Design and Fabrication of a Sewer Line Clog Removing Machine to be Used in Sri Lankan Dry Docks

Abstract

Copper slags are primarily used as a blasting material in the removal and refining of old coated paint on maritime ships and boats. During this cleaning process a small amount copper is mixed with the wastewater system. The copper slags and wastewater mixture which known as slag will get solidifies over the time and eventually blocks the drainage pipes in dry dock areas. In Sri Lankan dry docks these blocked pipes are removed, and new pipes are replaced without cleaning the drainage pipes. There are no such cleaning mechanisms or machineries that have been introduced for the specific application according to the litreature review carried out. As a solution for the identified problem a simpler, semi-automatic, more efficient sewer line clog removing machine was designed and developed. The fabricated machine composed of two main components, one for removing the clog and one component for driving the removing mechanism. The clog removing mechanism is equipped with a specially designed drill bit for clog removing, driving mechanism of the drill bit, the supporting wheel mechanism of the drill bit. The clog removing mechanism is spring tensioned and can be adjustable for the pipe size and was designed considering a range of diameters for drainage pipes. The driving mechanism which drives the clog removing mechanism forward and backwards is driven by pulley mechanism and using a retractable cable mechanism, the spring cable is wrapped and unfolded around the rolling disk. The speed of the rolling disk is also adjusted using the pulley mechanism and belt drive mechanism. The clog removing mechanism and driving mechanism of the developed clog removal machine worked well when tested and can be used for clog removal successfully in dry dock areas. The Proposed machine also represents a cost-effective replacement for the current practice.