The International Association of Concrete Drillers and Sawers (IACDS) announced the winners of the 2009 Diamond Award competition at a press conference in February during the World of Concrete exhibition in Las Vegas, USA. Patrick O’Brien, President of IACDS, presented the gold, silver and bronze awards to the winners from Germany, Italy and Mexico.

The gold award in this competition was awarded to Norbert Braun GmbH of Germany for the company’s outstanding work dismantling a highly-contaminated steam dryer at a nuclear power plant. The project involved putting the 5.25 m diameter steam dryer in a steel formwork for radiation shielding, encasing it with concrete, and cutting it into pieces via remote control using diamond wire sawing techniques. The cut parts were dismantled using the wire saw and packed in Type IV Konrad containers suitable for final disposal. Taking the silver award was Italian company Tondin srl, for its work on the project to consolidate the wooden-piled foundations of the Loggia Palace in Brescia, Italy. Tondin was able to devise a high speed drilling system with micro bits to fit into confined spaces to restore the foundation. The bronze award was won jointly by ADRA Tecnologia en Servicio of Mexico and Germany’s Bohrtechnik Westerwald GmbH (BWW). ADRA’s job was on a crucible Mittal Steel repair project where diamond tools were required to cut graphite without the use of water. BWW’s job involved a large roll mill replacement project with severe time constraints to finish the job in only 120 hours. The Diamond Award competition allows concrete sawing and drilling industry professionals to present their most complex and innovative projects. Entries were judged on the degree of difficulty, planning, complexity, innovation and the quality of the work produced to ensure project success. Following a detailed review of each entry, the judging panel representing members of various country-wide sawing and drilling association, chose the winning projects. Entries for the award came from all over the globe, including sawing and drilling projects from Japan, Egypt, Russia, Canada, the UK and the US among others. A record number of 19 entries were received this year, the fifth time that the competition has been run since its inception in 2000.