Automation of surface drilling operations may have different focuses, depending on individual circumstances, but safety, ergonomics, quality, and productivity are major considerations.

Safety is required to minimize the risks for operators, while ergonomics improves the working environment. Quality in hole positioning and straightness will result in better fragmentation, producing less waste rock com-pared to the theoretical drill plan. At construction sites, remote guided access to difficult drilling positions is faster, because the driver can obtain the best view of the route.

Above all, a successful auto­mation project should lead to increased productivity.

Requirements for remote control capabilities are growing, especially in the market for non-cab surface drillrigs with remote controlled tramming and drilling. Feedback has been extremely positive from the site in southern Norway where the first of this new genre of drillrigs, the ROC D7 RRC, has been working.

Introduction to Remote Control Technology

The operator can see the rig or vehicle, and has instrumentation on the radio remote control (RRC) unit corresponding to the set-up in the cabin. The RRC-system consists of two hardware units: one for the operator with all controls and indicators, and the other mounted on the machine, integrating the RRC-unit to its electrical system.

Some RRC-units are also available with a cable, but this is a limited system which can only be used for control of rig tramming and not for drilling.

For line of sight applications, standardized RRC-solutions are available, and customization to the actual application is a matter of defining how joysticks, indicators and pushbuttons should be positioned.

The integration of RRC-units to the rig governs the cost and performance of the system. The new generation of Atlas Copco drillrigs are equipped with RCS Rig Control Systems, which offer a clean, straightforward CAN-bus interface between the rig and the RRC-unit.

Control information, such as joy-stick positions, activated pushbuttons, and alarms, is transmitted as serial data messages on the CAN-bus to the rig. The information is then interpreted by RCS, and executed.

On a rig without an electronic control system, the RRC-unit has to be interfaced to the dashboard and the electro-hydraulic system, and logic must be programmed in the RRC-unit. This integration means a more extensive wiring and programming of the RRC-unit.

Radio Remote Controlled Drillrigs

Improved operator safety and increased productivity were the most important reasons for developing RRC drillrigs. Both of these goals have been fully realized in the new Atlas Copco ROC D5 RRC, with a hole range of 35-89 mm, and the ROC D7 RRC, with a hole range of 64-115 mm.

These two rigs belong to the same family, but are equipped with rock drills that provide different production capabilities. Their principle strength lies in combining radio remote control with a well balanced design that has excellent stability and high productiv­ity in all types of terrain.

The new design is well thought through. The boom is centrally placed, with a low mounting point for opti­mum stability and maximum cover­age. Ground clearance is a full 455 mm (17.5 in) to provide great manoeuvrability in the roughest of conditions. These features, combined with the onboard Atlas Copco com­pressor and rock drill, driven by a powerful Caterpillar diesel engine, produce a remarkably capable drillrig.

Tramming, Positioning and Drilling

Both the Atlas Copco ROC D5 RRC and ROC D7 RRC are fully radio remote controlled.

The operator is able to manoeuvre the drillrig from a safe distance, choosing the best possible view. All principal functions, such as tramming, drilling and rod handling, are controlled from the RRC, and stepless controls allow smooth positioning of the rig. A new feature of both these drillrigs is the Atlas Copco patented Automatic Drill Stop. This function automatically stops the drilling at a preset depth, and loosens the rod threads. This increases the overall quality of the drilling, while reducing the time required to retract the rods and move to the next setup.

Atlas Copco's unique tubular fold­ing boom provides both the ROC D5 RRC and ROC D7 RRC with excep­tional reach and coverage. The versa­tile boom head permits the drill feed to be positioned to drill rockbolt holes to secure unstable side walls, or to carry out horizontal drilling operations.

The ROC D5 is fitted with a Caterpillar CAT 3126 B diesel engine with 131 kW (178 hp) of power, while the ROC D7 engine has an output of 149 kW (203 hp). Both engines have been sized with generous power reserves, to reduce fuel consumption, exhaust emissions and noise. The extra power also allows the rig to work in a wider range of conditions, and increases the life of the engine

Remote in Norway

Treacherous autumn conditions at Lindesnes, on the southernmost tip of Norway, are being overcome by Terrengtransport AS, one of the first contractors to adopt radio remote con­trol technology for surface drilling operations. With a workforce of 110 people, the company specializes ir. drilling and blasting for roadbuilding. trenching, preparation of construction and property sites, industrial contracting and even small-scale tunnelling. Expansion means they have invest in productive equipment and new technology, and they have been interested in the concept of radio remote control from inception.

At Lindens, Terrengtransport preparing the ground for a new chemicals production facility. Here, they recently took delivery of an Atlas Copco ROC D7 RRC radio-controllec crawler, equipped with a COF 1838HE rock drill and 127 lit/sec compressor, for drilling 76 mm holes.

Many of their jobs include both drilling and blasting, and radio remote control allows the driller to charge holes, or prepare for blasting, while the actual drilling is in progress. Another benefit is that the driller car. stand at a safe distance away from the rig when driving it into position, using superior line of sight to negotiate the best route over rough ground.

Terrengtransport has ordered a second RRC rig, and others are on their way to contractors in Sweden. Finland and the USA.

Lists of words

1. remote –дистанційний

2. available – що є в наявності

3. rig - пристосування, обладнання

4. wiring –електропроводка

5. terrain – місцевість

6. manoeuvre – маневр

7. view – огляд

8. benefit – користь

9. superior – начальник

10. negotiate – вести переговори

11. progress - прогрес

12. emission – емісія, поширення

13. com­pressor - компресор

14. automatically - автоматично

15. productive - продуктивний

16. generation - покоління

17. technology - технологія

18. function - функція

19. hardware – апаратне забезпечення

20. capabilities –здібності

Exercises:

1) Give the definitions of the following terms:

Automation, safety, ergonomics.

2) Read and give Ukrainian equivalents of the following international words:

Automation, operation, theoretical, plan, position, construction, view, positive, instrumentation, cabin, control.

3) Match a word in column

A with a definition in column В:

1. radio remote control

2. available

3. limited system

4. electronic control system

5. equipped with rock drills

6. provide manoeuvrability

7. safe distance

8. adapt technology

9. charge holes

10. life of engine

 

1. гранична система

2. електронно контрольна система

3. радіо дистанційне керування

4. безпечна відстань

5. бути у наявності

6. використовувати технологию
7.оснащені бурами

 

8. заряджати свердловини

9. строк служби двигуна

10. забезпечувати маневреність

4) Complete the following sentences:

1) Automation of surface drilling operations

2) Safety is required to

3) The operator can see the rig

4) Control information such as

5) The new design is

5) Tell what you know about:

1) Automation

2) Radio Remote Controlled Drillings

3) Tramming, Positioning and Drilling

4) Remote in Norway

5) Remote in Ukraine

Supplementary reading:

Creating the Crazy Horse Memorial

The Pride of a People

To lose all that you possess is a tragedy, but to lose your pride will ensure that you remain dispossessed for all time. Chief Henry Standing Bear, of the Sioux, knew that his people needed a strong symbol of their past to remind the country and themselves that they are a proud part of American history. He and his fellow chiefs chose the legendary warrior Crazy Horse as their symbol. But the embodiment of the symbol was locked within Thunderhead Mountain in the Black Hills of South Dakota, and only the removal of millions of tons of rock would reveal it. The chiefs chose Korczak Ziolkowski, a Boston-born sculptor, to take Crazy Horse from the mountain. Korczak had worked briefly as an assistant to Gutzon Borglum on the Mount Rushmore Memorial, depicting four United States Presidents, and so had a fair understanding of the task at hand. In 1940, he met with Chief Henry Standing Bear at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, but the project was delayed when Korczak volunteered to fight for his country during World War II. It was not until 1946 that he first viewed the 600 ft-high Thunderhead Mountain that was to become the Crazy Horse Monument. The following year, Korczak purchased 160 acres of land adjoining the site, set up his home in a tent, and in 1949 began work on the project.

Introduction

Fifty-five years have passed since Korczak Ziolkowski and his young wife Ruth, equipped with little more than a dream and unbelievable courage, undertook to remove the rock and create the monument. Since the morning when Korczak first walked to the mountain with drill and steel in hand and placed the first hole, several million tons of rock have been removed.

Today, the face of Crazy Horse gazes out across the hills where he once hunted buffa­lo and fought bravely in defence of the lands of his people. And although only the face is completed, already the dream of Henry Standing Bear and Korczak Ziolkowski is a reality. For anyone viewing the mountain for the first time cannot help but be deeply moved by all that it represents. When completed, Crazy Horse will sit astride his pony with his arm outstretched, and his hand pointing towards his homeland. The size of the statue is truly awe-inspiring. The head is 87.5 ft-high, the outstretched arm is 227 ft-long, and the horse's head is 219 ft-high. The full height of the completed work will be 563 ft, and it will have a length of 641 ft, making it the largest sculpture of its type in the world. By comparison, George Washington's head on nearby Mount Rushmore is about 60 ft-high. To turn a mountain into a sculpture through drilling and blasting away the surrounding rock is, to say the least, an unusual application for machines designed for mining. Korczak started his monumen­tal task using hand held pneumatic drills, and all of the work on the head was com­pleted in this way. However, when it came to blocking out the remainder of the statue, hand held machines were wholly inade­quate for the task. The sheer volume of rock to be removed, before the more pre­cise work of finishing the surface of the figure can begin, is immense.

Versatile Drillrig

The production drilling process was made considerably easier in 1999, when Atlas Copco donated the use of a ROC 642 HP crawler drill, with Secoroc R32 10 ft Speedrods (male/female) and 35 mm and 48 mm bits, for the winter months of that year. The drillrig worked so well that the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation bought it at a special price, and has been using it ever since!

At its launch in the mid-nineties, the ROC 642 HP was rated as one of the most versatile surface rigs on the market on account of its large engine, powerful drive motors, and low centre of gravity. It developed a reputation as the most economical drillrig available for hole depths up to 18 m, and diameters up to 3.5 in. It is an exceptionally manoeuvrable, medium-size machine, with good hill climbing ability. The water cooled, turbo-charged 145 HP (107 kW) Deutz diesel engine provides more than enough power for all functions, so is never over-stressed, resulting in long life, low maintenance, and clean, economical running.

The ROC 642 HP is equipped with the COP 1238 rock drill, the most popular rig mounted machine in the world, with alu­minium cylinder feed. The feed beam is lighter than steel, and infinitely more resistant to bending. The smooth and regular force output by the cylinder-actuated feed mechanism keeps the joints in the drill-string tight, and maintains the drillbit in constant contact with the rock. Standard features are double hydraulic drillsteel support, reducible percussion pressure, anti-jamming function, automatic feed control, and two speed traction motors.

The ROC 642 HP has been drilling 300-500 ft/day of 1.825 in-diameter boreholes using Secoroc bits and steel. It is the main-stay of the fleet, and has proved to be both reliable and productive, with the crew praising the reach, manoeuvrability and overall drilling rates achieved in the peg­matite granite.

The drillrig is maintained at workshops on the peak, and is expected to be available for work throughout the winter months. The wind and weather can be severe at these heights, even in summer. An adjacent mountain, which once hosted the largest mica mine in the world, just 800 ft higher than Thunderhead, is the highest peak east of the Rockies to the Swiss Alps.

 

Lists of words

 

 

1. pride –гордість

2. possess –володіти

3. steel drill – сталевий бур

4. gravity – сила ваги, тяжіння

5. to overstress – перенапружуватися

6. hand held machine – ручна

бурильна машина

7. mica –слюда

8. mine –рудник, шахта

 

9. versatile - універсальний

10. crawler drill – буровий станок

на гусеничному ходу

11. undertake – розпочати

12. foundation - фундамент

13. drive motor – приводний двигун

14. reach – радіус дії

15. bending - вигинання

16. borehole – бурова свердловина

 

Quarrying Across the united Kindom

Aggregate for the Cities

Large quarries are located near rail-heads in the United Kingdom so that aggregate can be shipped across the country with minimum inconve-nience. All of these operations are governed by strict environmental regulations, particularly in relation to dust and noise. Less drilling for more production is a very attractive propo-sition, and that is what Atlas Copco rigs in various guises are delivering. Owned and operated by specialist drilling contractors of long standing, the drillrigs are worked hard and moved often. Four of the largest operating companies are featured below, and all of them endorse the Atlas Copco ROC series of hydraulic rigs that are setting the pace at every quarry in which they appear.

Sleeman

From its Frome base in England's West Country, W C D Sleeman & Sons, Ltd supplies drilling and blasting services to a total of 18 quarries in Somerset and Herefordshire.

Most of this output is crushed and screened at site, and railed to London on purpose-built trains. Set up some 27 years ago with a single Atlas Copco pneumatic drillrig, Sleeman now operates a fleet of nine Atlas Copco DTH machines, compris­ing a ROC L8, three ROC L6s, and five ROC 460s. All of these machines are moved frequently between sites, because their individual productivity outstrips the capacity of any single client quarry. However, the combination of fast drilling rigs and easy movement makes perfect economic sense, and is becoming increas­ingly popular amongst contractors working small and medium-sized quarries.

Since inception, Sleeman has offered a full drilling and blasting service to its clients. The company provides the drillrigs and site personnel, and undertakes the esign and layout of the blasting grid, sur­veys the holes, carries out laser profiling of the face, and specifies the blast design.

At Moons Hill quarry, Somerset, in an extension of the main pit, the Sleeman ROC L8, equipped with a Secoroc COP 44 hammer, is employed drilling 115 mm holes on a 4.0 m x 4.0 m grid. The bench height is 10 m, and the basalt is hard and loose jointed, a situation where DTH drilling excels. Face angle is normally 15 degrees, but this may be reduced to 10 degrees in certain areas.

Explosives are delivered on an as-needed basis, to avoid the potential prob­lems associated with site magazine location and security. The lower 6 m of each prepared hole is loaded with 13 kg/m of Orica bulk emulsion and a 16L Pentolite booster primed using a Sureline non­electric detonator. The top 4 m of each hole is then stemmed using 14 mm chippings.

Every month. Sleeman brings in a 20 t excavator equipped with a hydraulic break-er to dispense with any build-up of over-size boulders.

The company provides drilling services to seven or eight other quarries in and around the Mendip Hills, the Somerset geological structure that hosts large lime-stone reserves.

Three of the Sleeman Atlas Copco ROC 460 drillrigs are also engaged in doing small jobs around the Mendips, while one ROC 460 is based at a 1 million t/y opera­tion, and the fifth ROC 460 covers quarries with a combined output of 1.4 million t/y.

Each of the ROC 460 drillrigs is pow­ered by an Atlas Copco XR compressor rated at 12-20 bar pressure.

The Sleeman ROC L6s rotate between drill & blast contracts with bench heights in the order of 14-15 m, which is close to the maximum height allowable in the United Kingdom without a full geological survey. Hole size is normally 115 mm, but some 20% are drilled at 127 mm-diameter. In the limestone rock that characterizes most of their sites, a 4.5 m x 4.5 m grid is chosen, in order to reduce fly rock and concentrate the muckpile.

Planned performance for the ROC L6 and ROC L8 machines is 1.5 m/min, and for the smaller ROC 460 is 600 mm/min.

The Secoroc Magnum premium quality drillbits are lasting a minimum of 1,000 drillmetres, and are treated as consum­ables, so regrinding is not carried out. Sleeman produces some 5.5 million t/y under drilling & blasting contracts.

Blasting Services

 

The first UK customer to invest in Atlas Copco's new, high-power, ROC L6H DTH crawler rig was Blasting Services Ltd of Alfreton, Derbyshire. The busy drilling and blasting contractor has expanded its fleet to four Atlas Copco rigs. Blasting Services felt the time was right for substantial investment in their fleet to meet increasing customer demand for both production, and health and safety. They see Atlas Copco as a big player, and an excellent partner intent on providing the best service support now, and in the future.

Blasting Services carries out contract drilling and production blasting in the Midlands, mainly at quarries in Derbyshire and Shropshire, and also in North Wales. These quarries produce material from a variety of hard rock types such as lime-stone, granite, and sandstone, using a drill-hole diameter range of 110 mm through to 130 mm. The average annual blasted ton-nage expected is approximately 1.75 mil-lion t/machine, which is equivalent to around 48,000 drillmetres/year/rig.

The self-contained, high-performance ROC L6H, which combines properties of the proven ROC L6 and ROC L8 rigs, features a high-delivery 850 cu ft/min (401 lit/sec) of air from the onboard 25-bar Atlas Copco compressor, for increased drilling speeds in medium-strength to softer rock formations. The rigs provide high production drilling capability in Blasting Services' bread-and-butter work for quarry blasthole drilling, and also feature the flexibility needed for develop-ment work. For example, the mast, which accommodates 5 m-long drilltubes, can be turned through 90 degrees to drill toe holes, as well as any angled holes in between. The hole inclination is controlled electronically, and instrumentation is pro­vided to check on hole depth. A dust col-lector has a retractable suction hood and pre-separator. The rig is also highly manoeuvrable, with a tramming speed of 3.4 km/h (2.1 miles/h), a grade climbing ability of 20 degrees, and a traction force of 110 kN (24,729 Ibf) from a two-speed drive. The ROC L6H is designed for drilling holes in the diameter range 92-152 mm (3%-6 in) using COP 34, 44 or 54 down-hole hammer drills. The typical maximum hole depth is 36 m (118 ft) with a drilltube handling system to hold eight tubes. The drive is provided by a water-cooled Caterpillar diesel engine.

The Blasting Services machine features a central lubrication system, which, in con­junction with a daily and weekly mainte­nance regime, will ensure reliability of operation. The operator's cab, with full ROPS and FOPS specification, is equipped with air conditioning and a heater is standard.The ROC series of drillrigs are designed with easy transportation in mind, and the dimensions are well within the European guidelines for movement by low loader, so no permits are required.

Lists of words

 

1. govern - керувати

2. explosion – вибух

4. planned - запланований

6. blasting - підривання

7. purpose- ціль

8. however -однак

9. services - послуги

10. transportation – транспортування

11. lubrication – мастило

12. design - проектувати

13. mainte­nance -обслуговування

14. dimension – габарит, розмір

15. approximately -приблизно

16. capability -здатність

18. movement - рух

19. pneumatic - пневматичний

20. prepared – готовий