ou probably think you
have a pretty good idea of
what vehicles are and what
they do. They have wings,
wheels, or rudders, are
made of steel, plastic and glass, and burn
fossil fuels to carry people and things
from here to there. You may think vehicles
are incidental to most of our businesses.
And you may very well think that is all
there is to it.
You would be entirely wrong.
CK Hutchison vehicles play crucial roles in
all our businesses. Some are made of ice,
some hum along silently, some watch from
the skies, and some plumb watery depths.
A new world of vehicles is upon us, made
possible by massive computing power,
AI, and the creativity and adaptability of
CKHH staff.
Piggies in the pipes
Ice pigs, smart pigs, pig traps – the Group
has more than one firm that is big on
pigs. These pigs don’t make for good ham
however, but they do help Northumbrian
Water Limited in the UK and Husky Energy
Inc in Canada to bring home the bacon.
Pigging is the term that applies to the
technology of Pipe Inspection Gauges –
PIGs. In the old days, water, oil and gas
pipes had to be dug up to be inspected,
cleaned and, if needed, replaced: a costly,
time-consuming methodology.
Later, simple PIGs made their way into the
pipes, allowing firms to clean them through
abrasion. But now Northumbrian Water
and Husky Energy have taken pigs – so
often used that the acronym has become
a standard word – into the 21st century.
The original pigs were mini-vehicles,
and the smart pigs that Husky Energy uses
still are. Northumbrian Water, however,
has deployed a new, carefully created
post-vehicle “ice pig” to clean pipes.
A special freezing point suppressant is
introduced into water, allowing it to freeze
to just the right consistency to flow down
the pipes. It has enough abrasiveness to
clean the walls of the pipe, but doesn’t
damage the lining of the pipe wall.
Trials in 2010 led to widespread
adoption in 2012 with comparable results
to traditional cleaning methods. Ice pigging
has since cleaned over 50km of pipe in the
Northumbrian Water network.
PIGs, Planes andPipes:
CKHH’s
Vehicles
Forget what you think you know about vehicles and
business. CKHH companies are stretching the definitions to
deliver world-class operations.
Operations
Y
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Sphere
#40
2016
14
Cover Story
