TWO $1 million electricity cable-laying machines designed, engineered and built in Cairns are being shipped to New Zealand this week.

They will spend a year in Auckland laying cables after a nine month rebuilding program by MechTek Hydraulic and Mechanical Solutions at Earlville.

Director Alex Georgi said the machines had been rebuilt as part of a $385 million power network upgrade for North Auckland and Northland.

“The machines have been designed to achieve a world first, installing the longest cable lengths with a mechanised system, with each individual cable being 1600m long and weighing nearly 60 tonnes.

“The cable will operate up to 220,000 volts and weighs nearly 40kg a metre.”

Mr Georgi said the cable installation machines would be lowered into a tunnel that was 60m underground, 3m in diameter and 10km long.

“During the project more than 30km of cable will be laid, with only a small team of 10 members,” he said.

“The system is expected to reduce the personnel from more than 50 to 10, reducing the risk for injuries.”
Mr Georgi said the company’s six staff had completely rebuilt, modified and improved the two machines that were  originally built in Cairns and sent to New Zealand in 2000 for a similar project.

He said the machines returned to Cairns and were stripped right back.

“They are the size of a Toyota LandCruiser and weigh 4.5 tonnes each,” Mr Georgi said.

“We’ve made them almost new again. We’ve used the basics as a carcass and added items such as a robotic arm,” he said.

“It is hoped that the innovation put into these machines will improve productivity in cable installation and set the standard for cable systems throughout the world.”

Mr Georgi said the machines were worth $1 million and were being leased to contractors in the Auckland project.
Staff will commission and maintain the machines in NZ until March next year.

The company worked on similar machines for another project in England in 2010.

Mr Georgi and one of his employees Peter Friedrich spent three months installing the machines in England.

“It was a massive show stopper. We saved them millions of dollars on the project,” he said.

Mr Georgi said he was hoping the company would be successful with a cable-laying project in Sydney next year.

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