We were involved almost from day one with the Eleclink tube cutting project. The customer ( Painter Brothers, part of the Balfour Beatty group ) won the contract to thread a power cable through one of the bores of the channel tunnel.
We supplied the machine to cut the mounting holes in the hexagonal tubes that acted as cable guides. The machine was designed to fit within the existing factory layout with the tubes being driven along a conveyor to the load position, then clamped raised and rotated until the cut faces were vertical.
The ends of the tube are then located and measured, the twin Hypertherm plasma packs then cut out a number of apertures along the tube. After cutting the tube is ejected onto the out conveyor.