Challenge
June 2018 marked the start of an exciting redevelopment of the prestigious Royal College of Music (RCM) campus, which was first opened in 1882. The large courtyard will be dug out and a new basement and building is planned to go in its place.
Due to the total mass of the building and the depth required to excavate a basement, substantial shoring equipment was required to protect the existing building and ensure the safety of site workers from potential collapse.
Groundforce Shorco’s, one of the world’s leading supplier of trenching and shoring equipment, provided their MP150 and MP250 hydraulic struts which weighed five tonnes. The two MP150 struts and one MP250 strut had load pins which required monitoring to ensure that the correct hydraulic force was exerted to counter balance the pressure from the surrounding soil.
Solution
Senceive provided three wireless Millivolt per Volt nodes, which allowed Load Sensors to be integrated into the FlatMesh™ platform. These, now wireless, sensors measure the pressure exerted on the struts’ load pins during building works.
Data from the nodes is received by a solar 3G gateway, which was mounted on a crane using standard Jubilee clips. The wireless nodes were mounted using our patented magnetic mounts in a matter of minutes.
Image courtesy of Groundforce Shorco
Outcome
A wireless solution was ideal, as it reduced the amount of installation time, which in turn reduces risk and increases safety of both the installer and to the site workers, by giving Groundforce the ability to adjust the hydraulic pumps reactively to a situation. Reporting rates and SMS text alerts could all be remotely adjusted.
The flexibility of the FlatMesh™ system also allow the Millivolt per Volt nodes to be quickly decommissioned and redeployed at a moment’s notice to any of the struts located on site.
“It is always satisfying to know that time and money is being invested in the right product, and even more satisfying to know that it is being supplied and supported by the right people” – Paul McIntosh, Project Team Leader, Groundforce Shorco
