni for the highway.
You heard right. For anyone who hasn't heard of this there are several kinds, basically broken up by the maximum pressure. When I was involved with building automation systems this was one of the coolest things to play with (though they aren't toys).
:) For info try:
Add a little pulverized rock into a 0.012 inch stream of water at 60,000 psi and you can cut through *anything*. Biggest thing I ever saw was a 17 inch thick slab of titanium plating. The edges end up smooth, cool (or at most warm to the touch) and, if you are cutting something really expensive (or toxic) you can reclaim 99.99% of the material you eroded away.
Waterjet is *the* coolest cutting technology in the world
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