TRASHRACK CLEANING THE PAST - THE PRESENT - THE FUTURE

Intakes of Hydropower plants have always been equipped with trashracks to keep floating debris, leaves, trash, etc., from the turbines, and these trashracks have always had to be cleaned. Initially, trashracks were cleaned by hand with hand-rakes of different types. Even in those early years, employees influenced the development and design of trashrack cleaning equipment - for example, one hand rake was equipped with wheels. Bigger plants required an enormous amount of staff. In Rheinfelden, Germany, for example, when the leaves were falling, one hundred men were required for trashrack cleaning! That's why already at the transition from the 19 th to the 20 th century machinery for mechanical trashrack cleaning was being constructed. The development of design changes finally resulted in the large wire rope trashrack cleaners, well known for their use at the big river power stations on the Danube, Rhine, and Parana (Itaipu) rivers, e.g. At the end of the 20 th century, hydraulic trashrack cleaners for small Hydropower plants were developed. The prior tendency, to adapt hydraulic steel structures designed for large Hydropower plants by downscaling them for small Hydropower plants, was reversed. The hydraulic jib trashrack cleaners were upscaled to fit as much as possible the needs of the large plants.