WPI’s Geoscience Department also provides air knifing services for a variety of situations, including:

• Pre-drilling location clearance
• Underground utility location verification
• Cathodic protection installation
• Underground piping and conduit repairs
• Manway and valve box cleaning/maintenance
• Rehabilitation/de-silting of small diameter injection wells

The Air Knife technology utilizes high-velocity air to penetrate, expand, and break up soil. The soil and rock is then removed from the hole using a powerful vacuum. Main advantages of using high-velocity air over other means of excavation are:

• Safety - Using air to break up the soil and remove it from the hole is far less likely to cause damage to underground utilities than mechanical excavation methods
• Speed – The air knife equipment is more efficient for small excavation, can excavate numerous without re-locating the equipment, and is easy to move when relocation is required.

Download the air knife clearing brochure.