Robbins India

Kapil Bhati, Managing Director

“At bauma CONEXPO INDIA, we are expecting a good footfall from all the CE segments and stakeholders engaged in tunneling, and with whom we will have discussions on all domains of upcoming tunneling projects at our booth H2.I11 in Hall 2.”

Robbins is well-known for its invention of the Main Beam and Double Shield TBMs, and it holds 90% of the world record for production of TBMs in diameters of 3m to over 14m.

The Robbins company has a dedicated team of engineers in the USA, working on Research, Development and Innovation in the Tunneling industry for over 60 years. Innovations include:

• Design and manufacture of first main beam TBM
• Design and manufacture of first double shield TBM
• Manufacture of the first 19-inch cutters
• First successful rock boring head for auger boring machine
• First successful employment of disc cutters to bore hard rock
• First floating gripper design for continuous steering of a TBM
• First variable frequency cutter head drive
• First wedge–lock cutter mounting system
• Cutter wear detection system.

Robbins has supplied two 6.65m Crossover TBMs for Mumbai Metro Line-3, Package-1, and while one has started boring successfully, the other is in assembly.

Robbins launched the Crossover Series of TBMs that can work in a combination of mixed soils and rocks, respectively. Its XRE stands for Crossover Rock/EPB, which is the most common type of dual/hybrid machine, with features of Single Shield Hard Rock machine and EPB for efficient boring in mixed ground geology.

Other types of Crossover machines are the XSE (Crossover between Slurry/EPB) and the XRS (Crossover between Rock/Slurry) TBMs. Robbins has been successfully applying these machines in all kinds of geologies across the world.

Robbins India has been growing at a steady pace with many projects in the pipeline in the transport sector, hydro and irrigation tunnels.

Robbins India has supplied TBMs for the Delhi Metro, Jaipur Metro, Chennai Metro Package UAA-02 and for the Package UAA-08. With their high reliability and durability, Robbins TBMs have performed the best in Chennai mixed face geology and in Mumbai Metro Line-3, Package-1.

All other metro projects where Robbins machines were deployed have been completed on time. Apart from these projects, Robbins has supplied 4 TBMs of 10-m diameter and one 6.25-m Hard Rock TBM for water transfer projects in India. Robbins India has extended its services by taking back-to-back operational projects in difficult situations, for instance, in a project in Bangalore, Robbins used its expertise to rescue a client’s project being undertaken by a competitor, by completing it on time.

With many projects underway and requiring an enormous number of TBMs of all types, we expect to see a big boom in the construction industry.

The Indian CE industry looks promising with projects such as the Delhi Metro’s execution of phase 3 underway and set to add 140 km of the network, and metros being planned in many other metropolitan cities like Bangalore-Phase II, Chennai – Phase II, Lucknow, Jaipur Metro Phase-II, Hyderabad, Pune, and Ahmedabad; road tunnels for highways like the Zojila Pass; hydroelectric power projects like Pakal Dul HEPP; and rail tunnels of over 100kms in Uttrakhand by RVNL.

Our service people train the local people to operate and maintain the specialized equipment, thereby, reducing cost of project in the long run.

Robbins has involved in hundreds of tunnel boring projects around the world. Robbins is an international organization with four manufacturing facilities and 11 international sales and service locations and representatives worldwide. We have a complete field service support of trained crew for assembly and smooth running of the machines, and for training the end-users.

It has been more than 13 years now when Robbins India made its debut in 2005 with the goal of expanding in all parts of the country and providing the best underground construction solutions in the minimum possible time frames. Robbins still holds the same long-term plans for the Indian market by providing equipment and a full crew for its operations. Robbins supports its clients throughout the entire tunneling process by providing expert operational and technical assistance for all types of challenging geological strata.