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Apellix Drone Offers Safer Method for Maintaining Water Towers

Organization: Apellix
Country: USA
Website: www.apellix.com
Year Founded: 2014
Number of Employees: 1-10

This cleaning process is estimated to have extended the life of the coating on this water tower by 3-5 years.

Description:
Working with a regional industrial and commercial cleaning company, Apellix used a tethered Opus X8 SW (soft wash) drone to clean an elevated water tower in Wooster, Ohio and replace workers at height. Connecting the drone and tethers to a truck-mounted system for power and materials, the system was able to spray 8 GPM of a Sodium Hypochlorite mix and rinse water at pressures of 3,000 PSI at the base, which were just over 1,000 PSI at the cleaning nozzle tip at 136 feet.

The Apellix Opus X8 SW tethered drone was hooked up to a fully outfitted and rigged self-contained soft wash pickup truck with skid-mounted equipment. On the truck were the materials reservoirs, compressors, power generators and other equipment.

Analysis:
Having human workers at height is an inherent risk. Allowing workers to remain on the ground operating a drone that is doing the work at elevation is a safer approach for these types of projects. Besides being safer, this human-machine tandem completed the job in less than one day, meaning it can also be done faster and at a lower cost than traditional methods of cleaning coated surfaces to improve their aesthetics and prolong the life of the protective coatings.

Maintaining water towers, which often are a source of clean water for homes and business, is vital to community health. The US EPA has regulations on the cleanliness of the exterior shells of clean water sources for communities. This cleaning process is estimated to have extended the life of the coating on this particular water tower by 3-5 years. - Steve Crowe

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  • Home
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  • Technologies
    • Batteries / Power Supplies
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    • Controllers
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    • Software / Simulation
  • Development
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    • Human Robot Interaction / Haptics
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