Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions, together with Sandvik Rock Tools, considers itself a pioneer and quality innovator in the mining tools sector and has put these words into practice again in recent years with its patented solutions that have been proven to provide significant leaps in productivity and productivity .
Over the past few years, Sandvik has made the most significant improvements to its impact tooling and technology in more than two decades, including comprehensive optimization of the Sandvik Alpha™ threading system for underground applications, as well as the all-new CT55 and CT67 Top Hammer Impact Tool systems for surface and underground drilling. Not only that, but Autobit’s revolutionary automatic top hammer drilling technology, first introduced in 2021, has taken the market by storm with its patented PowerCarbide® inserts.
During a recent visit to Sandvik Rock Tool’s headquarters in Sandviken, IM Editorial Director Paul Moore had the opportunity to meet with Top Hammer Product Line Vice President and Top Hammer Tools Product Manager for Surface and Underground Tools to discuss the details of these developments. why they are important and what makes Sandvik different.
IM Editorial Director Paul Moore and Sandvik Rock Tools Marketing and Communications Director Petter Bengtsson
We began by discussing the group’s earned position and role in the premium market with Anders Brungs, Vice President of Sandvik’s Top Hammer product line. Brungs: “We are primarily a premium tool supplier, which means we have unique patented products that bring significant added value to our customers, and we put a lot of investment and time into our research and development. Regarding patents , we know we lead because we have the most patents of any major mining tool supplier in the world, covering design elements, stress reduction techniques, geometry and even the composition of tungsten carbide itself. The customer’s goal may be increased productivity or improved straightness bore, greater safety, lower fuel consumption, or a combination of all of these.”
Brungs also noted the progress the industry has made in terms of technology. “Standard drill bit and drill pipe products and designs still in use date back to the 1950s – using these products and designs does not provide any performance improvement. They were designed for 8kW pneumatic drilling rigs – modern drilling rigs installations use 30 kW-kW.”
But what about customers who are more focused on the initial cost and view tools more as a commodity? He replied: “In any market there will be buyers based on price. Of course, we identify who these people are and then leave them to competitors or teach them better strategies – - Maybe they are not using the product correctly, or they are using the wrong one.” product, or perhaps they do not understand the full cost. Over the years, we have seen many clients move from focusing on price per piece to being able to see In addition, there are differences between activities: few mining companies have global mining supply agreements the tools they use.
Are customers involved in product development? Bruns: “Yes, some do. For example, we do a lot of testing of new underground products in a number of mines in Sweden and have tested them repeatedly over the years. In many ways, these Swedish mines are representative of our product basic specifications, and, Of course, we have some operations that can be easily carried out in Sweden. In many cases, we even know the particular driller personally, which contributes to the quality of the test results. We also work with Swedish surface contractors. “We have done a lot of testing with our suppliers, and in underground mining with Australia’s leading mining contractors.”
We then spoke with Robert Grandin, product manager at Top Hammer Underground Tools, about the development of Sandvik Alpha™. It is a thread in the connection of a drill bit, mainly used in mining and tunneling, that is, in drilling machines. It is optimized for 45mm diameter drilling, which is the industry standard in many major mining markets.
Grandin: “We’ve been using the Sandvik Alpha™ 330 system for a long time (more than twenty years) and although it’s a fairly simple product, it has a lot of great features. For development back then and what could be done now Time Topics however, it is truly innovative. Thanks to modern processing and material handling equipment, combined with simulation, we can make significant progress in product optimization. We have gone from trial and error to optimization of processing power. We have developed A different Sandvik Alpha™ thread profile , so it is actually asymmetrical, which means that the angles of the front and back surfaces are different. This greatly reduces the stress zones that we are exposed to when tightening threads. There is a contact side, and this is where the most heat and friction is generated, and therefore most often damage and breakdowns are observed.”
New thread concepts go hand in hand with improved drill bits. High-performance PowerCarbide® alloys are now more widely available in the standard drill range, and many drills have been redesigned with polarization angles or larger buttons for improved reliability.
But the main product here is Autobit. Brungs: “Automation is what everyone is interested in. What we are seeing is shift drilling using autonomous drilling technology in moderately abrasive soils where previous drills could not last a full shift. This is due to the carbide. Wear rate “. starts to slow down the drilling speed significantly and the drill needs to be replaced. In fact, the automatic head changer is not popular with customers as they view it as another machine with a fragile mechanical structure that needs to be replaced regularly. Maintenance is carried out underground in wet and difficult conditions.”
Autobit was designed for use in autonomous drilling, where it came to market, but in practice it is now used in many non-autonomous drilling situations due to its performance. Grandin continued: “Everything I’ve described is very attractive for both stand-alone and stand-alone drilling. This design and the reduced steel area means you can drill a carbide insert almost flat and the drill will still work. We We use PowerCarbide® – although competitors have invested in PCD technology, it is much more expensive, but our unique grades of carbide provide similar performance with 30% faster hole drilling speeds. Not only that, but PCD as a material doesn’t do some of the things that we do, especially the large blade projections and aggressive geometry, because PCD is inherently very prone to failure.”
Autobit features a new innovative bit design that combines a durable row, full ballistic button contours and a sculpted front end design.
He said that since Sandvik launched Autobit, its market has grown exponentially. “There’s no doubt that it has the potential to become a dominant solution in the market – you could almost rename it The Bit instead of just Autobit! There’s no real reason to use anything else. For example, we saw it used in African mines. rigs that do not have automated drilling rigs but value their penetration rates and longer life.”
In terms of strategy for mines using automated drilling, the idea is that at the end of your shift you will switch to a new Autobit for automated drilling. It is then ground and drilled during hand drill changes. After a few re-sharpenings the sharpening intervals will shorten, but this is all relative – the overall improvement in service life is still very large. This all reflects the fact that many mines drill by hand during normal shifts and only use offline between shifts – they don’t drill offline all the time.
Although Autobit was first launched for autonomous production, i.e. downhole drilling, it will also be introduced for autonomous production drilling at the end of 2023.
We also discussed the important role played by Sandvik’s own tungsten carbide production facility in Västberga with Petter Bengtsson, Director of Marketing and Communications for Rock Tools (IM also visited this facility and will be the subject of a future article): “We are very grateful to Västberga and the carbide R&D we did there – without innovation, the new Autobit design would not have been viable in hard rock. Carbide development has truly been the driving force behind our rock tools team. In comparison, competitors have to buy standard carbide products from the open market. New grades of carbide are traditionally made by changing the grit size and bond used. You want maximum hardness and maximum toughness. We have moved away from the standard XT48, which has the same hardness throughout the entire insert body , to our new grades such as GC81 (gradient carbide) and SH70 (self-hardening grade), which are based on a deep understanding of drill wear in different rock types.”
In other surfacing tool developments, at CONEXPO 2023 Sandvik presented the soft launch of the CT55 and CT67, pioneered by Sandvik engineers who said they wanted to create the “perfect thread.” These bent thread systems are designed for surface mining and quarrying, as well as deep underground drilling. These systems provide higher drilling power than standard systems and feature curved profiles that strategically reduce stress levels while optimizing product fatigue strength.
Fredrik Björk, product manager for Top Hammer Surface Tools, told IM: “Both new threads are based on the same technology platform. The main reason for their development is that on a typical crawler top hammer hammer, due to excessive heat limited lifespan. Our standard T51 and GT60 rod systems can’t actually consume much power. In other words, as our drill rigs become more powerful, we also have to strengthen the drill string to match their performance. With the CT55 and CT67, we have achieved higher permeability and good flushing characteristics. They provide more efficient energy transfer and have a rigid and durable connection.”
The curved threads have a larger cross-section where needed, reducing stress levels, as well as a stronger connection system that allows for easier connection and disconnection with dual-threaded entries and minimizes rattling. Detonation refers to the process of using high pressure shocks for a few seconds to weaken the drill pipe. Using CT you can reduce rattling time to 0.5-1 second, with saving even a few seconds of rattling making a difference to the life of the rod.
Post time: Apr-09-2024