First orders for Seli-Kawasaki venture

17 June 2011

The SELI-Kawasaki partnership has borne fruit, Seli announced on Wednesday. One year in to the five-year agreement, the order for a combined total of five TBMs to excavate the Bangalore, India and Copenhagen, Denmark metro projects was the first received by the combined team.

The EPBMs were designed to face hard rock as well as alluvium soils, with the cutterhead designed by Seli to be efficient in both types of ground. As per the partnership agreement, Seli manufactured the TBMs while Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) supplied the cutterhead supports, drives and the screw conveyor. The TBMs as a whole were jointly designed.

“One of the main technical features that would be of interest to your readers is the new cutterhead support and main drive system developed by KHI with Seli cooperation,” a Seli spokesperson told T&TI. “This allows the machine to be operated in EPB mode at a wide range of cutterhead speeds, meaning high speeds are possible in hard rock and low speeds in soft ground.

“The philosophy behind the agreement is not only to create an industrial economy through production sites in Japan and Italy, but also to ensure a quality product with technology far beyond the competition, where widespread use of components made in China is less focused on innovation and overall quality.”

Coastal Construction were the buyers in Bangalore, while in Copenhagen Seli will undertake excavation as a JV partner and tunnelling subcontractor for the project. Technicians will also be on hand to supervise works in Bangalore.