Impact hammer of the 5th generation

Amberg Technologies AG announces that they have brought the SQ5 impact hammer, developed together with HIL 3D-US, to series maturity after many tunnel tests. This allows the seismic impact source to be used in conjunction with the further developed TSP 603 wireless system. Under the name TSP 603-Impact, the seismic prediction system from Amberg Technologies AG is aimed at use in tunnel boring machines (TBMs). These TBMs drive quasi blindly through the rock mass and can now continuously explore the geology using TSP 603-Impact and assess geological risks ahead of the tunnel face.

The first TSP 603-Impact system was shipped to India in mid-April 2023. There, Indian contractor Larsen & Toubro (L&T) will use it in the prestigious Rishikesh-Karnaprayag Railway Line project in Uttarakhand, which is of national strategic importance. Package 4 of the 125 km project involves the construction of two long tunnels (14.58 and 13.12 km), each to be excavated by a 9.1 metre diameter TBM. Both machines will be supplied by the German Herrenknecht AG and are the largest of their kind ever to be used in the Himalayan region. In order for L&T to meet its planned tunnel construction time of 60 months, it is relying on systematic geological forecasting by TSP 603-Impact during the tunnel drive.

So far, the system has already been demonstrated in typical tunnelling countries such as China and Japan. In addition to its use in TBMs, it can also be used in conventional tunnelling (see figure).