Technofast Industries won the Commercial Technology of the Year Award at the Platts 2004 Global Energy Awards this month in New York for its HydraNut technology, which the manufacturer describes as a precise and rapid hydraulic tensioning technology that allows bolts to be fastened and loosened more easily. It also replaced the need for time-consuming manual methods and saved “millions of dollars in downtime”, it said.
The judges described HydraNut as a “rare exception”. “Combining true technological innovation with hard commercial worth is a tough trick to pull off,” they said.
“All too often the technology is flashy, but the commercial gain is hard to find, or the business gain is there, but the technology turns out to be just some new words to an old tune.
“A hydraulic nut sounds like a small thing to invent, but Technofast’s revolutionary application of high-temperature hydraulic tensioning is revolutionising maintenance in nuclear facilities, permitting the completion of complex bolting operations in hours rather than days, saving its customers millions of dollars in downtime, and drastically cutting workers’ exposure to dangerous ionising radiation.”
Technofast said HydraNut was suitable for a range of applications, including process engineering, offshore oil and gas, manufacturing, quarrying and steel and other metal industries.
The technology was designed as an alternative to heat-induced elongation and torque methods to tension studbolts. It was also less labour intensive.
The US Nova Commercial Nuclear Organisation has already approved HydraNut for use in the nuclear industry.
