57 patents, including 7 foreign ones have been received for the technologies and equipment; 24 licenses have been sold. Diplomas of the All-Russian Exhibition Centre, Kuzbass Fair, Russian Financial Corporation and Management and Market Academy, as well as a commemorative medal to a participant in Moscow Kremlin reconstruction (1996) and a Small Gold Medal of the Siberian Fair (1999) were awarded for the sets. The paper called Replacing Sewarage in Urban Conditions without Excavation was awarded the Prize of the Russian Government in 2000.
In 1992, the Mining Institute of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences established Research and Production Company Kombest. The Company’s intellectual potential is Candidates of Science (PhD), Doctors of Science, holders of awards related to science and technology from the RF Government, and honoured inventors of Russia. The key objective of the established company was to carry out the State Innovative Programme New Generation of Technologies and Equipment Sets for Revamping Subsoil Utility Networks Using Trenchless Methods.
From 1992 to 1996, under the State Innovative Programme New Generation of Technologies and Equipment Sets for Revamping Subsoil Utility Networks Using Trenchless Methods, Mining Institute of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Research and Production Company Kombest developed the technology and equipment for trenchless replacement of pipelines ranging from 100 to 600 mm in diameter. The technology and equipment passed enhanced industrial trials in the operational facilities of Moscow, Novosibirsk and Omsk Municipal Water & Sewer. Siberian State Unitary Design Institute Sibgiprocommunvodocanal designed technological charts for the trenchless technology and transferred them to the RF Municipal Water & Sewers. In 1996, serial production of replacement kits for sewerage pipelines at Novosibirsk Machine-Building Plant Sibligmash OJSC.
As the technological requirements to replacing water supply lines are radically different from similar works on sewerage pipelines (length of sections, pressure, sanitary requirements, etc.), Novosibirsk Water and Sewer developed some technical requirements to equipment sets used for replacing steel pipelines with polyethylene ones. That served as grounds for research and development, as well as design activities, enhanced industrial trials and production engineering.
Apart from the equipment for trenchless replacement of worn-out pipelines, equipment sets for trenchless communication burying and driving steel sheaths from 100 to 1,400 mm in diameter were designed in 1992 and has been successfully in operation ever since.
For the past 15 years, over 350 equipment sets for trenchless communication replacement and laying have been manufactured and transferred for operation in repair & construction organizations. Annually, in the Russian Federation, over 100 faulty pipelines are replaced with the help of such sets.