November 28, 2008

Di-Tech International Inc. uses a variety of specialized equipment to provide its core drilling, flat sawing, wall sawing and general concrete demolition services.

Di-Tech International’s specialized cutting equipment creates global demand

PETER KENTER

correspondent

When Di-Tech International Inc. was established in Winnipeg 25 years ago, few people had heard of a wire saw — a cutting device that uses aircraft cables studded with diamond beads to slice through concrete and steel.

“We first heard of the equipment in 1986 when we saw a presentation at a trade show by a fellow from Japan,” says company president Ted Johnston. “A few months later we went to Japan and purchased a unit and it changed the way we do business forever.”

Di-Tech was among the first four companies in North America to purchase a wire saw and has since developed an expertise with the equipment that’s recognized worldwide.

“We’ve worked on jobs in New Zealand, Indonesia, Mexico, Japan and the U.S.,” says Johnston. Among Di-Tech’s prominent international contracts was remediation work on New York City’s Triborough Bridge. “They wanted the existing deck of the bridge removed, and then to modify the piers to accept pre-cast panels,” he says. “The wire saw can be used to cut through both concrete and pier steel.”

Much of Di-Tech’s international work is arranged through joint ventures with companies among the 550 members of the Concrete Sawing & Drilling Association, an organization representing the trade in North America.

In 2003, Johnston was elected as the first Canadian president of the association, which certifies workers and operates training facilities in Florida.

Recent contracts have seen Di-Tech cutting through locks on the Mississippi River in Minnesota. Di-Tech both supplied its own expertise and helped train workers employed by its joint-venture partner, Minneapolis Concrete Sawing & Drilling.

Much of the company’s work involves what Johnston calls selective demolition, modifying existing structures while leaving them intact. A current contract involves work on downtown Winnipeg’s former Sheraton Hotel.

“They’re recycling the building into a different use, so we’ve been contracted to cut 45 or 50 doorways into the concrete walls for new apartments,” says Johnston. “This type of work is very precise because it’s essential to maintain structural integrity.”

The company also offers core drilling, flat sawing, wall sawing and general concrete demolition services. Among its specialty equipment, Di-Tech utilizes powerful hydraulic concrete breakers and a device known as The Boulder Buster, which splits rock and concrete using a powder-actuated explosion to send shock waves through water inserted into core-drilled holes.

That equipment was recently used as part of a sub-contract to Nelson River Construction to dismantle a City of Winnipeg valve chamber with a concrete floor slab that ranged between 1.5 and two metres thick.

One of the company’s recent challenges involved sawing through a pipe about two-and-half metres in diameter. That’s not such a big deal unless you consider the fact that the pipe was located at an INCO facility in Thompson, Man. and continued to pour slag at temperatures of around 500 degrees Centigrade during the entire operation.

“The company said that it would cost $4 million per day to cool down the pipe first, and asked us to find a way to cut it without cooling it first,” says Johnston.

“We used liquid nitrogen to cool down the wire after it passed through the pipe, something that had never been tried before. As these pipes are used over their lifetime, they slowly become plugged with slag and one of the pipes was already three-quarters full, so we had to make sure the wire didn’t deform as it cut.”

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