Flagship Project
Kilgharrah 600
A mobile hydraulic trash-rack cleaning machine designed and manufactured by Thimark for the Kenya Electricity Generating Company, realised in partnership with Varomatech Ltd, Kenya.
- Client
- KenGen, Kenya
- Local Partner
- Varomatech Ltd
- Machine Type
- Mobile hydraulic trash-rack cleaner
- Disciplines
- Design · Heavy fabrication · Automation
- Status
- Delivered & commissioned
01The Brief
Clearing a hydro intake without shutting it down
Hydropower intakes accumulate debris against their trash racks continuously. Clearing them by hand is slow, hazardous and takes generating capacity offline. KenGen needed a machine that could travel the length of an intake structure and clear the racks under hydraulic power, without a permanent gantry installation.
Thimark's engineering team took the requirement from concept through to a commissioned machine: hydraulic circuit design, structural analysis of the boom and carriage, heavy plate fabrication, assembly, and factory acceptance testing before shipment. The build drew on all three of the company's disciplines at once: precision design, heavy steel fabrication and industrial automation.
Delivered in partnership with Varomatech Ltd of Kenya, the Kilgharrah 600 is Thimark's landmark export achievement: a Sri Lankan-designed, Sri Lankan-built machine working on East African hydropower infrastructure.
A Sri Lankan-designed, Sri Lankan-built machine working on East African hydropower infrastructure.
Hydraulic boom assembly during the build at Kadawatha
02What It Took
All three disciplines, on one machine
Engineering Design
Hydraulic circuit design, structural analysis of the boom and carriage, and a full set of fabrication drawings released from the in-house design office.
Heavy Fabrication
Plate profiling, forming and welded assembly of the chassis, boom and rake head, the CIDA EM2 side of the business doing what it is graded for.
Industrial Automation
Hydraulic control and sequencing so the machine rakes, lifts and discharges under power rather than under a crew with poles.
Client
Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen)
In partnership with
Varomatech Ltd, Kenya
Machine type
Mobile hydraulic trash-rack cleaning machine
Start a project
Got a machine that doesn't exist yet?
Kilgharrah 600 started as a requirement, not a catalogue number. Bring the problem and the site constraints, and the design office takes it from there.