Leading The Way With British Gas

In January 2017 a major gas leak developed directly outside of Madam Tussauds Wax Museum in London. This is a very busy stretch of road and British Gas, under normal circumstances, would have to close the road down in both directions for a minimum of 5 days. The road would have to be dug up, the gas main replaced and the road reinstated. The costs involved would run into the millions and the road congestion around London would be severely impacted.

With grapheX technology, British Gas were able to drill directly down through the road with a 650mm diameter grapheX drill bit, 650mm long. Drilling through 3 different layers of road asphalt, several thick rebars, an old tram-rail road support and 300mm of heavy flint concrete. The whole drilling process was carried out in under 2 hours and the gas main was repaired in less than an hour. The whole job from start to finish took 5 hours.

British Gas only had a low powered hydraulic unit and limited water supply.

The grapheX segments showing their speed and versatility a “cut above the rest” when it comes to diamond innovation.