Remanufacturing, Refurbishment and Rebuilt: A Review of Herrenknecht Remanufacturing Process and its Application on Tunnel Boring Machines in Asia–Pacific Region

The term “Rebuilt” is used to describe a way to reutilize an old tunnel boring machine (TBM) for new projects, but the ambiguous term does not offer an assurance for buyer about the degree of quality and workmanship the rebuilt TBM has to offer. Herrenknecht has adopted the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association (ITA)’s guideline to “Remanufacturing” as the main way to “Rebuilt” their TBMs. This paper analyses the benefits “Remanufacturing” which has to offer comparing to new machine and found that in terms of quality control, remanufactured TBMs is closer to New TBMs than other rebuilt methods. It is also a sustainable, cost and time-efficient way of construction and offer environmental benefits to project. We then briefly discuss what are the risk related to using remanufactured equipment and what are the risk mitigation measures applied by other countries. This leads us to the conclusion that risk mitigation for remanufacturing should be done from a project policy point of view and that standardization is one of the good approaches to promote remanufacturing and reduce risk and an open topic for consideration of adaptability for remanufacturing in Asia–Pacific.