Even though some of the rock drilling technology remains mostly unchanged, how it is used and the way contractors drill today has. Technology and the HDD industry have come a long way since those days. When HDD was in its early years, the technology used by contractors was that used by those contractors in the oil fields, right down to the tooling for drilling in rock - mud motors, hole openers, drill bits. “It’s the biggest mistake they make (not calling for advice,)” Beauchamp adds. “When you get into layered or fractured rock, you will be dealing with different types of rock that have different compressive strengths, which will affect the Tungsten Carbide inserts that drill through those layers.” “It’s all about the compressive strengths,” he says.
If they call us, they can find out what they can actually use in that ground formation and we can give them the best recommendation as per the rock and the formation.”Īgnew talks about the importance of knowing compressive strength of the formations and how that dictates which bits to use and the effect on the actual drilling. Knowing your tools and the ground conditions are what’s going to give you the best performance. “There are different tools for different formations. “Most of the drillers out there are not qualified to make those decisions,” Beauchamp says. That geotechnical report gives Agnew and Beauchamp and others like them, the intel they need to advise customers on what tools will work the best for that job, as well as direction on how to bid it for cost. “They need a report of what’s in the ground and it needs to be something current and something from that location, not 100 miles away or done in the 1950s.” “They need to know what the ground formations are,” Beauchamp simply says. Contractors turn to companies such as INROCK and DDI for assistance in preparing their bids, which includes tooling costs and estimated rate of penetration and time to complete the bores - all based on what is known to be under foot. The tooling they choose and timeframes that they are under are a challenge to get these jobs done on time and on budget.”Įspecially for projects dealing with rock formations - guessing what’s underground is not a smart business move and can end up chipping away at your profits.
“That makes their job a little more difficult.
“The biggest challenge that these guys are facing is that the cost per foot they can get from the top line companies has come down quite a bit in the last few years,” says INROCK sales manager Chad Agnew. To avoid cost overruns and time-gutting delays, it’s critical for contractors to know and understand what ground conditions they are dealing with - before turning in a bid for a project. Time is money for everyone involved in a construction project - from the owner who writes the check to the contractor who receives it. Sounds simple enough but a lot of preparation is required of contractors before that bit touches any part of the ground. If you are using a PDC, an air hammer or tri-cone bit, it’s going to work.” If you are trying to use a dirt bit to drill in rock, it’s not going to work. “You have to use the right tool for the right job. It’s all about the tools they use to do the drilling,” says Diamond Drilling Industries (DDI) owner and president Sonny Beauchamp. “Actually, the drilling does not pose any problem to the contractors. The difficulty for the contractor drilling the pilot hole in rock formations lies with being able to hold the intended path of the bore because that formation will want to push them around. Whether it’s sandstone, cobble, gneiss, limestone or boulders, all these questions (and many more) are critical to the contractor successfully completing a bore on time and on budget, as well as knowing what to do with any given rock formation that the drill bit will come in contact with.