ELE completes £1m project to equip Thai labs

ELE International has recently completed a project to supply geotechnical laboratory equipment to 20 Universities in Thailand, under the local Universities Science and Engineering Education Project (USEEP). Worth over £1m, the project involved delivery, installation and on-site training at a number of locations throughout the country, undertaken by a team of four engineers from ELE's UK technical services department in Leighton Buzzard, England. ELE worked closely on the project with Soil Testing Siam Co Ltd, its local distributor for some 20 years.

While the exact specification varied to meet the needs of each location, the equipment selected and supplied came from ELE's series of soil testing devices. The equipment included ELE's Geotechnical Software and computer-linked data loggers with a range of complementary accessories. The equipment provides the latest in soil testing technology, which provides detailed performance characteristics of soils that are to be used in construction projects. ELE also supplied a cyclic triaxial testing system which is able to apply cyclic loading to soil samples and simulates the various load conditions generated by waves, wind, earthquakes and other sources of vibration on load bearing materials. The ELE Cyclic Triaxial Testing System uses closed loop control, where servo controlled actuator systems continuously monitor and modify the applied force, giving far more reliable results than open-loop control.

As a result of this project, it is anticipated that many civil engineering students in Thailand will be provided with first-hand knowledge on how to evaluate the performance characteristics of a site before building work commences, so that the resulting structures will be safe and reliable.

Technical Services Manager for ELE International, Ian Bushell, who led the four man team in Thailand, commented: "Installation work took around five weeks, as the equipment and needs of each location varied from simple soil testing procedures to advanced R&D processes using our latest equipment. Although we are back home, our distributor Soil Testing Siam will continue to look after the equipment and handle any service or operational issues."