Dredgers – MBB

Dredgers and dredging equipment.

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Through our project work and experience, MBB Consulting Engineers acted as the agent for American manufactured IMS Dredgers in a number of Southern African countries, for more than 14 years. IMS Dredgers is the world’s leading supplier of one truck transportable, self-propelled dredging systems for maintaining rivers, lakes, canals, and other inland waterways. IMS has supplied hundreds of dredging systems in over 60 countries around the world. Through our involvement with IMS, MBB retain extensive experience in dredging and have undertaken a wide variety of challenging projects, often in remote locations, across the continent.

The Versi-Dredge, IMS’s leading product, is one of the most reliable, high performance and easy to operate hydraulic dredgers in the world. It is transportable on one truck, straightforward to maintain, highly manoeuvrable, safe and durable, and can deliver up to 40% increased productivity, which translates into considerable time saving on projects. Across the product range, dredging can be achieved at depths of up to 28 m.

IMS Dredgers developed and patented the Starwheel Drive self-propulsion system, which has revolutionized dredging by eliminating the entire cable rigging process and turning the dredger into a self-propelled, one-man operation.

The two Starwheel paddles can be lowered and raised independently and can work at variable speeds allowing the dredger to turn within the confines of narrow waterways. On the surface, the Starwheels act as paddlewheels allowing the dredger to propel itself. On the bottom of a waterway, the Starwheels act as a traction drive system that can “walk” the dredger forward, or act as anchors if needed.

IMS Dredges also developed the Weedmaster cutter head which converts the Versi-Dredge into a weed harvesting and removal system for floating or shallow growing weeds and reeds. In this way, a wide variety of projects can be tackled with a single dredger instead of having to invest in several single-operation machines with multiple operators. IMS is actively involved in research and design and can customise cutter heads, and pumping and propulsion to meet the customer’s individual requirements.

IMS’s MudCat range is smaller than the Versidredge range and well suited to ponds, marinas, de-sludging operations, mining dams, and waste-water lagoons. These machines can be electrically, or diesel powered, automated or manually operated via remote control, manned or unmanned. The wide variety of sizes and optional extras means that a dredge can be optimally selected to suit the needs of your individual project.

MBB retain close ties with IMS, and can advise you on the right equipment for your dredging project, backed up by their global reach and experience.