Skip to main content

Removing runway rubber

When Dubai Airport contacted Waterblasting Technologies it faced a number of challenges. One was finding a waterblasting system that would operate successfully in the 42º-52ºC daylight heat of the summer and also to find the fastest and most productive waterblasting system because of very limited runway closure time. Chemicals, shotblasting and other waterblasting equipment had been tried on the runways, but eventually engineers and management chose the Stripe Hog SH8000T manufactured by Waterblasting Tech
April 4, 2012 Read time: 2 mins

When Dubai Airport contacted Waterblasting Technologies it faced a number of challenges.

One was finding a waterblasting system that would operate successfully in the 42º-52ºC daylight heat of the summer and also to find the fastest and most productive waterblasting system because of very limited runway closure time.

Chemicals, shotblasting and other waterblasting equipment had been tried on the runways, but eventually engineers and management chose the Stripe Hog SH8000T manufactured by 362 Waterblasting Technologies.

The system, which can be built on a variety of truck chassis, uses needle sharp water jets to quickly remove all types of roadway and airfield marking paint as well as runway rubber deposit build-up.

According to the company the Dubai airport runways is probably the most challenging rubber removal environment in the world with an average of 800-plus movements a day with summer-time peaks of 1,100/day and an average of only 5-10 days of rain each year.

"With the ability to remove runway rubber deposits on average of 1,672m²/hour and the ability to operate in the extreme heat without breaking down, the SH8000T became the product of choice for the Dubai airport," says Waterblasting Technologies, which also offers the SH8000T or the new SH8000R with optional, on-board water recycling.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Mobile plant provides asphalt answer at airport
    September 30, 2013
    The project to upgrade Kassel-Calden Airport in Germany is providing a much improved facility. Opened in 1970, the original airport had a short runway that was not suited to predicted traffic volumes and current standards so a complete reconstruction of the facility has been carried out. The €271 million investment in the facility is expected by the developers to provide a strong economic benefit to the area. The original airport was built on an area of over 200ha and a new and longer runway has been con
  • Dynavis achieves high productivity in the Sub Continent
    April 10, 2018
    Dynavis, the hydraulic fluid technology business of Evonik, is highlighting an Indian quarry case study that recorded 12% more material moved per litre of fuel. In the quarry, owned by a major Indian energy company near the city of Ranchi, hydraulic mining excavators are extracting coal and removing slate for roofing tiles. The excavator weighed 111 tonnes and has an engine output of 567kW. Around 1,100 litres of hydraulic fluid circulated in its hydraulic system and the unit was operated 24 hours a day.
  • Fuel savings from road surfaces
    May 23, 2012
    A new study by civil engineers at MIT shows that using stiffer pavements on America’s roads could reduce vehicle fuel consumption by as much as 3%, that could add up to US$15.6 billion at today’s oil prices. This would result in an accompanying annual decrease in CO2 emissions of 46.5 million tonnes. The study, released in a recent peer-reviewed report, is the first to use mathematical modelling rather than roadway experiments to look at the effect of pavement deflection on vehicle fuel consumption across t
  • Prized recycling
    June 13, 2012
    Wirtgen has won the US Cold Recycling Award 2012 for applying its cold recycling structural road rehabilitation technology on Interstate I-81 in eastern America. The I-81 is one of the major north-south routes running across Virginia state with two lanes in each direction. Increasing traffic volumes and the loads imposed by heavy-vehicle traffic were said by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) to have left the pavement surface covered with alligator cracks, wheel ruts and patches where minor re