Heavy equipment machinery

Oil and gas drilling permits have tripled during the last five years, and every available rig has been pressed into service. Now, energy companies are looking overseas, particularly to China, for equipment and qualified crews. But as foreign drill rigs and workers arrive to tap Western lands, political red flags are starting to go up.

The region already hosts drilling equipment from Italy, China and Canada, and the Oil and Gas Journal reports 850 new rigs are needed nationwide over the next five years. "We’ve under-invested in the exploration field for years," says Bill Croyle of Western Energy Advisors, which secured a deal begun two years ago between China National Petroleum Corporation and a private group of American investors. The company they formed, Golden Bear, will import Chinese rigs and crews to help ease the equipment and labor shortage.

But foreign labor rankles some, including Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., who is concerned that locals are being skipped over for good jobs. "We need to keep American jobs in America," says Nayyera Haq, a spokesperson for the congressman. "We shouldn’t outsource jobs on our own soil."

Developing a New Culture

Mechanized mining requires an entirely different approach – Decade old standards are fast becoming obsolete. Today’s production demands are getting more and more difficult to meet. The conventional mining industry is hungry for new developments in the mechanization field. To institute these developments successfully a new working culture has to be developed within the workforce.

http://www.sulzerpumps.com/DesktopDefault.aspx/tabid-368/669_read-1275/

Applications Match the Task; No Single Method Dominates

Just five or six years ago, horizontal directional drilling (HDD) was such a popular method in underground construction that it was almost easier to find a contractor specializing in drilling than one who employed a more comprehensive approach, using open-cut and digging along with trenchless means.

As the smoke from the telecom bust clears, it appears as though most of the surviving contractors were those that didn’t bank only on HDD. Now it’s very common to find contractors who have spent many years utilizing HDD — even working a great deal in the telecommunications field. But if you ask how they made it, they’ll likely tell you it’s because they had a fleet of trenchers, excavators, and in some cases even bursting and ramming tools, to spread the work around.

HDD Takes Over

"Most would agree that, at times, the growth during the telecom boom was not the healthiest," says Ed Savage, Vermeer Underground Segment manager. "Quickly, there became too many drilling machines in the market and too many contractors, many of which weren’t in the HDD business for the long haul. The market became saturated, the price-per-foot dropped, the amount of work decreased, and many experienced HDD contractors suffered."

When the telecom work got busy, HDD overshadowed open-cut work and seemed to be the mainstream method, even though other conventional machines were being used all over, according to Savage. Trenchless was so popular, though, that contractors and customers often considered it first, rather than using the best possible approach.

"Some said, ‘Why not drill everything,’ even if it was more efficient to plow or trench. This is where many contractors got into trouble," Savage says. "Overall, I think most of the successful contractors who survived always used HDD in combination with plowing or trenching. Contractors who survived knew HDD was more efficient in some applications but not in others."

Survival of the Diverse

One good example of a contractor that made it is Daleo, Inc., which rode the HDD-market roller coaster and survived. Today, 80 percent of the Gilroy, California-based company’s business is still fiber-optics cable installation, which Daleo leaders are proud to call "unique." The telecom market dramatically affected their business and forced them to cut their workforce as demand plummeted. But they survived by not buying so much equipment that they were burned when everything shut down. Daleo found niche work in on-grade boring and continued to grow its business. Daleo is currently about half the size it was during the HDD boom, but it’s a bigger, more successful company than it was before the telecom market skyrocketed.

Kaccel Communications Services, Inc., based in Las Vegas, survived the slump because they too didn’t let trenchless work overtake the business. They stayed the course set 12 years ago, using it in situations where it wouldn’t make sense to try anything else. Kaccel got into the trenchless business in the early 1990s intending for it to complement the utility installation division and provide trenchless work to existing customers like Nevada Power, Cox Communications and Sprint. It was always intended to work with conventional means, which helped start the business.

Today, contractors are more cautious, always looking out for what can make them more efficient. They are dealing with close margins and looking for efficiencies anywhere they can. Savage says this has helped HDD become another "tool in the toolbox.

"In some situations, it makes complete sense to dig or trench," he says. "If you’re talking about an open field with no above ground or underground obstacles, it’s faster and it’s less expensive.

"Now when you’re talking about going under a building, a road, some water, or under a parking lot you don’t want to have to replace and pave over again, HDD is a perfect solution. The businesses that are thriving are the ones that have HDD in their hip pocket for those types of situations. Because they’re smart, they have the other methods to employ when it’s more efficient to use them."

The Xenia Rural Water District in Iowa has purchased four HDD units to work with a team of trenchers. Even though trenching makes up 95 percent of their installations, the system owns more HDD rigs than trenchers. They are used primarily when going under roads and creeks, and when working in tight right-of-ways. HDD is a tremendously critical part of their operation — albeit relatively small. Engineers will specify HDD on some projects. The rationale is simple: Open-cut or trenching is faster and less expensive when there are no underground or aboveground obstacles to contend with. This is a testament to the fact that neither trenchless nor open-cut methods can or should completely replace the other, no matter what the setting, Savage says.

Some contractors strictly dedicated to telecom did survive, but had a tough time keeping their business intact. Others identified and pursued new markets or reduced the size of their telecom HDD business to make it more efficient and manageable. Some diversified into water, sewer, gas, and remediation work to help keep their crews and machines working. These markets always existed, but contractors had to experience the telecom bust before they could see the vast market potential for HDD.

Answering Customer Needs

In response to this renewed "back-to-the-basics" mentality among contractors, manufacturers are providing assistance to contractors looking to tap into new markets.

"They are asking for help in developing solutions since they have not played in the water, sewer, gas, or remediation markets," Savage says. "They need help building a fleet of equipment, but they also need help tapping into new types of business."

Vermeer Manufacturing is receiving more and more interest in pipe bursting and ramming from customers, he adds. Municipalities wanting to rehab existing infrastructure rather than replace it are driving this. It is a cost and time issue, and rehab results in fewer disturbances and typically results in less downtime as well.

Jeff Wage, vice president of sales and marketing at HammerHead, says the market is growing at a rate of 40 percent per year, and about 85 percent of the pipe needing to be replaced in the United States includes 8-inch, 10-inch and 12-inch mainline water and sewer.

"We’re talking about areas in established cities," he says. "Houses are 40 to 80 years old and commercial areas are built up and landscaped with utilities in the ground that have exceeded their useful life. You usually don’t have a lot of room to work with, and minimal ground disturbance in neighborhoods is a factor. Education, training and the right equipment combined with support equipment that is compact and non-intrusive is the key to success in this trenchless market."

Savage says the recent return of the fiber market is exceptional and is on a pretty healthy increase, which began in early 2004. "The growth is not as wild as we saw six or eight years ago, but it is still above anyone’s expectations."

This time around, he adds, almost every underground installation market is seeing growth. The more diversified growth, namely in the gas, water, sewer, and remediation markets, is making it a great deal more healthy than before — when too many contractors became dependent upon telecom work.

"What’s also encouraging now is that contractors continue to recognize that HDD is not the solution for every part of every project," he says. "It’s a significantly efficient part of a fleet. But, it really depends on the job and the factors involved."

Information for this article was provided by: Vermeer Manufacturing Company, Pella, Iowa

http://www.infolink.com.au/articles/C8/0C039EC8.aspx

HE ABI Mobilram is a multi-functional rig designed for vibrating, drilling, impacting and pressing piles. The rig provides some advantages over a traditional crane slung vibratory-hammer. The ABI rig requires half the personnel which results in a safer job that is easier to co-ordinate and needs less training. The rig’s high frequency vibratory hammer attachment with crowd force and better pile handling can increase production by two to three times. Set-up time and demobilisation for the ABI rig is about an hour but it takes considerably longer for a crane.

The telescopic mast allows for longer strokes though it still transports as a compact rig. The mast crowd also allows for driving sheets without a template and the unit moves easily under obstacles and in small confined spaces. The 180° slewing of mast allows operators to better observe their work. The Mobilram takes up less space than a crane, power pack, hoses and free suspended hammer. The on-board power pack does not have to be moved as sheet wall moves along.

The pre-drilling ability of the Mobilram allows for the installation of piles in ground that is unsuitable for vibration. Pre-drilling is also done with the same manpower and equipment plus auger drive and prevents damage to sheets. Pre-drilling also reduces the possibility of interlocks separating in hard driving conditions. The hammer and auger drive can be switched in approximately half an hour with ABI’s rapid changing device and mounting storage frames. Different tools can be interchanged on site to allow for installation of piles in almost any ground condition. The crowding of the pile in a controlled manner along the mast keeps piles straight and the operator can make quick, small adjustments using the mast cylinder to straighten the piles. All piles are driven to grade as opposed to pitch and drive according to Steelcom who hire and sell Mobilram.

http://www.infolink.com.au/articles/1B/0C04111B.aspx

Oilmen have created some pretty strange-looking shapes in the course of getting petroleum out of the earth, converting it into products, and sending it to market. But nothing in the array of towering refinery units, weird pipe loops, squat spheroid tanks, and wheeled behemoths that trundle through marshland could have challenged for oddity the silhouette of AMDP-1 as it emerged from the hazy Persian Gulf sunrise off the coast of Saudi Arabia on May 10, 1958. And few pieces of oil industry equipment, on land or sea, have matched the hundred-day odyssey of this homely oil field workhorse. Tethered to a stout Dutch tug, it began its ten-thousand-mile journey at Vicksburg, Mississippi, on January 13, 1958, and after cruising at a steady three and a half knots an hour, hove to at the Ras Tanura marine terminal of the Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco) 15 weeks later.

To those who saw it pass, AMDP-1 (the Aramco Mobile Drilling Platform No. 1) must have seemed one of the strangest objects ever to have been borne of its own buoyancy across the ocean depths. A sailor conning it distantly at dawn on the horizon could have been forgiven for assuming that three terrifying sea beasts had fled the pages of ancient marine fables.

Despite its aesthetic shortcomings, AMDP-1 has its own kind of beauty—the elegance of logic. Moving across the water it is a boat; once in place, presto, it is a steel island—it is, in effect, a mobile island. Further, once it had been fitted out with a drilling rig, it borrowed from the towering symmetry of the derrick a handsome air.

Not long after it arrived at Ras Tanura five years ago, it was put to work by Aramco drilling offshore oil wells in the Safaniya Field, where it soon became a familiar sight, one that reflected technical rather than mythic marvels. It has three pylons that drop into the water and become legs. It stands upon the ocean floor and resists the force of heavy seas. It hoists itself out of the water "by its own bootstraps." It carries a full-size drilling rig.

However, its greatest singularity can be seen only in Aramco’s ledgers—it saves the company more than $100,000 on every new offshore well. It represents a $1,650,000 investment and is an example of an important victory of technology over the constant increase in oil well drilling costs in offshore fields.

The story of the evolution of AMDP-1 goes a long way back in oil industry history. Almost as soon as they had appeared on the American industrial horizon, the big wooden derricks of the oil fields began their march to the sea. They stopped at the water’s edge, but only briefly. By 1894, Summerland, the first offshore oil field to be developed in the United States, had been discovered near Santa Barbara, California. By 1903 a wooden pier that rested on stilt-like piles stretched out into the ocean at Summerland and a number of rigs drilled from it. Soon, men whose chief concern was location of buried pre-historic sea bottoms where oil might be found were coping with marine problems.

As geological data accumulated and geophysical instruments assumed greater precision, the geologists in the oil companies prompted their managements to obtain offshore concessions and risk large investments in wildcatting marine fields. The first great underwater discovery abroad was the Lake Maracaibo Field in Venezuela. Development of the field started in the 1930’s. Producing men had to adapt land equipment for overwater drilling. It was a time when drilling rigs were still steam powered, and as one producing man recalled recently, "there were huge boilers on barges all over the place."

The first big break came when land rigs became diesel powered and "the whole system was lightened." The lighter power equipment made overwater drilling easier—the fixed drilling platforms, built upon long piles driven into the bottom, had to carry less weight. But ahead lay the complex problem of keeping costs down, even reducing them, as drilling in lakes, bayous, and coastal waters increased.

The big push into deeper waters came after World War II when world-wide oil consumption grew rapidly and spurred the hunt for new fields. Everything that had been learned about drilling platforms, barges that carried rigs aboard, and huge "sea islands" from which many wells could be drilled, was consolidated in a new technology. However, there was no simple answer, no universal design that would meet the on-site needs of every underwater field.

For instance, the floor of the Gulf of Mexico is soft, silty clay. This mantle is 200 feet deep in some drilling areas. On the other hand, the floor of the Persian Gulf is hard and little penetration is experienced by the feet (spud tanks) of AMDP-1 during drilling. Wave forces vary from place to place around the world, as do tides. The height of a wave is a function of wind direction, velocity, and "fetch" (the distance over which wind blows at a measured velocity). Thus, wave heights differ in offshore oil fields. Weather, of course, varies widely. It is interesting to note that WOW (waiting-on-weather) is the great offshore time waster. Sometimes a desert shamed, a hot, dry summer wind that carries aloft a fog of talc-fine sand particles, can reach 30 to 40 miles into the Persian Gulf and halt drilling.

Engineers have worked out several general types of design solutions for overwater drilling. Extremely costly fixed-pile, self-contained platforms have been built. They were like small communities. Their high initial cost and low salvage value led to smaller platforms that were also mounted on fixed piles but were serviced by tenders (often converted LST’s). The next step was to free the drilling platform from a fixed position so that it could drill a hole and then move on to another well site. Thus the mobile platform was evolved. In most cases it requires the service of a tender and has to be moved by a tug. A great deal of ingenuity has gone into the engineering of these various overwater drilling systems. Their capitalization has been quite high, but they have enabled oil men to get further seaward in coastal waters.

In 1949, Aramco began its offshore exploration in the waters of Saudi Arabia. In 1950 the first overwater fixed drilling platform was erected not far from shore near Safaniya. The platform was served by a barge. The following year the Safaniya Field was discovered and a program of delineation drilling was begun. A special barge built to serve drilling platforms was purchased in Venezuela from the Creole Petroleum Company and towed to Saudi Arabia by tug. It had been known as the Queen Mary and the nickname remained.

During the early development of the Safaniya Field, the world’s largest offshore reservoir, Aramco continued to use the fixed platform system of drilling. Heavy steel piles had to be driven into the sea bottom to support each platform. A drilling rig and derricks had to be mounted on each, and then dismounted when the well was completed—a time-consuming and costly procedure.

Aramco engineers began to survey the mobile drilling platforms in use in the industry. In the period 1955-1957 the Air Force placed four massive three-legged platforms—called "Texas Towers"—in early-warning radar service off the east coast of the United States. The triangle design had also found favor in many drilling companies, and Aramco’s engineers, working with the design engineers of the R. G. Le Tourneau company, created a triangular mobile platform based upon Persian Gulf requirements. The platform was finished in 1957 and towed to Saudi Arabia early in 1958. It provided the means for a cost break-through in Aramco’s offshore drilling.

The Aramco platform, without drilling rig, is a model of simplicity in engineering design. Seen from above it is an isosceles triangle with a pylon (also triangular) rising from each point. The deck is 94 feet on two sides and 104 feet on the third. The flat bottom of the platform is identical—the two surfaces are ten feet apart and are, of course, enclosed by steel sides. The enclosed interior is divided by water-tight compartments. In the water this steel tank becomes a hull and is buoyant.

The three equilateral pylons, or legs (depending on whether they are up in the air or down in the water), are each 125 feet long and individually interlaced with tubular steel bracing. When viewed from the side, as one approaches on the water, their mode of elevation and retraction becomes clear. Three points of each leg are made up of gear teeth over its length from top to footing (a spud tank forms the foot). Three big gear boxes are mounted around each leg in the hull/platform. The gears for each leg let the leg down into the water until the foot is firmly set upon the sea floor. The gears continue to turn and the hull climbs up the legs and becomes a platform.

AMDP-1 operates in conjunction with the Aramco Drilling Tender No. 1 (ADT-1) which went into service in March, 1961, about four months after the barge Queen Mary was disabled by a storm. Before AMDP-1 is towed to a new drilling site, a fixed production platform is prepared. This platform is smaller and can be constructed from lighter materials than those formerly used because with the advent of AMDP-1 the platforms no longer had to support a drilling rig and the tons of drill pipe that hang from the derrick in a deep hole during drilling.

When it is towed to a new site, AMDPT’s apex is its prow. Its stern, or base side, has a large slot which fits around and over the fixed production platform at the new well site. Once AMDP-1 is positioned around the production platform, the drilling rig and derricks are skidded from the center of the triangular deck over the slot. The rig is now in position to drill. The drill stem will pass through an opening in the fixed production platform.

When the hole is completed, the tender is towed off and then AMDP-1 is towed away. The fixed production platform remains with its big Christmas-tree valve complex marking a completed well. And AMDP-1 proceeds to its next assignment where the fixed production platform is already waiting.

The foregoing simplified procedure by-passed one crucial step—pre-loading. As mentioned earlier, an Aramco offshore well requires thousands of feet of drill pipe which may weigh as much as 100 tons. This weight, plus other operational loads must be taken into account when AMDP-1 is being footed on the sea bottom. It would not do to have the huge structure continue to settle during drilling as the drill stem lengthens and becomes heavier. Therefore, when the hull has climbed up out of the water about a foot and a half, sea-water is pumped into compartments in the hull until the weight of the added water equals the anticipated weight of the drilling load. The pre-load is then discharged, and the platform elevates itself to a position where its bottom is 24 feet above the water at low tide, based upon accepted marine standards. This elevation places the platform about 14 feet above the surface at high tide. This height accommodates ten-foot wave crests with an added four-foot surge clearance in case of severe storm conditions.

The tender carries all the auxiliary needs of the drilling rig—work water, drinking water, drilling mud, drilling cement, power generators, drill pipe, well casing, and so on, plus living quarters for the drilling crews.

Everything about AMDP-1 is proportioned on a massive scale. It can drill in low-tide depths of 77 feet of water. Its total displacement with drilling equipment in place is 1,001 tons. It is a mobile drilling island of impressive stability—blunt, solid, hefty. However, the level of its platform can be controlled with unusual precision and delicacy. Should an inclination develop of as little as three-tenths of a degree in any direction, an immediate adjustment is made. A pair of opposing levels, called inclinometers, tells the operator the direction and degree of tilt.

AMDP-l’s platform climbs at the rate of one foot per minute—slow but secure.

Well by well, AMDP-1 has earned back for Aramco the original cost of $1,650,000—but Aramco’s engineers are ever pioneering new ways to further reduce drilling costs. Since it arrived in Saudi Arabia the hybrid hull/platform has undergone modifications which make it more stable afloat and permit it to stand in depths of water greater than it was originally designed to do.

AMDP-1 would surely not excite the eye of an admiral accustomed to the sleek lines of giant sea queens. It has, however, more than earned the Navy tribute, "Well done."

http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/196402/sea-going.drilling.rig.htm

Aker Drilling has placed an order for two Aker H-6e semi-submersible drilling rigs designed for operations under extreme offshore conditions. According to the company, Aker H-6e rigs represent something entirely new in the rig industry. These rigs are a size up from other sixth-generation rigs, and the 6e designation denotes that they have been designed for extreme offshore working environments such as ultra-deep Arctic waters, far from any existing infrastructure. They are configured for dynamic positioning to 3,000 m water depth.

The Aker H-6e rigs feature an expanded topside area and additional payload and storage capacity compared with similar rigs and are suitable for operation in rough seas. Vertical racking of risers and casing provides a low center of gravity that enhances stability. The rig‘s drilling system features advanced capabilities and include remote control of drilling and diagnostics from onshore facilities. The capacity of crew accommodations is greater than those on comparable drilling rigs and feature flexible design and layout, which can be easily adapted to suit customers‘ operational requirements.
    
<b>Drilling</b> Rigs for Extreme Environments

The two identical rigs of the Aker H-6e type, designed and built by Aker Kværner, will each cost approximately NOK 3,800 million. The first rig will be ready for drilling by February 2008; the second rig will go into operation eight months later.

http://www.marinetalk.com/

Providence announces details of its summer drilling program in the Celtic Sea, offshore Ireland.

Using the Petrolia semisub, which has been secured for a 50 day drilling slot, Providence and its partners have elected to drill an appraisal well on the crest of the Hook Head prospect.

The Hook Head structure is a large mid-basinal anticline where two previous wells have successfully encountered hydrocarbon bearing sands. The original IRL50/11-1 discovery well, which was drilled by

Marathon in 1971, logged c. 100 feet of hydrocarbons in five sandstone units of Lower cretaceous age. The well was not flow-tested due to severe operational issues at the time. The subsequent IRL50/11-2 appraisal well, which was drilled by Marathon in 1975 was drilled as a delineation well at the down-dip edge of the structure.

Post-drill mapping by Marathon indicates that the crest of the structure is located to the north-east of the IRL50/11-1 discovery well, which is further supported by the seismic data acquired by Providence in 2006. This crestal location is some 2 km northeast of the IRL50/11-1 well and is thought to be c. 70 meters structurally higher than the original well. The most recent in-house volumetric estimates suggest that the Hook Head discovery could contain prospective resources of up to c.70 MMBO or 250 BSCFG REC.

Commenting on today’s announcement, Tony O’Reilly Jnr., Chief Executive, said: ‘I am delighted to announce that Providence and its partners have agreed to drill Hook Head this summer. This well is not only important for proving up commercial quantities of hydrocarbons at Hook Head, but success here will also open up other fields in the Celtic Sea for future development. I look forward to updating you further over the next few months on this very exciting program’.

Introduction

The "Fonly" family was designed by Peter Clark to provide quality machine tools at a low cost for the model maker working in small scales, particularly 2mm/ft. The family includes a lathe with light milling capabilities and a drilling machine. Each one is powered by a Minicraft Buffalo or similar mini-drill. If you have been to IMREX, or various Association events over the last three years you may have seen an example in action. The precision in the machines comes from alignment after the components are produced, so construction does not require special accurate machinery.

The drilling machine is the simplest to construct, and probably one of the most useful tools to add to the collection. It enables the user to produce holes which are perpendicular and allows concentration on drilling pressure and depth, without the fear of a skewed hole. Moving the drill "off-axis" is the most common reason for breaking small drill bits, and the drilling machine will prevent this happening. Whilst it looks a little odd, it is easy to use, and has less radial movement than common commercial minidrill stands. This very useful tool can be constructed in an afternoon, using only common hand tools.

Before we start, a word of caution. All tools should be handled with care and treated with respect, machine tools the more so. Materials should be held in suitable holders, such as a vice, and not held in the hand. Rapidly rotating metal can cause very significant injuries. Eye protection during construction and use are recommended.

Material

The drill stand is made from birch plywood. In my experience, this is not available in DIY superstores, the soft red ply is not particularly good. I bought my ply from a timber supplier who sold it pre-cut in 600x600mm squares. Before you buy, check the inner layers of the ply aren’t the cheap tropical redwood with a birch face, the proper stuff is available inspite of what many shops will say. I used 12mm and 6mm plywood, though very little 6mm is required. An alternative to ply is maple, but it is hard to find and very expensive!

In addition to the plywood, two 300mm lengths of straight 8mm round steel rod are required. Ordinary mild steel (bright finish) is ideal for this, and is available either as an offcut from an engineering works, or from the model engineering supply trade (adverts in Model Engineer).

Wood screws, washers, rubber band and glue (eg Resin W) are required for assembly.

Mini-drills

There are many makes and types of mini-drill available from a variety of sources. As with most tools, quality varies and is partially related to the cost of the items.

The very cheapest mini-drills consist of little more than a 12volt motor in a plastic case, with a small chuck on the spindle of the motor. The bearings are not designed for lateral loads, nor are the chucks particularly concentric. They can be used in the drilling machine, but are not as accurate as the more expensive types.

Better mini-drills have a separate output shaft which runs in accurate bearings. This is connected to the motor through a coupling which prevents loads being directly transferred to the motor armature. Examples of this type are the Minicraft Buffalo and Impala ranges. If you buy a Buffalo, go for the MB1010 with small keyless chuck as a collet chuck and a larger 6mm 3 jaw drill chuck can be fitted to this, whereas the 6mm key operated chuck on the MB1012 is not removable.

Cutting out and basic assembly

Component List:

Cut out the large parts for the stand from 12mm ply. The exact dimensions don’t matter, though two sides of the rear triangular support must form a right angle. Drill and countersink holes in the base plate and front panel, and screw and glue the stand together (figure 2).

Cut the steel rods to length, and cut four V-blocks from 12mm ply. Note that when assembled, a pair of blocks do not meet (figure 3). I made the V-slots by cutting a vertical saw cut, then opening out with an old coarse 10 inch metal work file, and finishing with glass paper wrapped around a block. Carefully drill holes in the blocks.

Open the vertical holes oversize in the large top V-block, washers are used on the screws, and movement in these holes is necessary for later alignment. Assemble the lower V-block with the steel rods, and screw up tight. Screw the upper V-block around the top of the rods, and screw the upper V-block to the top of the front panel, using large washers on the screws. Don’t tighten the last two screws fully yet (figure 4).

Drill Cage:

The plans assume the Minicraft Buffalo MB1010. If you have a different minidrill, alter the dimensions to suit, figure 8 shows the minidrill in the cage. The important dimensions are the two diameters of the drill body. These are taken near the chuck over the main bearing, and along the body of the drill. Cut the lower hole as tight as possible, so it grips the minidrill tightly. The spacer must have parallel edges. Fix two small bolts to the upper part of the drill cage to attach spring or elastic band later.

Glue and clamp the base to the spacer. Drill oversize screw holes in the top, and fix with screws and washers to the spacer. Don’t tighten the screws fully yet (figure 7).

Alignment

Firstly, the rails on the stand must be aligned. Consider the drill cage - this has one flat grove and one V-grove. The V-grove must run on a rail which is vertical in two directions, the flat grove runs on a rail which is vertical in only one plane. Begin by setting both of the rails at right angles to the base. Gently tighten the fixing screws. Now adjust one rail (which carries the V-grove of the drill carrier) to be vertical in the other plane. Re-check both measurements, and tighten the fixing screws.

Finally, the drill cage must be set up. Chuck a piece of straight bar in the drill, and fit the drill to the cage. Use an elastic band or a spring round the body of the drill attached to the two bolts to hold the drill in the cage. Hold the cage to the rails, and adjust the top of the cage until the bar is perpendicular to the base of the stand in both directions. Tighten the drill cage top screws and re-check.

The cage will run better on the rails if lubricated with a little wax polish (the solid type), or candle wax.

Using the drill stand

The stand works best if clamped to a workbench or table. The work piece should be held in a suitable vice and NOT held in the hand. The drill cage with drill is held against the rods and moved up and down as needed.

Drilling machines are generally characterized by means of rotating a cutting tool or advancing it along its own axis into a stationary workpiece to produce a hole near or equal to the size of the cutting tool. Advancing the tool along its own axis is the more critical of the two functions because of the feeding forces required. The rotating of the drill is the more simpler function. Although looked upon as the simplest of all the machining operations, drilling is done in variety of ways. Drilling machines are either mechanically or hydraulically driven, and are floor or table mounted. The axis of cutting tool rotation is vertical, horizontal or adjustable and hole location can be determined by positioning either the spindle or the workpiece. Additional operations are also performed on drilling machines: boring, counterboring, reaming, tapping, and spot-facing are all similar to drilling in the basic machine motions and usually require a drilled hole to begin with.
PRINCIPAL PARTS

The principal parts of a drilling machine are as follows:
UPRIGHT DRILLING MACHINE

    * Base - the support of the machine, and, in some cases the workpiece itself.
    * Column - the main vertical piece where other components of the machine are mounted on and aligned. Uprights may have a box-type or rounded column.
    * Gear case - mounted at the top of the column and houses the spindle gear.
    * Motor - for tapping operations and is of the reversing type. The power is transmitted from the gear case by the use of shaft, belts, or direct coupling and is located in the back of the column.
    * Shaft - the rotating member which draws the drill, moving either up or down through the gear case as the drill is fed or retracted. Head-holds the feed gearing, run by a feed rod from the gear case and mounts feed selection and direction controls. Automatic feeding cycles may be provided where the drill enters the work and leaves after reaching the proper depth without the operator’s attention.
    * Spindle - equipped with a taper nose to accept tapered shanks of drills, drill-mounting pieces, taps, and reamers.
    * Table - mounted on the column and can be raised and lowered or clamped into position to support the work for proper height of drilling.
    * Round - column machines can have the table swing about the column, giving flexibility in positioning the workpiece even though rigidity is sacrificed.

RADIAL DRILLING MACHINE

    * Base - foundation of the machine, supports workpiece during drilling operations.
    * Column - contained in outer shell, which is tubular, and is supported by rigid frame that is attached to base. Arm-used to support motor and head, able to move up and down on column and can be clamped at any height you wish. It can also be rotated about the column with the shell and clamped.
    * Head - contains feed and speed gearing and mounts the necessary controls for the different motions of the machine. It can be moved in or out on the arm and can be clamped to position the drilling spindle at different distances from the column. This motion, along with the raising and lowering of the arm, can be done at any point of the machine.

TYPES OF DRILLING MACHINES

Drilling machines are divided into five catagories: uprights, radials, horizontals, turret drills, and multiple spindle machines.

UPRIGHTS Upright drilling machines are catagorized by a single vertical spindle that rotates in a fixed position and is supported by a modified C-frame construction. The various types include: simple belt drive, sensitive, geared-feed upright, heavy-duty, precision, and deep-hole drilling machines. The simple belt-drive machines are the most widely used. They are machines that do not have a geared or positive mechanical drive to the spindle. If speed changes are needed, then it is accomplished by the shifting of belts. These machines are either floor or bench mounted.

Geared-feed upright drilling machines offer a wide range of application. Usually, they’re used for medium-sized work or even heavier work where it’s placed on the base in some models. The sensitive uprights are similar in design to the geared-feeds but require the work to be hand fed since their construction and work load is lighter. Heavy-duty production drilling machines are much heavier in construction and can handle heavier work. Most of the models are constructed with hydraulic feed, and in the case of the inverted drilling machine, it drills from the bottom up. Precision drilling machines have their spindles in a fixed postion, this is why they’re catagorized as uprights. These machines were made for use with spacing or positioning tables, and also feature a deep throat or reach. Positioning is accomplished by either mechanical or hydraulic methods and is adaptable to numerical control. Deephole drilling machines were made for, just that, deep hole drilling. A drill gets binded when the depth of a hole is four or five times its diameter, chips accumulate which interferes with its cutting. These machines are able to withdraw the drill and clear the chips by injecting pressurized cutting oil several hundred pounds per square inch. The tool is usually held stationary, although some models have the drill rotating.

RADIALS Radial drilling machines have a radial arm which allows the positioning of the toolhead at various distances from the column, permitting the rotation of the head about the column. Therefore, radial drilling machines have a higher workpiece capacity than uprights. The various types include: standard, horizontal spindle, and universal radial drilling machines. Standard drillers are the most widely used and are designed so that the spindle stays in a vertical position at all times. Horizontal-spindle work on larger workpieces requiring horizontal drilling. Universal drilling machines have no base, instead they have a runway where the column and the column base can be traversed.

HORIZONTALS These machines were made because sometimes it is almost impossible to position workpieces for vertical drilling. The various types include: table-type, way-type, and self-contained drilling machines. Table-types have a rotary table, it allows four sides of a workpiece to be programmable. Way-types are usually single-purpose machines designed around flat or bar-type ways. Self-contained drill units use all types of feeding mechanisms, cam, screw, hydraulic, electronic and air pressure.

TURRET DRILLS Turret drilling machines have a multi-sided spindle turret, very similar components to that of the upright drilling machine. Depending on the number of faces the turret drills have, they offer more flexibility of separate speed adjustments depending on your desired spindle speed.

MULTIPLE SPINDLE Multiple-spindle drilling machines offer a wide variety of spindles from standards to single-purpose production machines. Standard gang drillers consist of two or more standard columns, heads, and spindles that are mounted on a common base. Universal joint drillers allow each spindle to be adjustable within a certain area. In-line drillers have one central drive which drives a number of spindles in a line next to each other. Finally, fixed-spindle production drillers contain a number of spindles arranged in a fixed pattern, getting their power from a series of gears that are driven by a single driver.
SELECTION

Drilling machines are widely recommended for various jobs because they are simple to operate, easy to set up, and the cost of operation is relatively low. When selecting a driller instead of an alternative machine tool, the user must determine the production requirements best suited for their needs. The user must also decide on the drill type, size, capacity, and power. For example, for a 24 inch upright driller, the spindle size would be slightly larger than 12 inches. The numbers refer to the size of the taper in the spindle and are related to the capacity and power of the machine. The higher the number, the larger the work diameter and horsepower. In standard radials, length of the arm and column diameter are referenced. Universal and horizontal radials are sized by their spindle diameter, usually from 2 to 5 inches. Horizontal way-type and spindle feed units are referenced by horsepower and length of feeding stroke. Turret drillers are referenced by model number and the use of numbers for designating drill capacity, usually by 1, 2, and 3 in uprights. Multiple spindle driller referencing is by model number and size of drilling area. Other production requirements such as maximum feed rate, spindle travel, and maximum height under the spindle should be determined in the selection process.

INSPECTION

NON-POWER

   1. Carefully examine the physical condition of the machine, see how it sits.
   2. Inspect the mainline castings carefully by sight and hand, looking for cracks, breaks, and welds.
   3. Closely examine the spindle, check if it has been used properly and is not damaged or scored.
   4. Look in the gear box and spindle gears. Check if they’ve been pitted or cracked.

UNDER POWER

   1. Check for spindle concentricity with the use of a test bar and dial indicator. A spindle with worn bearings means the life of the spindle is near. Spindle run-out should not exceed .0002 inches.
   2. Look for backlash in the spindle feed, this puts strain on the drill when it goes through the workpiece.
   3. Carefully listen to the gear boxes, listen for sounds of grinding or grating.
   4. Put the machine through a complete cycle, carefully checking all electronic controls so that they are working properly.
   5. Run work through the machine making sure it meets all of your production requirements.

Our gearless drive systems are unparalleled in the mining industry. Siemens is the world leader for gearless wrap-around (ring) motors.

Siemens pioneered gearless drive technology utilizing cyclo-converter drives (CCV) and has supplied the world’s largest system - a 30,000 HP, 40 foot diameter gearless drive.

The first gearless drive was commissioned and has been operating for over 25 years. Since then, Siemens has built 27 ring motors for the mining industry.

The closed-loop control in the cyclo-converter drive offers excellent torque variation with negligible harmonics. The harmonics produced in the torque are significantly below 2%. The Transvektor® control used on high-power mill drives has gone through long development phase with considerable experience gained during the last 27 years.

Features like electronic Frozen Charge Protection, inching and complete operator maintenance and diagnostic screens are the result of 25 years of listening to our customer.

Siemens has solutions for mills ranging in size from 500 H.P. to 30,000 H.P. Siemens supplies many different types of drive and control systems to meet the requirement of our customers’ grinding needs. Some of our drive solutions for grinding mills are:

We offer a complete line of mill motors for fixed speed applications. The choice of a drive system should be an in-depth analysis to determine the right balance between costs and benefits; each option offering their respective advantages. We offer drive systems that provide full torque at zero speed and offer full inching capability, eliminating the need for starting clutches and separate inching drives.

Our IGBT drives, with the active front end, can adjust the power factor to either lagging, leading or unity. This results in reduced harmonics and increased power efficiency. Further, reactive power of other loads can be compensated within the power reserves of the converter. We can also provide full by-pass capability if required. Our team of mining application engineers can discuss which option best meets your needs.