Dragflow Clearing the Way for Future Expansion

Dragflow, an Italian manufacturer of heavy duty pumps and complete dredging equipment, is continuing the development of new products addressing the changing needs of dredging industry.

As 2015 is nearing its end, we took the opportunity to speak with Mr. Roberto Martinelli, Dragflow Director, about the company’s 2015 business highlights, achievements and plans for the future.

“It’s been a very good year. We moved our headquarters in order to have more space to create and realize innovative solutions. We supplied dredgers and pumps for important projects, we designed new dredgers and we can look at this year with satisfaction, looking forward for next year to come,” said Mr. Martinelli.

Dragflow Cable Dredger for Mining Project

Dragflow has recently supplied its DRH cable dredger to a mine located in the southwest region of the island of Sumbawa, in the District of Sekongkang, Indonesia, for extraction of copper, gold and silver.

“The customer was looking for a complete dredging equipment, diesel driven, capable to create and handle high concentration slurry, to be place in the open pit mine,” Mr. Martinelli said.

The dredger purpose is to pump the settled material from the bottom of the tailing pond to a higher part of the mine in order to maintain the required water capacity.

The Dragflow solution was a DRH dredger equipped with pump HY85/160HC plus cutters EXHY20, also supplied with an acid resistant package.

The dredging unit is able to pump up to 800 m3/h of mixture with high solid concentration and up to a distance of more than 500m.

Sand Dredging in Nigeria

Dragflow has successfully delivered a new cutter suction dredger to a customer in Nigeria.

“The DRH400E35DF model dredge was ordered by Matag, a Nigerian dredging company that wanted to increase the scope of their business and to ensure a year-round ability for dredging and reclamation services along the Niger River,” the Director said.

With a previously owned cutter suction dredger that had a digging limit of approximately 10-12m, the company was limited just to the seasonal dredging.

The Niger River is known to rise as much as 8m during the wet season, especially when dams are opened on the Benue River (Garouwa, Cameroon) and the Kainji Dam in Niger State.

Because of this, Matag needed a dredger that could work continuously through the season.

For the purpose, Dragflow supplied Matag with the dredger configured to reach a depth of 35m and equipped with Dragflow HY400 submersible pump.

New Cutterhead for Beach Reclamation

Dragflow has supplied its new Cutterhead (DTM85), a custom engineered system, with hydraulic pump (HY85HC) for a beach reclamation project in Bibione, Italy.

Dragflow’s dredging specialists carefully analyze customer requirements and operating conditions to achieve the design criteria – cutter profile, size, beta, arm quantity and shape, tooth size, tooth orientation.

The combination of the Cutterhead with the agitator avoids any clogging problem at the pump suction.

Dredging Pumps for the New Suez Canal 

Dragflow also supplied two High Head Dredging Pumps (HY85B) with two Excavators (EXHY20) for the tunneling part of the Suez Canal Development Project.

Working depth of these pumps is 44 meter.

Customized Dredging Tool for Sand Extraction

Dragflow has designed a customized solution for a contractor from the oil and gas industry. The challenge was to remove sand from the seabed uncovering oil pipes, to allow proper maintenance, and finish the job by covering the pipes with sand.

They designed and built a system that includes two Hydraulic Pumps (model HY85) attached to a steel frame with a protective shield. This shield will cover the pipe of approximately 1 m diameter.

This symmetrical and reversible system uses a special version of their classic HY85 pump, modified for increased performance. The solution is unique and can be used in different ways according to specific needs.