In a tightly scheduled project in the summer of 2023, the runway at Ingolstadt Manching Airport was grooved for increased safety. The aim was to improve the drainage of rainwater by grinding new grooves, and to, thus, prevent aquaplaning. In the project, the new PC1505XL Grinder & Groover from the Tyrolit subsidiary Diamond Products successfully celebrated its European debut.

From mid-August to early September 2023, special grooves were cut into the concrete across the axis of a 1.1 kilometer section of the runway at Ingolstadt Manching Airport (ETSI). These grooves are precisely defined by the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) in terms of width, depth and spacing, and are used to drain rainwater from the runway in order to prevent aquaplaning.

The executing company of this project was the German silco tec Umweltschutzsysteme GmbH, which already has substantial experience in the field of grooving. With regards to the machine, silco tec chose the PC1505XL Grinder & Groover from the Tyrolit subsidiary Diamond Products, as well as the respective Tyrolit diamond saw blades with TGD® Technology.

66,000 grooved square meters in 19 days

The runway at Manching Airport is 60 m wide and is divided into 6 x 6 m fields. On the grooving shaft of the machine, the cutting blades were mounted in such a way that each 6 m wide field could be processed in 5 passes, with the grooves reaching up to approximately 15 cm towards the traverse joints. In total, an area of 66,000 m² was ground in 19 days with this method.

After a short grinding-in phase of the new saw blades, the feed rate of the machine was increased to 12 m/min and so the daily output required for being right on schedule was achieved without any problems. The grinding pattern and the edges of the grooves turned out to be excellent. The powerful machine-integrated extraction system of the PC1505XL extracted almost all concrete slurry produced and the residues were then disposed of in accordance with the regulations.

Through intense project planning in advance as well as on-site support by the application engineer from Tyrolit and the two grinding experts from Diamond Products Inc., USA, the project was successfully completed by silco tec Umweltschutzsysteme GmbH on time and also in an impressive manner.

Further links:

International Grooving & Grinding Association (IGGA):
https://www.igga.net/

www.igga.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/FSFeb2011_FAA_Recommends_Grooved_Runways.pdf

FAA:
www.faa.gov/documentlibrary/media/advisory_circular/150-5320-12c/150_5320_12c.pdf

Silco Tec:
https://www.silcotec.de/