Special operation in Duisburg
Maximum water pressure and giant suction cups ensure smooth processes in steel production
Duisburg is still the boiling heart of the Ruhr region - Europe's largest steel site is located here - and Lobbe maintains operations at two steelworks. Over the course of four days, more than 200 Lobbe employees were now busy for 96 hours in a confined area of a plant site: They cleaned parts of the steelworks, blast furnace, water treatment and bunkers. Not with shovel and broom, but with intelligent technology. Lobbe is a specialist for high-pressure water cleaning tasks in manufacturing plants. "We use air conveyor systems that pick up dust and solid residues from production by means of an extreme vacuum - comparable to a gigantic hoover. A tank washing head that - similar to the rotor of a helicopter - can clean large storage tanks of up to 150 cubic metres capacity with over 1,000 bar of maximum water pressure almost by itself," says Dr. Reinhard Eisermann, Managing Director of Lobbe Industrieservice GmbH & Co. KG. In addition, there are suction-pressure tankers with state-of-the-art technology that can not only provide high water pressure, but above all immediately collect dirty water and then dispose of it properly - an organisational and technical tour de force. Once everything has been cleaned, repair and maintenance work can begin so that steel production can then run smoothly again.
Care must be
Duisburg, "Europe's largest steel location", lives from the production of this all-round metal. With an annual production of more than 15 million tonnes of crude steel, the city is not only by far the largest, but also the most dynamic steel location in the whole of Europe. Around 18,000 people in Duisburg earn their living in steel production. Among other things, production requires sinter, a mixture of coal and iron ore that is needed to generate high temperatures. Sinter, however, is also deposited on engines, pipes and surfaces. It goes without saying that such an enormous production has to be maintained at regular intervals and cleaned beforehand.
Like a helicopter
As part of this year's shutdown, Lobbe not only cleaned surfaces and pipes, but also a huge storage bunker. The bunker typically stores 100 cubic metres of sinter. To keep people out of the danger zone, Lobbe uses a semi-automatic technology here: The rotating tank washing head. It weighs 25 kilos and has a rotor arm located centrally on a shaft. Every minute, 260 litres of water are squeezed out of the arm's nozzles at supersonic speed, distributed over both ends of the arm. And that at a pressure of around 1,000 bar. By comparison, a garden hose has a pressure of just four bar. The recoil forces of the immense water jet ensure that the arm rotates around its own axis. Depending on the size and nature of the large container, the Lobbe specialists select the appropriate nozzle sizes.
Gigantic suction power through vacuum
The use of air conveyor technology for cleaning purposes has proven particularly effective for dust and other solid residues. Lobbe uses a total of 23 of these working devices here. Inside is a so-called vacuum pump; a pump that generates an extreme vacuum and thus a strong suction - similar to that of a hoover. Special and particularly resistant hoses are laid from the vehicle to the working area. The "Vacupress" has enormous forces - so strong that only well-trained personnel are allowed to operate the "giant hoover". The suction effect also prevents deposits from being stirred up. If the air flow of the vacuum pump is diverted, it can be used to graze roofs at heights of up to 80 metres without any problems.
About Lobbe
Lobbe is a medium-sized, family-run company in the technical services sector based in Iserlohn. The successful company comprises the areas of industrial services and waste disposal. Nationwide, Lobbe has 2,700 employees at 58 locations and currently has 138 trainees. Lobbe generates 360 million euros annually (as of 2020).
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