Drill Rigs and Machinery of Epiroc（二）

By Hu Ming and Dong Xinye from Secretariat of China Rock Drilling Tools Association

In the late 1940s, the drilling efficiency continued to increasewith the rapid development of pneumatic drilling machinery. In order to increase the output power of a drilling machine, it is necessary to increase the diameter of the piston, and the weight of drilling machines is also increasing. It appears to be inadequate to operate some drilling machines completely by hands. So comes the concept of drill rig that one or several high-power drifters were installed on a special drill boom together with an automatic propulsion mechanism, and then the entire device was equipped with a walking mechanism. Then continuous drilling operationscan be realized.

At the initial stage when the drill rig is used for drilling operations, the drifter, the control system, the rotation and propulsion mechanism of the drill boom, and even the walking mechanism are driven and controlled by pneumatic sources. However, it is this kind of simple structure and low-cost drill rig used in drilling projects, which not only reduces the physical labor, but also improves working conditions. At the same time, compared with the manually operated air-leg and hand-held drilling machines,the drill rigs have increased the volume and weight of drifters, which means there is sufficient space for designing machinery with greater impact power. When the output power of drifters is increased, the same working face can be drilled simultaneouslyby multiple drifters whichhave good stability on drill rigs. The drill rigs not only greatly increase the drilling efficiency anddrilling meters, but alsomake blastholes straight and round.The drill rigs are well received by the industry. The market demand continues to rise, which also stimulates the enthusiasm of manufacturers on the research and development of drilling machinery and equipment.