In the mid 1960’s the Brooklyn Union Gas Company did pioneering experimentation with an air lance, air compressor, and a vacuum truck to find a better way to dig and reduce the costs associated with the approximately 30,000 street openings they made annually for gas distribution piping repair. Today air-vacuum excavation is an accepted method of safe digging for many jobs ranging from utility work to advanced tree care.

Since 1991 Concept Engineering Group Inc. has been providing air-vacuum excavation tools and systems to safely uncover any type of buried object. Our tools and equipment use patented supersonic air-jets to dig and high flow, pneumatic transport to remove soil. Supersonic air jets are extremely effective at penetrating most types of soil, but are harmless to all types of non-porous buried objects including: tree roots; gas, water, or sewer pipes; electric or fiber optic cables; hazardous waste tanks, drums, boxes, cartons, or bottles; and unexploded ordnance such as bombs or landmines. Our pneumatic transfer system has many unique features that allow soil, which is not traditionally easily vacuumed material, to be handled efficiently and effectively.

he excavation and vacuum transport of soil has its own unique set of characteristics. Soil types vary widely in grain size, particle shape, packing, moisture content, grading, plasticity, organic matter content, etc. Soils, in general, are not the free flowing material most conventionally moved by pneumatic transport. Special care must be taken in the design of the vacuum transport system to avoid the persistent problem of cohesive material clogging. CEG personnel have carried out extensive experimentation to determine how to most effectively design the supersonic air jets and vacuum transport systems to work together in an efficient and synergistic manner.

Our equipment includes:

  • AIR-VAC ®, air injector powered vacuums
  • SAFEX ®, complete air-vacuum excavation systems
  • Special Systems for the Electric Power Research Institute, Battelle Memorial Laboratory, Lockheed Martin Technologies Company, Kaiser-Hill Company LLC, Tyndall Air Force Base, and the US Army at Ft. Belvoir.

Our tools and systems meet a wide variety of customer needs including:

  • Industrial / Utility
  • Environmental Remediation
  • Humanitarian Demining
  • Unexploded Ordnance

Concept Engineering Group Inc. reserves the right to improve or change the information and specifications listed on this site at our sole discretion.