About Big Bear Industrial
The Vision
The company was founded in 2016, with a vision to make life easier for those with difficult jobs to do by creating simple tools that get the job done easier, done safer, and done right. Through years of development and hard work, a winning formula was created. View the products below to see how these could help make your work load a little bit easier!
When cleaning or inspecting a sewer system, the job isn't done until you reach the end of the line segment being serviced. A cleaning nozzle can only thrust itself and pull the hose behind it, so far. The CCTV inspection tractor can only pull itself and the cable that is tethered to it, so far.
The further you travel up the line, the more resistance you get at the business end of the equipment due to friction loss caused by the increasing amount of cable or hose coming in contact with the pipe's interior surfaces. Additionally, the weight the nozzle or tractor is pulling also increases due to more cable or hose being payed out. Other variables present, like the slope of the pipe or the material it is made from, can make it more difficult still.
Anything you can do to reduce the energy loss in the work being performed, the farther towards the end of the line you will get with your equipment.
Pole Roller
This patented tool was developed to be used in maintenance and operations of a wastewater collections system. The primary purpose of this product is to facilitate the directional change of cleaning and inspection equipment within a system access point, typically a maintenance hole, and reduce friction at the contact point in the apex of the directional change allowing completion of the cleaning activity or CCTV inspection.
By allowing the jetter hose or CCTV cable to advance with less friction during the operation, the equipment can then more effectively reach the intended destination. This tool is perfect for easements that your cleaning and inspecting equipment can't reach. Most of the larger vehicle chassis used for cleaning and inspecting equipment aren't designed for off road use, making this tool the perfect solution.
The tool has two main gusseted fingers that allow an operator to grab and manipulate the jetter hose or CCTV cable, as well as a durable base that facilitates scraping and removal of root masses, debris, and deposits like grease and sediment that accumulate in the system.
The base is laser cut from 0.50" steel plate, and features ribbing along the back that allow the roller to continue to spin when the base of the tool is engaged with the access point surfaces at the apex of the change of direction. The custom aluminum roller and sealed roller bearings can withstand the severe lateral loading conditions created when a directional change operation takes place.
The tool is designed to attach to the typical pole system found on CCTV and cleaning equipment. The robust design is intended to withstand the harsh environments found in today's sewer systems. The only recommended maintenance is to use your favorite spray lubricant to displace any moisture from the roller's bearings.
The Old Way
Pictured is a section of a GIS map from an area serviced by the agency I work for. This community has many apartment like structures with sewer mains running between and behind the buildings away from the roadway where traditional equipment can set up.
On this map, there are color coded circles through out. In this example, the red circles indicate maintenance holes that the cleaning and CCTV inspection equipment can set up on in the streets.
The purple circles indicate the maintenance holes found in easements where traditional cleaning equipment cannot get to. For these we have an easement machine, basically a golf cart sized vehicle with a jetter hose on a reel. To use this equipment, it requires additional staff and an additional truck and trailer to transport. It gets the job done but is very slow. It used to take one whole week to get done what is pictured on this map.
To recap, there are 10 locations where the truck can set up and 12 locations that require the cumbersome easement machine.
The New Way
On this map, the red circles still indicate the maintenance holes where the traditional equipment can access from the streets.
The yellow circles indicate maintenance holes where the patented pole roller is used to change the direction, reducing the friction from the apex of the turns and allowing the cleaning and CCTV inspection equipment to make it to the end of the line for completion.
The purple circles on this map indicate maintenance holes where, if using a second pole roller, you can achieve completion of the segments being worked on from the same truck set up in the street.
To recap, there are 5 red locations that the truck sets up on in the street. There are 13 yellow locations where one pole roller is used to complete the cleaning or inspecting. There are 3 purple locations that if a second pole roller is used, it would facilitate the completion of the work by placing the roller in the second change of direction.
Since we started to use the pole roller in the field here in this community, we can now clean the entire system, pictured, in one single day of work instead of the one week it used to take to complete the same system.
8 oz. Marine Grade Brass Wheel Weights
These T66 compatible wheel weights were designed to attach to the center hub of the CCTV tractor wheels to provide extra traction. An experienced operator knows the value of the weight of the camera when inspecting pipelines. The farther the CCTV tractor is deployed, the greater the energy loss due to increasing lengths of dragged cable contacting the pipeline surfaces as well as loss of traction due to incline.
The set includes (4) - 8 oz. wheel weights for a combined total of 32 ozs additional weight. With these slender weights at each corner, the tractor still keeps a slim profile to fit in 6" pipe or larger and still passes mild joint offsets, increasing the chances of getting the tractor to the end of the line to complete the inspection.
CCTV Inspection Tractor Bridal
This CCTV inspection tractor bridal was made to pull the inspection camera up the pipeline ending with a typical clean out not large enough to insert the tractor on the upstream end. When possible you inspect going downstream, but when you can't, you use the bridal.
Using either a jetter hose equipped with a nozzle having an eyelet, or floating a kite with a rope attached, connect the line to the bridal at the downstream access point. Once connected, the inspection can be completed by pulling the camera with the bridal to the upstream access point.
The bridal is connected to a lead rope 20’ in length so the operator can disconnect the pull line at the upstream access point allowing the camera to return without the need to pull the rope or jetter hose back to the downstream access point.
First Prototype
First pole roller prototype being used with a hyrdo jet on a sewer easement for the first time.
Second Prototype
Second prototype being used to CCTV inspect a sewer main in an easement
Production Model
Production model in use hydro jetting a sewer easement.
Submitted by Mark N, Central California