Grouting is a common procedure for pavements, bridges and railway construction, serving as remediation for material defects caused by technical errors or natural factors. Its main purpose is to improve structural integrity and durability, ensure users' safety and strengthen infrastructures' seismic resistance capability. Delta integrates its self-developed automation products for mudjacking machines, the main equipment used for grouting, to create a highly efficient solution that benefits the building industry in monitoring, control, management, quality enhancement, and technical error reduction.
In general, the operation process of a mudjacking machine includes pulping, mudjacking, and pressure-holding. Operators must weigh cement and additives in the beginning, then mix them together with a certain volume of water until they are well mixed. Afterwards, operators need to proceed to mudjacking with a constant speed to achieve constant pressure at both inlet and outlet sides, and then to complete the entire mudjacking process.
For grouting, the water-cement ratio is crucial to quality. A ratio too high in cement may result in thick grout, clogging the pipeline, while a ratio with too much water may cause a high bleeding rate and deteriorating grouting quality. Traditionally, the mudjacking process requires operators to manually adjust the water-cement ratio on-site, but the quality is unstable. Keeping constant pressure is very important during the mudjacking process. Old mudjacking machines that lack pressure sensors may encounter difficulty in keeping pressure constant, leading to inconsistent grouting quality.
In light of these issues, Delta offers smart a mudjacking solution to effectively improve mudjacking equipment. It includes a material weighing system, water supply system, grout-mixing system, storage barrel, grout delivery system and circulation loop system. Matched with a programmable logic controller (PLC), the water-cement ratio and pressure holding time can be precisely calculated and automatically adjusted. Delta's human machine interfaces (HMI) are also applied to support real-time mudjacking process monitoring, control and recording, greatly enhancing management efficiency and convenience.
In the operating process, Delta's Standard PLC DVP-ES2 Series serves as the main controller. Users can preset the pulping parameters at the beginning. The load cell weighs the cement and additives based on the setting. The flow meter then controls and adds a certain volume of water to ensure the water-cement ratio meets requirements. After that, Delta's Sensorless Vector Control Compact Drive VFD-E Series drives the motors to stir the water and cement at high speed until well mixed, and then starts mudjacking with a stable and constant speed. The pressure sensors set at both inlet and outlet sides deliver real-time data to the controller for analysis, and automatically adjust pressure and pressure-holding time based on feedback from the controller, ensuring the mudjacking is full and dense.
In actual application, Delta's smart mudjacking solution brings the following benefits to customers:
• Effectively improves mudjacking efficiency
Delta's Sensorless Vector Control Compact Drive VFD-E Series features a TQC sensorless function to adjust motor parameters to manage and perfectly control the pulping process, achieving high speed pulling and enabling “dual pores, grouting once”.
• Real-time monitoring for cement quality control
Delta's Standard PLC DVP-ES2 Series serve as the main controller during the mudjacking process. With an accurate material weighing system, the error rate can be controlled to less than 1%, enabling precise calculation of the water-cement ratio. The DVP-ES2 Series matched with HMI offers real-time monitoring, control and recording of the grout temperature, ambient temperature, pressure and pressure-holding times, effectively eliminating human error during the mudjacking process.
• Customized mudjacking parameters for convenient management
Delta's smart mudjacking solution allows users to import or export mudjacking parameters based on their needs. It also supports real-time parameter correction, increasing the functionality of the mudjacking machines. With wireless transmission technology, customers can remotely access the mudjacking data, effectively managing the process.
Delta offers a smart mudjacking solution to improve the accuracy and efficiency of the mudjacking process, successfully saving time and cost for customers, and ensuring people's safety.