Bursting & Crushing

Hydraulic Bursting

What is Hydraulic Bursting?
Hydraulic bursting is a method used to remove redundant concrete structures, brickwork or natural stone. With the benefit of being vibration free and with no noise levels this operation is ideal for use in confined spaces and in areas where noise levels need to be low due to its surrounding environment such as hospitals, offices, hotels and factories.

What does Hydraulic Bursting consist of?
A hydraulic burster consists of a hydraulic powered motor and a burster head, which is made of pistons.

How does Hydraulic Bursting work?
Bursters need an open edge to burst and a skilled operative who must check for services and protect and isolate the area should only carry out this operation. Before bursting can take places a series of holes need to be core drilled into the area usually 50mm, 110mm or 200mm diameter. The burster head is then placed into the holes and pressurised. This forces the burster head pistons to expand within the hole, which in turn causes the concrete to break into manageable pieces. This is repeated until all the area can be removed.

What are the applications of Hydraulic Bursting?
• Concrete structures
• Concrete machine beds
• Plinths
• Mass filled concrete
• Brickwork
• Confined areas
• In a working environment

Hydraulic Crushing

What is Hydraulic Crushing?
This is a similar method to bursting Once again hydraulic power is used and also comes from electricity and petrol/diesel. The main difference from bursting is that it does not need any diamond holes to be pre-drilled and the resulting rubble is of much smaller dimensions.

What does Hydraulic Crushing consist of?
The Crusher consists of a large jaw (which looks like a large letter ‘C’ or ‘D’ or a crabs claw) and a hydraulic power unit.

How does Hydraulic Crushing work?
Providing a free or open edge is available (If not, one has to be made by sawing or drilling), the jaws are installed over the concrete to be removed. The power unit is operated, the jaws come together and the concrete is crushed. This process is repeated until the whole area is removed. Angle grinder or cutters are used to cut any reinforcing steel.

The limitations of this method are that the jaws are heavy and the larger units over 250mm capacity need a balancer to take much of the weight. Also thicknesses over 350mm. are not practical for this system, and it is necessary to have a fully boarded scaffolding below the floor area being worked upon. The advantages are small resulting rubble, no vibration, almost no noise and no water.

What are the applications of Hydraulic Crushing?
• Refurbishment jobs
• Restricted areas
• Removal of suspended floor slabs
• Removal of reinforced concrete walls

Robotic Controlled Demolition

Use of a remote controlled crushing machine to provide efficient, safe and fast removal from large and small-scale operations. As the operator is a safe distance away from the machine this minimises health and safety issues such as falling rubble, and avoids hand arm vibration.

Chemical Bursting

A non-explosive cracking agent is used to burst areas of concrete and similar material. An example of this type of agent is Betonamit Chemical Bursting. This method is virtually noiseless and free from vibration, and bursting can be carried out with comparative accuracy without special pre-conditions or equipment being necessary. This makes it suitable for use in confined spaces and other areas that are inaccessible for larger cutting equipment. It can also be used under water.

The agent comes in powder form in plastic containers and is mixed with a specified quantity of water. The mixture is then filled into one or more pre-drilled holes in the material that is to be cracked. After a few hours reaction time, the agent develops an extremely high expansion pressure.

It is vital that, for safety reasons this material is used in accordance with manufacturers instructions and that operatives are suitable trained in its use.