Radial Wire saw

Lowery developed this piece of equipment and it is unique in New Zealand. It can cut any diameter hole or part hole, such as for cutting an arch in a wall or an opening in a floor for a spiral staircase. We can also cut tapered funnel shapes for replacement lids or hoppers.

The depth or thickness of the concrete isn’t a problem, the standard machine can deal with anything up to 700mm, however, we need access to both sides. The hole doesn’t require any remedial work for the engineers to fit their pipe work.

The alternatives to the radial wire saw include …

• Ring drilling using a series of 100mm diameter holes, which leaves a scalloped face and exposes the reinforcing steel to the weather

• Sawing, which creates a square hole with undesirable overcuts on the corners that would further weaken the structure.

• Conventional wire sawing, which gives an opening without the over cuts, but it would be square and with four setups the job would take longer to complete.