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Adaptive Auger Head: Environmentally Friendly Solution

At Dredge Yard, we pay special attention to high efficiency and innovative solutions. We do this, to achieve lowest equipment prices, operational costs and minimal impact on the environment. Sustainability and green dredging solutions become increasingly important, as climate and environment are rapidly changing and must be protected. In accordance to this, our team created an innovative dredging solution, which protects the environment – the adaptive auger head. 

Specifications

The adaptive auger head has two retractable visors placed on the front, and the backside of the auger head. The visors move in and out, according to the shape of the seabed and the depth. This automatic visor movement is enabled by the hydraulic arrangement and pressure settings. See the video below for a thorough explanation of how the adaptive auger head works. 

Benefits of the adaptive auger head

The adaptive auger head achieves a variety of environmental and economic benefits, due to its automatic visor movement along the ground when dredging. Some of the benefits include:

  1. More production of sand in less time. The adaptive visors create a strong suction vacuum by continuously following the ground, which achieves high production rates.
  2. Much less turbidity than with conical (basket) cutter head types. This is achieved due to adaptive visors, which control the material spillage. Low turbidity is an especially big advantage when dredging in contaminated areas, as it protects the environment. 
  3. The adaptive system saves marine life by protecting animals from entering the suction system in the dredger.
  4. This system accurately removes only the necessary layer and ensures an even surface at all depths. Therefore, necessary materials are not removed from the ecosystem.
  5. It is suitable for unmanned dredging, because adaptive visors automatically adjust with the ground. This makes the system very useful for remote controlled dredgers, which operate in areas that are risky for operators. 

Remediation / environmental dredging

Environmental Dredging Landscape

The adaptive auger head is an especially suitable solution for environmental dredging. As mentioned, the adaptive visors protect the marine life from getting trapped in the dredging system. Additionally, they cause minimal to no turbidity. This characteristic is vital for the ecosystem, especially when contaminated soils are involved. Some of the other advantages of using the adaptive auger head system in environmental or remediation dredging are discussed below. 

  1. Adaptive auger head improves cleanup operations that are specifically aimed at removing contaminated sediments. This is especially important, as contaminants can endanger marine and human life.
  2. Remediation dredging means that the thinnest layers possible are accurately removed. As a result, the least possible quantities of contaminated material are dredged.
  3. Contaminated sediments pose a big risk to human health, the environment and may limit the use of many water bodies. However, treatment of contaminated sediment is costly and secure disposal areas are limited. Therefore, precision dredging offers a viable solution, as it removes the smallest amount possible. 
  4. The adaptive visors enclose the area being dredged. In this way, they prevent sediments from drifting into the surrounding waters. 

Other applications for the adaptive auger head

adaptive auger head dredger

Adaptive auger head on dredger ECO 200

Aside from environmental dredging, the adaptive auger head can be used for a variety of applications. For example, it is a useful tool in river and canal dredging, water intake cleaning, harbor maintenance and more. 

Overall, not all types of dredging or maintenance have to be very precise. However, certain projects demand environmental society clearance. In such cases, the adaptive auger head adds immense value to your product in terms of both – economic reasons for you and protection of the environment. If needed, our Auger Dredger ECO 200 can be supplied with the adaptive auger head system, instead of a regular auger head. Additionally, the adaptive auger head can also be purchased separately, in order to upgrade your existing dredger. 

Contact Dredge Yard

If you would like more information or advice, please contact us here, or fill in the form below. We are happy to help! 

  • Please add some information about your dredger requirements - dredging depth, dredging area size, production, or other.
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More photos of the adaptive auger head

 

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Water Injection Dredging

Water Injection Dredging: what, when, how?

Water bodies including harbours, ports, canals and rivers carry sediments, which eventually settle on the waterbed and in time, result in siltation. Siltation reduces waterway access for ships, and can lead to flooding. Therefore, regular maintenance dredging is necessary to maintain appropriate water depths and safe navigation. While traditional dredging techniques are an effective solution for removal of accumulated sediments, it can be a costly process, especially for smaller ports and harbours. Water Injection Dredging (WID) is a dredging method, which is considered more environmentally friendly and cost efficient, but requires specific soil and environmental conditions.

WID method involves water injection into the sediments. Therefore, a water injection dredger contains a series of nozzles located on a jetbar, which spray water. In contrast to traditional dredging methods, WID does not involve any suction, pumping or transport of the dredged materials.  More specifically, water injection dredging process can be divided into the following four steps:

  1. Injection: large amount of water is injected at low pressure into the sediments in the bottom of the waterway.
  2. Transition: the injected water loosens the sediments and creates a water and sediment mixture (fluidised soil layer). This layer results in lower density than the sediments, but higher density than that of the surrounding water.
  3. Transport: due to the difference in material densities, the fluidised soil layer is transported through the natural phenomenon of water currents, minimizing the disturbance to the natural ecosystem.
  4. Settlement: once the sediments reach deeper waters they settle down again. This process does not involve removal of materials from their natural ecosystem.

Benefits of Water Injection Dredging

When applicable, water injection dredging features a range of economic and environmental advantages in comparison to more traditional dredging methods. Some of these are listed below:

  1. Water injection dredging does not require additional equipment such as pipelines or boosters. As a result, a water injection dredging project is less complicated, requires less organisation and can be started as soon as the dredger is delivered on site.
  2. Since additional support equipment is not needed, water injection dredging process becomes less costly and does not disturb shipping traffic when in operation.
  3. WID requires very little energy for water injection, in comparison to energy required for heavy material suction and transport. Therefore, fuel consumption of a water injection dredger is low, resulting in low operational costs.
  4. In the right conditions (e.g. water depths, currents, materials), water injection dredgers have high production rates. This leads to shorter project execution time frames and lower costs.

Environmental Impacts of Water Injection Dredging

Environmental Dredging Landscape

Aside from the above mentioned time and economy related advantages, water injection dredging is unique for its environmentally friendly characteristics. For example:

  1. This dredging method does not include sediment suction and removal. It uses natural phenomena including water current and gravity as a means of sediment transport. Accordingly, fluidized materials (1-3m thick) travel horizontally alongside the waterbed, while the surrounding water remains unaffected. In comparison, traditional dredging techniques involve vertical transfer of dredged materials throughout the whole water depth.
  2. Dredged sediments remain within the natural environment, avoiding the possible shortage of necessary materials in the ecosystem.
  3. Water injection dredging requires significantly less energy than traditional dredging methods, which involve suction and pumping of heavy materials. As a result, water injection dredgers have a much lower fuel consumption, and therefore, significantly lower CO2 emissions per m3 of dredged materials.

Is Water Injection Dredging an applicable dredging method for your project?

All application images

Water injection dredging is considered a cost-efficient, effective and environmentally friendly dredging solution. It is especially suitable for maintenance dredging and in locations that may be difficult to reach for larger vessels. Nevertheless, this method requires very specific conditions for safe and efficient dredging operations. Therefore, it is necessary to assess the environmental impact and conditions in and around the dredging location. Some of the points to consider include:

  • There must be a lower area at the end of the dredging site, where the dredged sediments can be transported to and settle.
  • For water injection dredging to be an efficient dredging method, river currents or tidal flow should be present. This will ease the natural transportation of the materials.
  • Sediments should not contain contaminated materials, as this can spread pollutants and cause harm to the environment.
  • There should not be any sensitive marine life such as shellfish beds, corals or the like in and around the dredging area.

Water Injection Dredgers

There is a large variety of dredging equipment engineered for water injection dredging applications, ranging from small to larger vessels. However, water injection dredging method is usually most applicable for smaller maintenance dredging projects. An example of such applications can be reoccurring harbour or canal deepening. Dredge Yard specializes in manufacturing small to medium sized dredgers, and customized solutions, which are ideal for maintenance projects. If required, we can customize any one of our dredgers with a water injection (water jet) head.

Are you curious if water injection dredging can be the right method for your project? Do you need more information on the suitable equipment or price? Contact Dredge Yard here, we will be happy to advice & get back to you within 48 hours.

More Information on Water Injection Dredging

Water injection dredging is getting more attention again due to its environmental and economical benefits. Therefore, “Impacts & Benefits of Water Injection Dredging” is going to be one of the key topics at the 4th European Dredging Summit held in Rotterdam, Netherlands on 6-8th March 2019. European Dredging Summit focuses on sustainability, challenges and opportunities with the European dredging industry. See More information here.

Find more information on the history and principle of Water Injection Dredging on TU Delft article here.

For more details on Water Injection Dredging click here.

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Auger & Cutter Dredgers For Any Project.

Dredge Yard continues its mission in being the leading manufacturer of small to medium sized professional dredgers. The new Auger dredger 200 (8inch) and Cutter Suction Dredger 250 (10inch) ensure high efficiency and durability. Additionally, Dredge Yard always offers very versatile dredgers. In accordance to this, dredger 200 and 250 design features interchangeable components. Thus, each dredger can be equipped with a cutter head (with replaceable teeth), auger head or plain suction head. Therefore, these dredgers are not only compact, durable and good-looking, but also suitable for a wide variety of dredging and mining applications under all conditions.

In addition to its versatility, the new Auger, Cutter and Plain Suction dredgers have been optimized to increase dredge performance and decrease operational costs. How? Read on.

Underwater Dredge Pump

The dredged material is pumped by an underwater dredge pump, which is driven by a hydraulic motor and mounted on a rigid bearing assembly and shaft. As a result, the pump can have a higher pumping flow and of a higher density mixture. Therefore, overall, an underwater dredge pump design offers higher production than a dredge pump mounted in the pontoons.

In addition to this, the control cabin is equipped with all necessities to ensure the operator’s safety and comfort. For example, the cabin is supplied with noise and vibration reduction, ventilation, windshield wipers and an adjustable chair, to name a few. Moreover, air conditioning or a heater is included depending on the geographical location of operation.

Propulsion

All of the dredgers 200 and 250 are self-propelled with two hydraulic thrusters provided only by the best, first-class European brands. As a result, the dredgers are easily maneuverable without any involvement of tugboats or other support. Furthermore, to ensure mobilization support, the dredgers are equipped with tiltable spuds, which can be manually tilted and secured to the deck.

Finally, another important characteristic to highlight, is that the new dredgers 200 and 250 accommodate higher fuel tank capacity. Therefore, the number of necessary refueling intervals for continuous operations is reduced, which allows uninterrupted project work.

Below you can review some of the specifics of Auger Dredger 200 and Cutter Suction Dredger 250.

Main specifications of Auger Dredger 200 & Cutter Suction Dredger 250

 

Auger Dredger 200

Cutter Suction Dredger 250

Length overall incl. ladder15.5 mLength overall incl. ladder16.4 m
Length over pontoons11.5 mLength over pontoons11.5 m
Breadth4 mBreadth4 m
Height of pontoon1.25 mHeight of pontoon1.25 m
Design draught0.66 mDesign draught0.75 m
Max. dredging depth (45°)6 mMax. dredging depth (45°)8 m
Suction pipe diameter200 mmSuction pipe diameter250 mm
Discharge pipe diameter200 mmDischarge pipe diameter250 mm
Total installed power224 kWTotal installed power261 kW

If you are interested in more information, a quotation or want to see the dredgers, contact us. We look forward to hear about your project and provide you with highest efficiency equipment!

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Cutter Suction Dredger ECO 200 to UAE

Dredge Yard delivered a multipurpose cutter suction dredger ECO 200 to a real estate developer in the United Arab Emirates for the reshaping and maintenance of existing islands. The ECO 200 dredger will be used for connecting some of the islands and deepening the sea entrance between the islands. Due to current and erosion, the coast of the islands changes with the years. For this reason, it is necessary to perform periodical maintenance to keep the shape of the islands and maintain a pleasant beach. In some areas the beach is flooded by new soft types of sand that makes it difficult for visitors to enjoy the beautiful clear waters of the Emirates. In other places it is necessary to maintain the water depth for yachts and work boats to visit the area. Dredging is the only way to maintain artificial and natural shaped islands and beaches.

The ECO 200 Cutter Suction Dredger

The ECO 200 dredger is equipped with a heavy-duty cutter head and underwater dredge pump for high performance and for pumping a high-density mixture of sand. The high dredging performance will speed up the dredging process to limit the time involved in maintenance. For easy mobilization the dredger is provided with two hydraulic propulsions. The ECO 200 Cutter Suction Dredger can pump the sand up to 1500m and dredge up to 6 meters depth. One of the advantages of the ECO dredger is the use for dredging in small and shallow areas that are difficult for bigger dredgers to enter. The draft of the ECO dredger is only 0.7m. This multipurpose cutter suction dredger is delivered completely assembled and launched into the water by mobile crane.

Dredge Yard multipurpose cutter suction dredger launched by crane

About Dredge Yard

Dredge Yard is a company located in the Netherlands and United Arab Emirates. It is specialized in providing Cutter Suction Dredgers, Auger Suction Dredgers, and Plain Suction Dredgers for multipurpose and cost-effective dredging. Recently the company delivered several dredgers world wide and serves customers in more than 30 countries.

Contact us for more information.

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Testing Cutter Suction Dredger ECO 200

We are very excited about this project! We delivered our redesigned ECO 200 Cutter Suction Dredger and tested it, in cooperation with our client. The testing took place at the production site, to ensure everything is working properly for a smooth operation.

Watch this testing video of our recently delivered ECO 200 Cutter Dredger.

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Dredge Yard is moving to Rotterdam

Starting from June 1st you can find us in our new office at Weena 750 in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The building is right across the street from Rotterdam Central Station, making easily accessible by public transportation. It also has good parking facilities for when you want to visit us by car.

Our new office building has recently been renovated and offers many modern facilities and services. Come meet us at our new address in one of the fully equipped meeting rooms, have lunch at the restaurant or a cup of coffee at the bar.

Our new address is:
Dredge Yard B.V.
Weena 750
3014 DA Rotterdam
Netherlands

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New ECO dredgers presented at Europort

At the Europort 2017 exhibition, from November 7-10, Dredge Yard presented their series of new ECO dredgers. They also met with a lot of different people to strengthen and expand their existing network.

International maritime meetingpoint

Europort is the international maritime meeting place for everyone that operates in innovative technology and complex shipbuilding. From November 7-10 the exhibition attracted a total of 26,733 visitors from 93 countries. Together with 1,100 participating exhibitors from 42 countries this was a good opportunity for Dredge Yard to meet up with many of their international relations.

New ECO Dredgers

Dredge Yard’s new ECO Dredgers are designed to offer affordable, compact and high-quality dredgers. It is their focus to create first class multipurpose dredgers that meet your project requirements. Dredge Yard delivers reliable auger dredgers, cutter suction dredgers and cleaning equipment that are easy to maintain, affordable and with high productivity.

Coffee & good conversation

Participating in the Europort 2017 exhibition was a success, according to Marketing Manager Ellen van Yperen: “We drank a lot of coffee and had good conversations with many different visitors. We were happy to welcome a lot of suppliers, partners and both returning and new clients in our booth. And with the help of our highly detailed scale model of the ECO 200 Auger Dredger, we could easily demonstrate the strong features and advantages of our ECO series.”

 

If you wat to know more about our ECO Dredgers, give us a call or send a message.

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Dredge Yard attending Europort 2017

Dredge Yard will be attending the upcoming Europort 2017 Exhibition in Ahoy Rotterdam from 7 – 10 November. The exhibition is all about maritime technology.

New range of ECO Dredgers

This year, Dredge Yard developed a new range of reliable and fuel-efficient ECO Dredgers. The dredgers are all designed to be as efficient as possible in use as well as in costs. Their shallow draft allows the ECO Dredgers to operate in shallow waters and high debris environments. The complete dredger and all its individual components can be operated by one person. Dredge Yard’s ECO Dredgers are equipped with a high quality and ergonomically designed control cabin.

New vessel debut

Visit us at Europort to witness the debut of our new ECO 200 Auger Dredger. It is the first dredger of the ECO Series. The ECO 200 Auger can be supplied with several types of high quality dredge components. The auger head can even be exchanged for a plain suction head or cutter head. The entire dredger is controlled from within the control cabin. This includes all components like the hydraulic drive system, winches, motors, thrusters and cylinders.

Be one of the first to check out our detailed 3D model of the new ECO 200 Auger. Visit us at Europort in booth nr. 3108 to discover even more features and benefits of the ECO 200 Auger and the other ECO Dredgers.

Click the registration button below to register for a free ticket for Europort 2017.

Europort 2017 registration - Dredge Yard

Opening hours Europort 2017:

Tuesday, November 710:00 – 18:00 hours
Wednesday, November 810:00 – 18:00 hours
Thursday, November 910:00 – 22:00 hours
Friday, November 1010:00 – 17:00 hours
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Dredge Yard to build ECO200 Auger dredger

Dredge Yard recently signed a contract to design, manufacture and deliver an ECO 200 Dredger with auger head. The auger dredger has a dredging depth of 6 m and comes with a 1500 m discharge pipeline. The ECO 200 Auger will be delivered to a mining corporation in West-Africa. There the ECO 200 Auger Dredger will be used for mining activities in a shallow river. The removed sand & gravel is then processed to capture gold and diamonds.

DredgeYard ECO200 Auger dredger with knives

DredgeYard ECO200 Auger dredger with knives

Special auger head

The economic auger head is designed to excavate with minimum spillage and provide the best suction performance. For this project, Dredge Yard is going to install small extended knifes on the auger. The objective of these knifes is to loosen the compacted river sands to be transported by the screw motion of the auger to the suction mouth. Sufficient pumping power is provided to transport the dredged material over a discharge length of more than 1500 m.

Shallow draft

The ECO 200 Auger Dredger will be built out of two main pontoons. This will provide sufficient floating capacity, but maintaining a shallow draft of around 0.8 m (2.65 ft). This allows the dredger to operate in shallow waters.

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Customized dredging system for TSHD

Dredge Yard delivered a new customized dredging system for a trailing suction hopper dredger. The system consists of several components, such as dredge valves with inspection holes on both sides. The delivered dredge pumps are suitable for pumping and handling all slurry, mud, sand, gravel, rocks and debris. We also incorporated our turning glands with an adjustable turning range by using dismountable stoppers.

As you can see on our project page, we designed a new customized wear resistant steel loading box for the trailing suction hopper dredger. This way, the slurry can easily be pumped into the hopper for transport. Our hopper overflow drains the excess water, making it more efficient, because it leaves more room for the payload.

Of course this dredging system would not be complete without a drag head with jet water nozzles, suction arm and gantry. Dredge Yard also provided bow couplings, a sliding piece and bottom doors.

View the full project on our project page.

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