FlexBor - Ready to Meet the Challenge!

In today's modern and well-informed world, we are all well-aware of the potentially adverse impact that not only our trenchless industry, along with most U.S. and foreign industries, can have on the environment. Although improvements have been made in our industry to achieve a heightened sense of environmental consciousness, we, at Barbco, Inc., feel that we have created one of the most effective methods of pipeline installation – the FlexBor.

It is commonly believed that when it comes to environmental standards and effectiveness, you cannot have both. But through conscious and constant innovation, we have created the technology and tooling in the trenchless industry to be implemented for nearly any jobsite environment in order to create and maintain a more environmentally conscious and effective bore.

Environmental sensitivity has been hitting the headlines more than ever. Between the Dakota Access Pipeline, Gretta Thunberg and other events or activitists bringing environmental issues further to light, it has been made clear that an answer to appease everybody is necessary. One problem in particular common in our industry is frac-outs. Although our understanding of frac-outs and the public’s perception of frac-outs certainly varies greatly, frac-outs are still considered an inadvertent and infrequent incident, to say the least. The misunderstanding of frac-outs lies in what material the environment around the job site is being exposed to. The most common material utilized while drilling is bentonite. Bentonite is a clay derived typically from the alteration of volcanic ash, consisting predominantly of smectite minerals, usually montmorillonite. Other smectite group minerals include hectorite, saponite, beidellite and nontronite. In other words, bentonite is derived from natural materials.

Although bentonite is produced from natural derivatives, it is the location where inadvertent returns happen that is what could be potentially devastating to an environment. An example that is a more common occurrence is when a line is being installed under an area of wetlands and a frac-out occurs where bentonite seeps through the bed rock and into the water. Although these are naturally derived materials, this material could suffocate aquatic local wildlife whose habitat is being physically altered. This is clearly not an ideal situation not only because of the potential threat to the aquatic wildlife, but also the delays this problem can cause through remediation.

The only solution is a product that not only eliminates these issues of frac-outs; but, also provides equally effective directional drilling results. Barbco, Inc.’s FlexBor is engineered with an encased boring system to eliminate frac-outs and uses solely air or water to remove cutting spoils from the head and pushes them out of the machine. This is a product developed directly from field experience and technology by industry legends. With numerous success stories, we know that FlexBor is the ultimate pipeline solution that can truly appease people from all sides. As infrastructure is a necessary part of any great country, we know our FlexBor is ready to meet the challenge to drive forward the momentum of the trenchless industry in making America Great Again.