Simex RWE 100 wheel saw for demolition in Lucerne

LötscherPlus has relied on the Simex RWE 100 wheel saw, the largest in the range, designed specifically for demolition and cutting on hard and compact surfaces.

The Swiss construction company LötscherPlus is carrying out a major extension work on a wing of the city hospital in Lucerne. In the construction of the foundations, the company found many difficulties in dealing with the sandstone, the sedimentary rock that constitutes much of the subsoil of the construction site. 

Hard and abrasive, with resistance values between 70 and 100 MPa, it cannot be profitably removed using traditional buckets. Likewise, with hydraulic hammers, acceptable performance is not achieved without the material being previously sectioned and fractured. For this reason, LötscherPlus has relied on the Simex RWE 100 wheel saw, the largest in the range, designed specifically for demolition and cutting on hard and compact surfaces. The attachment, hired by the Simex importer for Switzerland Hydremag Ag, was fitted with a cutting wheel for 800 mm working depth and 130 mm width. Longitudinal cuts were thus made along the foundations, so that the hydraulic hammers could then operate without the risk of getting stuck in the material.

The RWE 100, mounted on a Hitachi ZX 350, met the expectations of the operator, guaranteeing an advancement speed of 6 linear meters per hour which, given the resistance and abrasiveness of the material, was a real success. Considering the sensitivity of the area, it would not have been possible to use explosives and, as already mentioned, the hydraulic hammers did not guarantee the desired productivity. The choice of the RWE 100 cutter wheel was therefore successful, thanks also to the two large displacement hydraulic motors, in direct drive with the drum, which generate a cutting force of 55.7 kN (with a wheel for 800 mm depth, set at 380 BAR).

The Simex RWE 60 and 100 wheel saw models are designed for excavators from 28 to 75 tons to cover all those job-sites where cuts need to be made on horizontal or vertical surfaces and in the presence of very resistant and abrasive materials. The most common application field for these models is into demolition and building sites, where the operators need a selective removal of large sections of concrete or rock – which otherwise would not be easy to handle – combining the great cutting force with the high precision of Simex wheel saws.