Owing to the risk posed by utility pipes, and electrical lines and cables in the ground, industrial product supplier Actum Industrial – part of Actum Group – is targeting the construction, municipal, and oil and gas industry with its Ridgid range of tooling equipment – such as the SR-20 and SR-24 utility locating instruments, and the ST-510 line transmitter – to reduce risk at construction sites.

Actum product leader Nando Ferreira explains that ground plans for a construction project are often not a correct representation of reality. Therefore, lead contractors often tend to start construction without prior knowledge of buried utilities, such as power or pipelines and electrical cabling, which can damage critical assets.

He explains that the SR-24 utility line locating instrument – a locating receiver that streamlines the creation of accurate maps of underground utilities to protect critical assets – builds on the SR-20 feature set, adding a global positioning system (GPS) and wireless communication, such as Bluetooth, to unlock a variety of user benefits.

“The new features of the SR-24 enable a user to streamline the process of integrating underground utility information with GPS data from external data capture devices.”

Ferreira further explains that the SR-24 – which was launched in 2014 and has a battery life of about 16 hours – captures the complete signal field through its omnidirectional antennas, thereby making it easy to acquire the signal and trace its path.

The SR-24 then displays the utility’s position and direction on the display.

“For added confidence, audio and visual warnings notify the operator if the shape of the signal field is being distorted so that appropriate action can be taken to avoid mismarking the utility’s position,” he adds.

Further, Ferreira notes that the ST-510 line transmitter is used to generate an “active” signal on a metallic underground line so that it may be traced using a compatible receiver such as the SR-20 or SR-24.

“This allows for the line’s location to be correctly marked so that it can be exposed for repair or avoided during excavation,” he adds.

Meanwhile, Actum Industrial is one of the distributors of tooling manufacturer Ridgid in South Africa, which manufactures products for a range of pipe-working tools and drain- cleaning equipment.

Ridgid – through a 20-year partnership with the Dowson and Dobson Industrial division of Actum – services Africa through a range of industrial and commercial products in the plumbing, oil and gas exploration, fire protection and drain-cleaning sectors.