0715372

Face Drilling
second edition

www.facedrilling.com

Talking Technically
Case Studies
Machine Specifications

a technical reference edition

 The Rocket Boomer M2 С

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The Rocket Boomer M2 С drills faster, moves faster and can be serviced faster. Ideal
for drifts up to 45 m2, this impressive new drill rig gives you power and performance
like never before.
Higher drilling output
The M2 С features the powerful COP 1838 rock drill, which incorporates the latest
technology in an intelligent control system. The system "feels" the rock and adjusts im­ If you want more information,
pact and feed to the actual rock conditions for maximum penetration and drill steel life.
please contact your local
Higher availability Atlas Copco representative or
A high-speed network system enables fast, active and accurate control of the drilling Atlas Copco Rock Drills AB,
process. The electronics are highly tolerant to disruption and cope extremely well with
SE-701 91 Orebro. Sweden.
harsh environmental conditions. Our interactive diagnostic system gives easier detection
Fax:+46 19 670 7393.
and correction of malfunctions.
E-mail: rde@atlascopco.com
Higher efficiency
Ergonomically designed operator's panel with full colour display contains all informa­
tion needed for direct operator-machine communication. PC card with preferred drilling
settings and logging enables the operator to work faster.
JtflasCopco
Interested? Visit our web site: www.boomer-rig.com
Con ten ts
Foreword 63 Bhutan: Tala hydro, a remote location with
Boltec, Wagner trucks and two-boom drillrigs.
Foreword by Veikko Suvanto, product line
67 Germany: Auersmacher mine, diesel hydraulic
manager for face drilling, mechanized bolting
L1C-DH drillrig with COP 1838HF rock drill.
and production drilling at Atlas Copco Rock
70 Finland: Hiili coal storage silos, using XL3 С
Drills AB.
and L2 С drillrigs and ROC 748HC crawler for
bulk excavation.
Talking Technically 73 Norway: Skatestraum, fjord crossing using
three-boom WL3 С drillrig with ABC Total.
3 Automation for Quality Drilling 76 Portugal: Venda Nova hydro using L2 С
6 Blasting Technology drillrigs, Swellex, and Robbins raise borer.
11 Selecting Rocktools for Tunnelling 79 Italy: Railway and highway projects across
15 Getting Into Perfect Shape Italy using a variety of Atlas Copco equipment.
17 Forward Support with Boodex 84 Sweden: Garpenberg ramp drivage using an
19 Getting the Drift with Magnum SR L2 С drillrig to significantly reduce overbreak.
21 Grinding of Drillbits
25 Rock Drilling With Diarot
29 Iredes Initiative Machine Specifications
31 Rocket Boomers Install Rock Reinforcement
87 Rocket Boomer Drillrigs
100 Hydraulic Rock Drills (COP)
Case Studies 102 Drillrig Options
106 Hydraulic Booms (BUT)
35 Switzerland: Mitholz, Lotschberg with
107 Hydraulic Drill Support (BSH)
Swellex and drillrigs featuring advanced boom
108 Hydraulic Rod Adding System (RAS)
control (ABC).
109 Hydraulic Feeds (BMH)
39 Czech Republic: Mrazovka, Prague with L2 С
111 Secoroc Rock Tools
two-boom drillrigs installing Boodex.
124 Boltec Mechanized Bolting Rigs
43 China: MTRC and West Rail, Hong Kong with
125 Swellex Manganese Line
computerized L2 С and WL3 С drillrigs.
126 MAI Self Drilling Anchors
46 Germany: Dresden bypass, with Boomer,
127 Grouting Equipment
Swellex, Boodex, and profile control.
128 Wagner Scooptrams and Minetrucks
49 Austria: Plabutsch, Graz bypass with Swellex
131 Pusherlegs and Stopers
and L3 С and L2 С drillrigs featuring ABC Regular.
132 Air Line Accessories
53 Finland: Viikinmaki wastewater treatment
136 Aftermarket Products
plant, using XL3 С drillrig equipped with COP
1838HF rockdrills and Diarot analysis.
57 Norway: Tyin hydro, three generations of
Front cover: Atlas Copco Rocket Boomer WL3 С at work in
Atlas Copco drillrigs using Secoroc rock tools, Italy (see page 79).
and Robbins raise borer.
61 Sweden: Zinkgruvan mine, where mechanized Atlas Copco reserves the right to alter its machine specifications
bolting has increased capacity with improved at any time. For latest updates contact your local Sales Office or
safety. refer to www.boomer-rig.com

Produced by tunnelbuilder for Atlas Copco Rock Drills AB, SE-701 91 Orebro, Sweden, tel +46 19 670-7000, fax -7393.
Publisher Ulf Linder ulf.linder@atlascopco.com Editor M i k e Smith mike@tunnelbuilder.com Picture Editor
Jan Hallgren jan.hallgren@atlascopco.com Contributors Ake Ekioef, Alf Stenqvist, Anders Arvidsson, Gunnar Nord,
Hans Fernberg, Jorgen Appelgren, Lennart Soderstrom, Mark Bernthaler, Mohinder Singh, Olle Karlsson, Rolf Elsrud,
Turgay Ozan, all name.surname@atlascopco.com, Stig Olofsson, stig.olofsson@applex.se

Designed and typeset by Dorchester Typesetting Group Ltd. Copies of all reference editions are available for multi-channel
Printed by The Friary Press, Dorchester, Dorset DT1 1JL, UK. delivery from the Resources section at www.tunnelbuilder.com
Reproduction of individual articles only by agreement with the
publisher.

FACE DRILLING 1 I
 Foreword
Development With the User in Mind
dison believed in hard work, sometimes working twenty hours a day. He was quoted as saying "Genius is one percent

E inspiration and 99 percent perspiration!".

Hard work, systematic planning and strict discipline are also the main ingredients in the successful face drilling case
studies you can read about in this reference edition. Another common denominator, in all cases, has been high performance
equipment, and the participation of Atlas Copco.
There is always a better way of doing things, and Atlas Copco has a long history of continuously striving to arrive at more
efficient solutions. Involvement of customers, and listening to their needs, is one important part of our design process. High
performance is also important, and, in achieving this, the focus has been on simplicity in operation and maintenance.
The users' needs are basically for reliable, high-capacity equipment, and economic drilling to contribute to the lowest cost
per tonne. The new generation of Atlas Copco equipment offers modular design with a computer-based dnlling system, and
user-friendly communications with interactive diagnostics for easier trouble shooting and fault-diagnosis.
Technological development in equipment and supporting systems encourages all of us to move in this new direction. The
key driving forces are that both parties are focusing on their core competencies, and that the supplier can take a greater
responsibility for long term equipment performance. Customers know how to drive tunnels efficiently, and get ore out of the
ground safely and economically. This is why we have close interaction with our customers in our commitment to continuously
improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of our products and service.
Even though a new generation of drill rigs is ready to meet the current market demands, such as full automation and
extended software options, development work must go on. We are fully committed to our customers' business, and are always
looking for ways to increase their productivity. If you want more information about the use of our products, you are more
than welcome to contact Atlas Copco.

Veikko Suvanto
Product Line Manager,
Underground Drilling Equipment,
Atlas Copco Rock Drills AB

veikko.suvanto@atlascopco.com

I» FACE DRILLING
 TALKING TECHNICALLY /ШшСорсо

Automation for Quality Drilling

ABC Basic
Technology Platform Boom and feed moved by operator

for Drillrigs
In mid-1998 Atlas Copco Rock
Drills AB introduced the Rocket
Boomer L1C/L2C/L3C series of
drillrigs based on the latest, well
proven computer and informa­
tion technology, which is widely
used in modern automobiles,
forest machinery and textile
manufacturing equipment. These
new rigs are of modularized
design in both hardware and
Feed inclination display
software, so the functionality of
the drillrigs is upgradeable step
by step. Options such as ABC ABC Regular boom and feed moved by operator
Regular, ABC Total, drillplan
generator and communication
products are available to facili­
tate quality drilling.
Atlas Copco has applied the
same new automation technol­
ogy for other drilling equipment
such as Simba production drill­
rigs, Boltec rockbolting rigs,
and ROC surface crawler rigs.
For the customer, this means
commonality of components and
training, leading to a better
understanding of both the capa­
bility and the maintenance of Display of collaring point/hole direction/hole d^W
Atlas Copco products. For the logging {.PCMCIA -ami) hole по./ЫЛсtype/drilltimeper hole
company, it allows continuous
product development, which can
be applied right across the
range.
ABC Total
Automatic positioning of boom and feed

Introduction
Atlas Copco has introduced a number
of new drillrigs for underground
excavation, using a common technol­
ogy platform. This approach allows
development of new functionalities for
the drillrigs, by working in close
relationship with skilled tunnelling
contractors.
The new generation of drillrigs is Additional features •• Uole sequence programming
designed for high productivity, quality Collision control of booms
drilling, and a comfortable working
environment for the operator. Hole ABC Basic, Regular and Total.
drilling constitutes an ever-smaller
share of the direct cost and time overbreak, underbreak, support and and bits, Atlas Copco is also interested
of tunnelling, but has a major impact mucking. in what drilling can do to improve the
on the other production processes, Although great attention is paid to rock excavation process as a whole.
because it affects fragmentation, penetration rate, and wear of drill steel The inputs to this ongoing process

FACE DRILLING 3
masCbpa, TALKING TECHNICALLY

come from customers, and from
research projects where new technol­
ogy is applied in the drilling process.
Rig Control System
The automation platform for Atlas
Copco drilling and bolting equipment is
the Rig Control System (RCS), which
is based on standard PC-computer
technology. The new generation of
RCS rigs has taken a quantum leap
forward with respect to logging capa­
bilities, serviceability and drilling
accuracy. CAN-bus technology pro­
vides the backbone of the new rig
control system, RCS. This system is
flexible and easily expandable, allow­
ing new units to be added anywhere
along the data bus, without adding
another cable.
The electronic modules are all
developed solely for the rigs, and are
ruggedized and protected from exter­
nal magnetic and electric influences.
For face drilling rigs, the flexibility
of the system is highly utilized, and
can be adapted and configured for all
different types of products. Customers
can start at a low level of automation
and, as their requirements change, can
upgrade to more automation. New
functionality can be added, without
major re-building of the rigs.
Flexible Computerization
Included in all Rocket Boomer RCS
systems is a standard level of automa­
tion. It consists of computer controlled
Map navigation
Niva
boom and feed movement allowing
accurate proportional movement from
the same set of joysticks on the panel,
or, if there is more than one panel, then
control of any boom from any panel.
The unique RCS system also
includes precise control and super­
vision of the drilling process for high
productivity and longer life of drill
steel and bits, using RPCF and anti­
jamming functions for straight holes,
while virtually eliminating stuck steel,
and active supervision and diagnostic
functions.
As an option, the rigs can be
equipped with Advanced Boom Control
(ABC). There are three levels of ABC,
namely Basic, Regular and Total.
ABC Basic includes: graphical
operator-machine interface; all rig
functionality electronically controlled
from a single operator panel; system
monitoring and fault diagnostics; auto­
matic code loading procedure; angle
indication of feed position; hole length
indication; basic logging; manual drill
unit positioning; manual rod handling
functions; basic drill functions, includ­
ing RPCF and antijamming.
ABC Regular is the second level of
automation. For a Rocket Boomer
drillrig, ABC Regular includes the
ABC basic functionality, plus: com­
puter guided positioning of booms and
feed according to pre-designed drill
plan; boom position feedback on oper­
ator's display; navigation to tunnel
laser; logging of drilled hole on PC-
card; and planning and the Tunnel
Manager evaluating tool.
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12:46:34
Create drillplan
990
ABC Total is the highest level of
automation, and in this mode the oper­
ator's role is switched from operating,
to supervising, the drillrig. For face
drilling applications, the number of
operators can be reduced from three to
one for a large three-boom configura­
tion. ABC Total for a Rocket Boomer
drillrig includes the ABC Regular
functionality plus: automatic round
drilling from pre-selected drill plan;
semi-automatic, with one hole auto­
matic including positioning to the
next hole; automatic drilling, with
manual positioning, automatic collar­
ing and drilling; electronic parallel
holding; hole to hole move strategy;
and boom collision control. A special
option for bolting includes computer
guided positioning of booms and
feed according to a pre-selected bolt
plan.
Common Automation
All Rocket Boomer drillrigs can be
equipped with a series of automatic
options, which include Measure While
Drilling (MWD), Mine Map
Navigation (MMN), Mine Drill Plan
Generator (MDPG), Drill Rig Remote
Access (RRA), and Single Machine
Remote Control (SMRC).
MWD logs several drill parameters
during probe hole drilling, and data
can be used for prediction of the rock
condition.
MMN eliminates navigation errors,
and places the drillrig at the correct
location in the tunnel. Reference

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Drillrig is navigated according to mine map. Drill plan is created at the face.

4 FACE DRILLING

points and tunnel alignment are pre­
sented on the operator's display.
MDPG is an option to ABC
Regular that generates a drill plan at
the tunnel face to counter any roof or
floor drill plan area misalignment.
The RRA option integrates the drill-
rig to the customer site commercial
network. This enables functionality
such as work order handling, log data
transfer, and remote troubleshooting.
Using RRA, drill plans can be
uploaded to the drillrig, or log files
downloaded to the controller's PC, via
a modem, mobile phone or LAN con­
nection. Drillrig status can be
observed on-line using a standard web
browser on a remote PC.
SMRC is a more advanced level of
remote access, with which the drillrig
can be controlled. This option requires
a communication link with guaranteed
bandwidth.
Learning Curve
In order to facilitate use of different
equipment from different producers in
the same organization, Atlas Copco,
together with other major machine man­
ufacturers, mining and construction com­
panies and third party suppliers, is
currently establishing a standard for data
exchange between rock excavation
equipment and users' computer systems.
This International Rock Excavation
Equipment Data Exchange Standard, or
1REDES, is the common language in
data exchange for mining and tunnelling,
and is described elsewhere in this edi­
tion. Atlas Copco Next Generation drill-
rigs will be adapted to IREDES.
FACE DRILLING
Rig Remote Access
renders the opportunity
to supervise or control а
drillrig (Single Machine
Remote Control).
More than 90% of Rocket Boomer
RCS drillrigs are now manufactured
with the ABC Regular/Total options.
For operators, the learning curve is
short, and both beginners and expe­
rienced drillers are capable of produc­
tion drilling after a couple of days of
training. To use new technology like
ABC Regular requires training in new
areas, such as navigation, and under­
standing of the tunnel design drawings.
Support personnel also need some
understanding of computers, and
knowledge of electronics, in order to
maintain the drillrig.
Drilling Economy
The new generation of computerized
drillrigs offers a very precise adapta­
tion of the drilling parameters to
actual rock conditions, resulting in
better drilling economy.
Once properly set up for the actual
rock conditions, the feed force can
only be increased within set limits,
and correct adjustment to the rock
conditions ensures precise collaring,
straight holes without deviation, and
extended lifetime of drill steel compo­
nents. The driller's experience counts,
but RCS assists him to do a good job.
Modern tunnels are associated with
very precise requirements, because
they are usually concrete lined or sup­
ported with steel arches. To ensure
efficient use of time and materials,
overbreak and underbreak has to be
minimized by precise drilling and
blasting. A well-designed drill plan
adapted to the actual rock conditions,
correct drillrig navigation, accurate
TALKING TECHNICALLY WasCopce
ON THE PANEL
These functions are displayed on
the operator's control panel:
1. Displays rotation, per­
cussion, feed and dampen­
ing pressures.
2. ABC Basic - manual
positioning and the display
in the operator's cabin
shows feed direction.
3. ABC Regular, also
manual positioning. The
display shows drill pattern,
including collaring point,
hole direction and depth. Logging via PC
card of hole number, type and drill time.
4. ABC Total (Automatic) -
fully-automatic drilling of
the pre-selected drill plan
with sequences.
5. ABC Total (Semi­
automatic) - automatic drill­
ing of individual holes in
the pre-selected drill plan
with sequences.
6. ABC Total (Automatic
drilling) - manual position­
ing of the feed and automatic
drilling of individual holes.
Buttons on the panel.
drilling, precise explosives loading,
and correctly timed blasting all ensure
a good profile. The Rocket Boomer
with ABC Regular or Total assists the
contractor to fulfil these requirements,
and control the profile.
Since introducing the Rocket
Boomer L2 С in 1998, Atlas Copco
has released more than 10 difterent
configurations of face drilling equip­
ment, including a diesel hydraulic
powered rig. The modular concept of
mechanical, hydraulic, electronic, and
software components introduced with
the new generation rigs has made this
possible.
Atlas Copco strategy with RCS is
to develop a complete programme of
electronically controlled drillrig prod­
ucts for the mining and construction
businesses, and to introduce automa­
tion options for all product lines.
by Rolf Elsrud
5
 masCopco TALKING TECHNICALLY
Blasting Technology
Improving the
Quality of
Excavation
There are two reasons to go
underground and excavate: to
use the excavated space for stor-
age or transport; or to make use
of the excavated material. In both
cases, tunnelling forms an impor-
tant part of the entire operation.
In underground construction, it is
necessary to gain access to the
construction site by tunnelling,
but the tunnel can also have
its own purpose as a conduit
for road, railway, sewerage and
utilities.
On mines, drifts are used
as adits, and for preparatory
work, as well as for internal
communication.
Tunnels can be driven horizon-
tally, or close to horizontal, but
can also be inclined shaft raises,
ranging from vertically upwards
to vertically downwards.
Construction of rock chambers
involves tunnelling, as do mining
operations. Correct matching of
modern drilling equipment with
the latest explosives technology
will yield a higher quality ex-
cavation accompanied by lower
overall costs.
Recent Development
Drilling techniques have, in the last 25
years, developed from pneumatic to
electro-hydraulic, and drilling jumbos
now have a very high capacity. The
focus of this development has not just
been on speed, but also on the quality
of drilling. Quality includes the basic
parameters, such as location, straight-
ness, and length of holes, together
with control and balancing of the
drilling parameters, such as percussion
pressure, applied torque and feed
force, to reduce and practically elimi-
nate jamming and loosening of the
drill string components. CAN-bus
computer technology has entered into
the drilling operation, to control and
monitor all activities performed by the
|6
The look-out should only be sufficient to allow space for the drill rig to drill the next round.
modern drillrig, and improve the
quality of drilling.
The charging of the blast holes can
be carried out quickly, either manually
with plastic pipe charges, or with
mechanical charging equipment for
bulk explosives. In the latter case, the
amount of explosives needed per
metre of blasthole can easily be
adjusted. The development of explo-
sives has moved in the direction of
safer products, with improved fumes
characteristics. Modern emulsion
explosives are well oxygen-balanced,
generating a minimum of noxious
fumes, and far less smoke.
Initiating systems like NONEL
have shortened the charging time, and
added further safety to the blasting
operation due to their non-susceptibility
to electrical hazards. Electronic deto-
nators, giving no spread in the
detonating intervals, are also avail-
able. These are sparsely used, due to
their relatively high price, but are
economic in situations where a smooth
contour is essential, with only little
over- and under-break.
Modern equipment has shortened the
drilling time, the NONEL system has
made connecting of the detonators safer
and faster, and emulsion explosives
have shortened the ventilation time.
All of the above contribute to a
faster work cycle for drilling, charging,
blasting, ventilation, scaling, support
work, grouting, loading and transport,
and setting out for the next blast.
Nowadays the face does not have to be
marked up, as the drillplan is stored in
the drillrig computers.
Langefors, in The Modern
Technique of Rock Blasting, says
about drilling precision: "The scatter-
ing of the drill holes as a quantitative
factor is often disregarded. It is includ-
ed quite indefinitely in the technical
margin, together with the rock factor.
In discussing blasting as a whole, it
would be a great advantage if attention
could be paid to the drilling precision
in calculating the charges, and in con-
structing the drilling pattern; for the
blasting of the cut it is essential." With
computers, this is now possible, and it
is likely that it will come true within a
few years.
Free Face
The main difference between tunnel
blasting and bench blasting is that
tunnel blasting is done towards one
free surface, while bench blasting is
done towards two or more free sur-
faces. The rock is thus more constricted
in the case of tunnelling, and a second
free face has to be created towards
which the rock can break and be
thrown away from the surface.
FACE DRILLING

This second face is produced by a
cut in the tunnel face, which can be a
parallel hole cut, a V-cut, or a fan-cut.
After the cut opening is made, the
stoping towards the cut will begin.
The stoping can be compared with
bench blasting, but it requires a higher
specific charge, due to higher drilling
deviation, the need for good fragmen­
tation, and absence of hole inclination.
In addition, overcharging of a tunnel
blast does not have the same disastrous
effect as in an open air blast, where
high precision in calculation is a must.
In the case of Vee cuts and fan cuts,
the cut holes will occupy the major
part of the width of the tunnel.
The contour holes around roof,
sidewall and Яоог, have to be angled
out of the contour (look-out), so that
the tunnel will retain its designed area.
The look-out should only be big
enough to allow space for the drilling
equipment for the coming round. As a
guide value, the look-out should not
exceed: 10 cm + 3 cm/m hole depth,
which keeps it to around 20 cm.
The consumption of explosives in
tunnel blasting is higher than in bench
blasting. The specific charge is 3 to 10
times higher than that for bench blast­
ing, depending mainly on reasons
mentioned above, like large drilling
scatter, the confinement of the round,
heave of lower rock upwards to ensure
swell, and lack of cooperation
between adjacent blasl-holes in the
fragmentation work.
The consumption of explosives will
be greatest in the cut area of the blast.
A 1 m x 1 m area around the empty
hole/s in a parallel cut will consume
approximately 7 kg/cu m, and the
Typical designs of large hole cuts.
a = 1.5d .
ч H
a = 1.5d
FACE DRILLING
specific charge will decrease with the
distance from the cut, until it reaches a
minimum value of about 0.9 kg/cu m.
Large Hole Cut
The most commonly used cut in
tunnelling today is the parallel hole
cut, or large hole cut. All holes in the
large hole cut are drilled parallel to
each other, and the blasting is carried
out towards one or more empty large
drill holes, which act as an opening.
The parallel hole cut is a develop­
ment of the burn cut, where all the
holes are parallel, and normally of the
same diameter. One hole in the middle
is given a heavy charge, and the four
holes around it are left uncharged. In
other cases, the middle hole is left
uncharged and the four holes are
charged.
However, burn cuts generally result
in a smaller advance than for large
hole cuts, so this method can be
disregarded.
The cut may be placed at any loca­
tion on the tunnel face, but its location
influences the throw, the explosives
consumption, and the number of holes
needed in the round.
If the cut is placed close to a side-
wall, there is a probability of better
exploitation of the drilling pattern,
with less holes in the round.
Furthermore, the cut may be placed
alternately on the right or left side, in
relatively undisturbed rock. To obtain
good forward movement, and centring
of the muckpile, the cut may be placed
approximately in the middle of the
cross section, and quite low down.
This position will give less throw, and
TALKING TECHNICALLY ПШСорсо
less explosives consumption, because
of more stoping downwards. A high
position of the cut gives an extended
and easily loaded muckpile, with
higher explosives consumption and
more drilling, due to upwards stoping.
The normal location of the cut is on
the first helper row above the floor.
The large hole cut comprises one or
more uncharged large diameter holes,
which are surrounded by small dia­
meter blast holes with small burdens
to the large holes. The blast holes are
drilled in squares around the opening.
The number of squares in the cut is
limited by the fact that the burden in
the last square must not exceed the
burden of the stoping holes for a given
charge concentration in the hole.
The cut holes occupy an area of
approximately 2 sq m. Small tunnel
faces may need only cut holes and
contour holes.
When designing the cut, the follow­
ing parameters are of importance for a
good result: diameter of the large hole;
burden; and charge concentration.
In addition, the drilling precision is
of the utmost importance, especially
for the blast holes closest to the large
holes. The slightest deviation can
cause the blast hole to meet the large
hole, or the burden to become exces­
sively big. Too big a burden will only
cause breakage or plastic deformation
in the cut, resulting in lower advance.
Hole Diameter
One of the parameters for good
advance of the blasted round is the
diameter of the large empty hole. The
larger the diameter, the deeper the
round may be drilled, and a greater
advance can be expected.
One of the most common causes of
short advance is too small an empty
hole in relation to the hole depth.
An advance of approximately 90%
can be expected for a hole depth of
4 m, and one empty hole with 102 mm
diameter.
If several empty holes are used, a
fictitious diameter has to be calcu­
lated. The fictitious diameter of the
opening may be calculated in accor­
dance with the formula D = d V n »
where D = fictitious empty large hole
masCopcc TALKING TECHNICALLY
diameter; d = diameter of empty large
holes; n = number of holes.
In order to calculate the burden in
the first square, the diameter of the
large hole is used in the case of one
large hole, and the fictitious diameter
in the case of several large holes.
The distance between the blasthole
and the large empty hole should not be
greater than 1.5 times the diameter of
the larger hole for the opening to be
clean blasted. If the distance is longer,
there is merely breakage, and when
the distance is shorter, there is a great
risk that the blasthole and empty hole
will meet.
So the position of the blastholes in
the 1st square is expressed as: a =1.5d
Where a = С—С distance between
the large hole and the blasthole, d =
diameter of the large hole.
In the case of several large holes,
the relation is expressed as: a =1.5D
Where a = С—С distance between
the centre point of the large holes and
the blasthole, D = fictitious diameter.
The holes closest to the empty
holes must be charged carefully. Too
low a charge concentration in the hole
may not break the rock, while too high
a charge concentration may throw the
rock against the opposite wall of the
large hole with such high a velocity
that the broken rock will be recotn-
pacted there, and not blown out
through the large hole. Full advance is
then not obtained.
Tunnel Contour
The contour of the tunnel is divided
into floor holes, wall holes and roof
holes. The burden and spacing for the
floor holes are the same as for the stop­
ing holes. However, the floor holes are
more heavily charged than the stoping
holes, to compensate for gravity and
for the weight of the rock masses from
the rest of the round, which lie over
them at the instant of detonation.
For the wall and roof holes, two
variants of contour blasting are used:
normal profile blasting; and smooth
blasting.
With normal profile blasting, no
particular consideration is given to the
appearance and condition of the blasted
contour. The same explosives as in the
8 FACE DRILLING
Roof h o l e s *
Firing sequence of a typical hole pattern (*contour holes).
rest of the round are utilized, but with
a lesser charge concentration, and the
contour holes are widely spaced. The
contour of the tunnel becomes rough,
irregular and cracked.
The smooth blasting technique has
been developed to obtain a smoother
and stronger tunnel profile. Smooth
blasting, where the contour holes are
drilled close to each other and weaker
explosives are used, produces tunnels
with a regular profile, requiring sub­
stantially less reinforcement than if
normal profile blasting is used.
Firing Pattern
The firing pattern must be designed so
that each hole has free breakage. The
angle of breakage is smallest in the cut
area, where it is around 50 degrees. In
the stoping area, the firing pattern
should be designed so that the angle of
breakage does not fall below 90
degrees.
It is important in tunnel blasting to
have sufficient time delay between the
holes. In the cut area, the delay
between the holes must be long
enough to allow time for breakage,
and throw of rock through the narrow
empty hole, which takes place at a
velocity of 40 to 60 m/sec. A cut
drilled to 4 m depth would thus
require a delay time of 60 to 100
milliseconds to be clean blasted.
Normally, delay times of 75 to 100
milliseconds are used in the cut.
Floor holes
In the first two squares of the cut,
only one detonator of each delay
should be used. In the following two
squares, two detonators of each delay
may be used. In the stoping area, the
delay time must be long enough to
allow movement of the rock, to gener­
ate space for expansion of the adjacent
rock to be loosened, say, 100 to
500 milliseconds.
For the contour holes, the scatter in
delay between the holes should be as
small as possible, to obtain a good,
smooth blasting effect. Therefore, the
roof should be blasted with the same
interval number, normally the second
highest of the series, and here we can
benefit from electronic detonators, as
their scatter is practically nil. The
walls are also blasted with the same
period number, but with one delay
lower than that of the roof.
Detonators for tunnelling can be
electric or non-electric.
Electric detonators are manufac­
tured as MS (millisecond) and HS
(half-second) delays, and non-electric
detonators as deci-second and half-
second delays.
Vee and Fan Cuts
The most common cut with angled
holes is the Vee cut. A certain tunnel
width is required, in order to accom­
modate the drilling equipment.
Furthermore, the theoretical advance
per round increases with the width,

Vee cut drilling layout.
and 45-50% of the tunnel width is
achievable. By applying a more
advanced arrangement of the blast-
holes, larger advances can be
achieved, but this requires a far better
accuracy in the location of the blast-
holes than normal.
The angle of the cut must not be too
acute, and should not be less than 60
degrees. More acute angles require
higher charge concentration in the holes.
The cut is normally a double Vee,
but in deeper rounds may be triple or
quadruple Vee. Each Vee in the cut
should be fired with the same interval
number using MS detonators, to
ensure coordination between the blast-
holes with regard to breakage. The
delay between different Vees should
be in the order of 50 milliseconds, to
allow time for displacement and
swelling.
Fan cut layout.
FACE DRILLING
TALKING TECHNICALLY ШшСорсе
The principle of the fan cut is to do not create cracks beyond the
make a trench-like opening across the perimeter of the blast.
tunnel face. Like the Vee cut, it
requires a certain width of tunnel to Smooth Blasting
accommodate the drilling equipment to
attain acceptable advance per round. Smooth blasting was developed and
The constriction of the holes in a refined in Sweden during the 1950s
fan cut is not large, making it easy to and 60s. Smooth blasting holes are
blast. The drilling and charging of the fired together with the main round,
holes are similar to that of the cut using later delays. Small diameter
holes in the Vee cut. light explosives, with low velocity of
detonation (VOD) and relatively low
Contour Blasting gas content, were developed, such as
Gurit. This is a nitroglycerin based
Accurate blasting is a priority,
especially in those tunnels where the
overbreak has to be replaced with
expensive concrete.
Numerous blasting techniques have
been used to control overbreak. They
all have one objective in common: to
minimize the stress induced by the
blasting, and consequent fracturing of
the rock beyond the theoretical exca­
vation line, by reduction and better
distribution of the explosives charges.
In tunnels, and road and railway
cuttings, it is of the utmost importance
that the rock around the profile is
sound, otherwise rockfall, rockslides
and excessive maintenance work will
result. Crack zone from conventional blasting.
It is often claimed that good over-
break control cannot be expected in all explosive containing kieselguhr, first
geological formations. That is true, but used by Alfred Nobel to tame the
carefully executed blasting will mini­ nitroglycerin.
mize overbreak, even in severe The contour holes must be carefully
geological conditions. charged with joined-up charges, which
The first approach to control over- are locked in the hole by stemming.
break was by Line Drilling, which To prevent the sand from running
simply involved a single row of
uncharged holes closely spaced along
the perimeter of the excavation, pro­
viding a weak plane to which the blast
could break. Line Drilling was modi­
fied over the years, and the holes were
charged with light charges and their
spacing increased.
When cushion, or smooth, blasting,
the contour holes were ignited after
the main blast, and when presplitting,
they were ignited before the rest of the
round.
In all four methods, the charge
calculations have to consider not only
the contour holes, but also the holes
closest to the contour line. These have
to be charged in such a way that they Crack zone from smooth blasting.
9
/Шазсьрсю TALKING TECHNICALLY
down the hole, a paper plug can be
placed on top of the last cartridge.
The holes directly adjacent to the
contour holes must also be lightly
charged, to avoid spoiling the contour.
The quality of the remaining rock
depends to a large extent on the relation
between the spacing of the holes (S) and
the burden (B). For a good result, the
ratio S/B should be around 0.8, making
the burden greater than the spacing.
The increased demand for stable
rock surfaces in permanent underground
chambers has resulted in smooth blast­
ing being prescribed as the standard
method for controlled contour blasting.
Also, less fissures in the remaining rock
means less rock reinforcement.
Because the stoping holes in a
tunnel blast are closely spaced and
constricted, the crack formation from
these holes may extend beyond the
final contour if they are over charged.
SVEDEFO has worked out an
empirical formula to predict the vibra­
tion velocity which can be expected
from different linear charge densities
at different distances. Well-balanced
charges in the holes next to the contour
holes are a must for the best result.
The table below gives the rec­
ommended charge and drilling patterns
for different diameters of contour
holes (upgraded recommendations are
presently being developed).
The smooth blasting explosive
Gurit may be replaced by detonating
cord, which has a very high velocity
of detonation. Its small diameter in
relation to the blasthole diameter, and
its low gas content, cause minimum
damage to the surrounding rock. Gurit
11 mm can be replaced by 40 g/m
cord; Gurit 17 mm by 80 g/m cord;
and Gurit 22 mm by 160 g/m cord.
The charges should be connected
together, string charged, and the hole
plugged, otherwise they may be
sucked out of the hole by adjacent
Contour Charge Charge type
hole diam. concentration
mm kg/m
25-32 0.11 11 m m Gurit
25-48 0.23 17 mm Gurit
51-64 0.42 22 m m Gurit
51-64 0.45 22 m m Emulite
10
Small diameter blastholes
Vibration velocity (V) as a function of the distance (R) with
different charge concentration
Vibration velocity with different charges.
explosions. A special blasthole plug
has been developed which locks the
charge in the hole efficiently. These
measures are not necessary, however,
with modern bulk explosives.
The firing of the contour holes
should be carried out with the same
period number for the best result.
To summarize, smooth blasting
offers the following advantages:
increased hole spacing with reduced
drilling cost; better result in incompe­
tent rock formations; simultaneous
excavation; and light and well distrib­
uted charging of the perimeter holes.
Cost of Overbreak
Deviation in the excavation of a tunnel
from the theoretical line imposes an
increased construction cost. Traditional
drilling techniques accept an element
of overbreak as normal. However,
more modern technology, such as
Advanced Boom Control, ensures that
blastholes are drilled accurately with
respect to collaring, orientation, length
Burden Spacing
m m
0.3-0.5 0.25-0.35
0.7-0.9 0.50-0.70
1.0-1.1 0.80-0.90
1.1-1.2 0.80-0.90
Range where
e begins
3 R, m
and straightness. The accuracy of such
drillrigs can maintain the true excava­
tion line around 10 cm closer to the
theoretical excavation line.
Four main cost items associated
with accurate drilling have been
identified as: mucking of excessive
rock material; primary shotcrete sup­
port; secondary concrete lining; and
extension of construction time.
The following is a summary of the
costs related to excess overbreak on a
tunnel with a cross-section of 70 sq m
and a perimeter of walls and roof of
22 m.
Mucking - €ll/m
Shotcrete support -- €66/m
Concrete lining- €264/m
Excess time - €70/m
By comparison, the cost of explo­
sives and detonators per metre of
tunnel is € 181, assuming 4 m rounds.
So, it can be concluded that
accurate drilling will yield savings
equivalent to more than twice the total
explosives costs.
by Stitj Olofsson
This article is extracted from Stig
Olofsson s book entitled Applied
Explosives Technology for Construction
and Mining, ISBN 91-7970-634-7,
published by Applex, PO Box 71, S-640
43 Aria, Sweden.
FACE DRILLING
 TALKING TECHNICALLY miasCbpcc

Selecting Rock Drilling Tools

for Tunnelling
Optimizing
Penetration Rates
In order to achieve best possible
penetration rate, a bit should be
chosen where the total contact
area between the cemented car-
bide and the rock creates the best
possible penetration per blow. As
a rule of thumb, the following
penetration rate index can be
used: button bit with full-ballistic
buttons, 140; button bit with bal-
listic buttons, 130; button bit with
spherical buttons, 115; insert bit,
100. However, when bits are com-
pared for hole straightness, a dif-
ferent order emerges, with the
insert bit on top, followed by the
button bit with full-ballistic or
ballistic button, and lastly, the
button bit with spherical button. Model-37-67 Model-37-66
The following article is intend-
ed to guide the driller through On the other hand, if the rock is 3 front buttons. All the buttons are
the range of bits, rods and shank soft to medium hard, the first choice full-ballistic and have a 20-25%
adapters to assist with the best should be the new Secoroc soft rock higher protrusion than standard ballis-
choice of rock tools for the
bit model -37-66 (-66 for full-ballistic tic buttons.
particular job.
buttons). The longer button protrusion helps
For very hard and abrasive rock, the bit to penetrate deeper into the
model -39 with extra large gauge but- rock with each hammer stroke. The bit
Bit Selection
tons is recommended. Model -39 is has also improved flushing capacity
Button bits dominate 95% of face only available with spherical buttons. for the removal of the cuttings in front
drilling applications, so they should Problems with hole deviation can of the bit head. This advantage has
normally be the first choice. Tt is only best be solved using Secoroc guide been achieved by three front flushing
in very special conditions that insert bits. Model -37-30 (-30 for guide bit holes, one side flushing hole and big
bits are a better choice. with square skirt). These have the flushing grooves at the front and sides
A number of tests have been carried same front design as model -37, and of the bit head, combined with the
out to compare the performance of bits are available with spherical or ballistic extended protrusion of the full-
with spherical or ballistic buttons. The buttons, but with a longer square skirt ballistic buttons.
results have shown that the bits with to give extra guidance. During tests in limestone forma-
ballistic buttons outperform the bits tions in North America and Europe,
with spherical buttons with regard to Bit Designs the new -37-66 bits have shown the
penetration rate, and in most cases same service life as standard ballistic
offer better service life and longer Full-ballistic button bit for soft button bits, but with much higher
grinding intervals. rock Model -37-66 penetration rates.
A bit with ballistic buttons should Atlas Copco Secoroc is launching a
be the first choice, but rock conditions new bit model designated -37-66 for Model -37
can influence the choice. drifting and tunnelling in soft rock for- This is one of the newest Secoroc bit
Secoroc bit model -37-67 (-67 for mations. (-66 stands for full-ballistic designs and is also a best-seller. It has
ballistic buttons) is the first and best buttons). proved to be a very reliable bit in most
choice if the rock is medium hard to The new model is designed with 9 rock formations including hard rock.
hard. buttons - 2 + 2 + 2 gauge buttons and With a 9-button design and very good

FACE DRILLING 11 I
AtlasCopcc TALKING TECHNICALLY
Model 37
flushing, it gives a very high penetra-
tion rate. It is available with both
spherical (model -37) and ballistic
buttons (model -37-67).
Model -37-30
With 9 buttons and excellent flushing,
model -37-30 offers a very good pene-
tration rate, and is ideal for most rock
formations. When there is problem
with straight holes, this bit should be
the first choice, since it has a steering
guide skirt to avoid hole deviation. For
smaller hole sizes use the model -27
design. These bits are available with
Model-37-30
12
ballistic (model -37-30-67) or spheri-
cal buttons (model -37-30).
Model -34
This bit design offers good penetration
rate and is suitable for most rock for-
mations. It is available with both
spherical (model -34) and ballistic but-
tons (model -34-67).
Model -34
Model -27
This design, with the large gauge but-
tons, is suitable in rock where there is
heavy gauge wear, but not too much
frontal wear. This bit is available with
both spherical (model -27) and ballis-
tic buttons (model -27-67).
Model-27
Model -56
This is the oldest Secoroc bit design,
and still going strong. Suitable for
medium hard to hard rock, this model
is available only with spherical buttons.
Model -56
Model -39
This is the ideal choice for very hard
and abrasive rock. With extra large
gauge buttons, and the same design
and flushing as model -37, it also
offers good penetration rate. This bit is
available only with spherical buttons.
Model-39
Insert bit
An insert bit produces extremely
straight holes but has less penetration
rate than a button bit. It also normally
has shorter grinding intervals and ser-
vice life compared to a button bit.
FACE DRILLING

Insert bit
On the other hand, there are
extreme formations where this bit may
be the only possible choice. Such
formations include very abrasive rock
or rock types, where heavy snakeskin
can occur on the cemented carbide
buttons.
Drifter Rod Selection
For drifting and tunnelling, two types
of drill rods can be chosen. Standard
drifter rods have male threads at both
ends. Speedrods have a male thread at
the front end, and an integrated
coupling with a female thread at the
shank end. Both rod types are carbur-
ized, which means that all surfaces,
including the inside of the flushing
hole, are hardened.
The carburization of the rod gives
better wear resistance, and a higher
fatigue strength, compared to an
induction hardened rod. Standard
drifter rods, as well as Speedrods, are
produced with either a hexagonal or a
round rod section.
For a given hole size, the largest
possible rod cross-section should be
chosen, commensurate with the
required hole size and the rock drill.
This is in order to reach the best possi­
ble service life, hole straightness and
penetration rate. Normally, a rod with
a T38 or R38 thread in the shank end
will be chosen. The long middle sec­
tion of the drifter rod is generally
hexagonal, with a 32 mm or 35 mm
FACE DRILLING
cross-section. Round 39 mm rods are
getting more and more common, espe­
cially if hole lengths are 4 m and
longer. The bit end of the rod is slim­
mer, and has a smaller thread in order
to fit the small bits and hole sizes
used.
Hexagonal vs Round Rod
Hexagonal rods are today's standard,
while round rods, diameter 39 mm,
have started to become more and more
common. The round rod is a stiffer
rod, because of more material in the
cross-section. Round rods give
straighter holes, and are therefore rec­
ommended when hole deviation is a
problem. Using the round rod, the
flushing properties for clearing the
cuttings out of the hole are not as good
as with the hexagonal rod. This can
result in higher risk of jamming with
round rods when drilling in fractured
rock formations, mainly when drilling
45 mm holes or smaller. In homoge­
neous rock, this is normally not a
problem.
Conventional Rod vs
Speedrod
The connection between the shank
adapter and the drifter rod has tradi­
tionally been a separate coupling
sleeve. The Speedrod, with integrated
coupling, has the advantage of approx­
imately 50% less energy loss in the
joint, because of only one joint
Magnum SR35
TALKING TECHNICALLY ЯОшСорсо
compared with two joints for the cou­
pling sleeve alternative. In practice,
the energy advantage of the Speedrod
joint compared to standard coupling is
even greater, since it is easier to keep
the Speedrod joint tight during
drilling.
In drifting and tunnelling, however,
most of the drilling is done with a
single rod, which makes the energy
argument of minor importance. More
important is the fact that the connec­
tion between shank adapter and
Speedrod will be less flexible, com­
pared with the coupling sleeve
alternative. This could result in shorter
service life for the shank adapter if the
maintenance of the drillrig is not of
good standard, or if the operator is not
observant.
Magnum SR Drifting
System
The hole sizes in drifting and tun­
nelling are small, normally from
38 mm up to 64 mm. Worldwide, the
most common holes size, by far, is
45 mm. The conventional thread size
for a 45 mm bit has, for a long period
of time, been the R32.
With the introduction of more
powerful hydraulic rock drills and
longer rounds, the old thread systems
started to show weakness. It was high
time for fresh ideas, and the new
Secoroc Magnum SR35 thread is the
system for the future in drifting and
tunnelling.
13
MasCopco TALKING TECHNICALLY
The secret of the Magnum SR35
design is that the thread is conical.
The diameter is 35 mm at the end of
the thread, and 32 mm at its tip. By
adding 25% more material at the end
of the thread, a substantially increased
metal fatigue resistance has been
achieved. More material where it is
really needed means less rod break-
age, less tendency for deviation when
collaring, straighter holes, and consid-
erably longer service life.
Summing-up, the first choice for a
drifter rod should be a conventional rod
with male thread at the shank end and
Magnum SR35 thread at the bit end.
Speedrods can be used by highly
skilled operators, where there is a very
good maintenance programme in place.
Hexagonal or round cross-section
should be chosen depending on hole
characteristics and rock conditions.
Reaming Equipment
It is always necessary, in drifting and
tunnelling operations, to make an open-
ing in the tunnel face to provide expan-
sion space for the rock when blasting
out the complete round. The most
common method is the parallel hole cut.
Cut hole drilling of the large centre
hole or holes is usually carried out by
reaming, which first requires the
drilling of a pilot hole with the ordi-
nary blast hole drill bit. The pilot hole
is then reamed from actual hole size to
76 mm-127 mm.
Matching face bits to differing rock conditions
14
Dome bit
Reaming can be carried out using
either a traditional pilot adapter with a
reaming bit, or the new Secoroc dome
bit. The dome bit offers a shorter total
time for drilling of the cut hole com-
pared with conventional reaming
equipment. Due to the reverse flushing
on the dome bit, stress levels on drill
string, rock drill and drillrig are
reduced when withdrawing the bit
from the hole. The dome bit is also
easier to re-grind when the buttons
have been worn.
There is also just the one product to
keep in stock, compared with pilot
adapter and reaming bit.
Shank Adapters
The task of the shank adapter is to
transmit rotation torque, feed force,
HARD
impact energy, and flushing medium.
It is made from specially selected
material, to withstand the transmission
of impact energy and rotation from the
rock drill to the drill string, and is
hardened through carburizing. Around
400 different shank adapters are cur-
rently available from Atlas Copco
Secoroc.
Shank adapters can be divided into
three main types based on the tech-
nique used to transfer the rotation
motor's torque to the drill rod.
The three types of shank adapters
are as follows:
Leyner for older types of air-driven drills
Polygon, for the newest generation of air driven
drills. Note the female thread
Spline, for modern hydraulic rock drills
Shank adapters with female thread
are available for some adapter types.
They can be used because of length
restrictions on the drill rig feed beam.
A shank adapter with female thread
will result in a stiff and inflexible con-
nection to the drifter rod, which may
result in shorter service life. Good care
and maintenance of the drillrig, and an
observant operator, are required. The
first alternative should always be a
shank adapter with male thread.
by Alf Stenqvist
FACE DRILLING

Getting into Perfect Shape
Accurate Contours
Promote Economy
Achieving accurate contours in
tunnelling operations dramatical­
ly improves the total economy of
the project. This is where Atlas
Copco's contour control system is
making its mark. It is now avail­
able in automated mode on
Rocket Boomer drillrigs, and the
cost benefits resulting from
reduced overbreak can make the
difference between a successful
contract, and working for nothing.
Introduction
An inaccurate contour, or planned out­
line, of a tunnel following drilling and
blasting, has long been a problem for
tunnellers the world over.
The dilemma is created by inexact
drilling of the blast holes. This results
in overbreak, or excess rock, being
blasted out, leaving irregularities in
the planned contour of the tunnel.
In simple terms, the more over-
break, the more time and money is
wasted. Transporting the excess rock,
perhaps over a considerable distance,
and restoring the tunnel to its smooth
contour with reinforcement and lining,
all means time lost.
Facts and Figures
The considerable costs of overbreak
can be illustrated by this hypothetical
example: a 70 sq m two-lane road
tunnel, 1 km long, is being built and,
according to the tender documents,
only theoretical volumes of excavated
rock will be paid for by the client.
Likewise, the cost of the secondary
lining will be paid. Geological over-
break is compensated for in the con­
tract, and the perimeter length of the
tunnel is typically 22 m.
A reduced overbreak of 10 cm
resulting from more-accurate drilling
gives the contractor the following
savings in Euro: concrete secondary
FACE DRILLING
% tunnel
surface
20
15
10
Ц |U^
100 200 300
lining, 2,200 cu m x €120/cu m =
€264,000; reduced mucking out,
2,200 cu m x €5/cu m = €11,000;
reduced shotcrete, 200 cu m x
€300/cu m = €60,000; reduced con­
struction time 100 hours x €700/h =
€70,000. Total savings: €405,000.
These figures illustrate the magni­
tude of the overbreak problem.
However, placing holes accurately and
with a proper alignment is not new. It
could be achieved, even in the era of
hand-held drills, using short rounds.
But the problem was the amount of
time it took.
Best Technique
As far back as the tnid-80s, an over-
break of less than 10 cm was recorded
on drill-and-blast sewage declines in
Sydney, Australia using both hand­
held and mechanized drilling.
During the same period, on the
Route 5 tunnel project in Hong Kong,
mechanized drilling operations
employed the best techniques then
available for accurate contours. They
involved accurate setting out of the
tunnel face, TAS (Tunnel Angle
System) for the alignment of the feeds,
an immediate monitoring of the pro­
file, plus a bonus to the rig operators.
The results are shown in Figure 1.
More light at the end of the tunnel
came in recent years, in the shape of
a manual contour control system
TALKING TECHNICALLY AttoCbpce
Route 5
• Overbreak
400
500 600 (mm)
Figure 1: Overbreak improvement at the Route 5
tunnelling project in Hong Kong.
introduced by the Norwegian company
Bever. It has been mounted on a large
number of drillrigs, mainly Atlas
Copco Boomer units. The operator is
guided by data on a TV monitor, while
manually positioning the booms to
achieve more accurately-located holes.
Then, in 1998, following years of
development, Atlas Copco launched
its own contour control system, which
is now integrated into its new genera­
tion of drillrigs. Initially, it was opera­
tional only in manual mode, but, since
the end of 1999, it has been available
for automated mode.
The following four examples of
what can be achieved with Atlas
Copco Boomer rigs equipped with
Bever control are from projects over
the past five years. The first two cases
involve drilling with Robot Boomer
rigs.
• Henriksdal sewage treatment
plant, Stockholm, Sweden.
The contractor wanted very high
drilling standards, although there was
no secondary concrete lining in the
design. The length of the rounds was
4.5 m, and the size of the opening
some 80 sq m. The rock was hard
crystalline granites and gneiss, which
were not expected to cause major
deviation problems.
15 |
ftaasCopce TALKING TECHNICALLY
% tunnel
surface
^ 1 1
200 300
Figure 2: Similar overbreak advances at the
Henriksdal and Escalette projects.
The skill of the operators was rated
highly, and conditions were favour­
able. However, incentives were not
strong, as there were no savings to
be made on concrete. The average
overbreak was 14 cm outside the
collaring line, and the distribution is
shown in Figure 2.
• Escalette road tunnel project,
Southern France.
The two tunnel tubes were to be con­
crete lined, with a strong incentive to
keep overbreak down. Excavated sedi­
mentary material was dominated by
limestone, which had clear bedding
planes with a gentle dip. The tunnels
were some 700 m long with an exca­
vated cross-section of about 70 sq m.
Rounds were 4 m-long, or less if
ground conditions were poor. Tunnel
sections with geological overbreak
were excluded.
The results, also shown in Figure 2,
were very similar to Henriksdal,
although conditions were quite differ­
ent. They showed what can be
achieved, by the equipment and good
operators, in moderate-size tunnels
without difficult geological conditions.
• Mitholz tunnel, Switzerland.
The adit access to the AlpTransit
Lotschberg base tunnel showed most
encouraging results on overbreak,
using the Bever control system. The
1.5 km-long adit has an excavated sec­
tion of 66 sq m, and the rock was
limestone and shale. Normally, 4 m
rounds were drilled using a Rocket
16
Escalette
Henriksdal
i—i—|—г—г -г—|—H* Overbreak
400 500 600 <mm>
Boomer 353 S, and the average pull
was 3.8 m. In the 0.6 m-spaced
perimeter holes, smooth blasting
explosives were used, with electronic
detonators.
The contractor wanted as little
overbreak as possible, as he had to pay
SwF 300 for every cubic metre of rock
broken more than 6 cm outside the
theoretical line. Over the entire tunnel
length, this meant the penalty for
every extra centimetre of average
overbreak was SwF 93,000.
For the first 100-200 m of the
tunnel, average overbreak was 25 cm.
But by the time work had progressed
to 700 m, it had come down to 10 cm,
as the skill of the drilling crews
improved.
• Boliden's Garpenberg Norra
Mine, Sweden.
An Atlas Copco Rocket Boomer 352 S
has been used on a recent section of
the ramp tunnel, and overbreak was
reduced from more than 20% to 9%,
or an average of 15 cm. This resulted
in a reduction of the muck volume of
3 cu m/linear metre of tunnel, and
savings on transport from a depth of
800-1,000 m. According to the mine
Bad news for smooth contours: this diagram shows
how improper collaring on a skewed rock surface
will generate bending of the drill rod, resulting in a
major deviation of the drill holes.
management, the savings achieved in
one year paid for the extra cost of
improving drilling operations at the
mine. The excellent results achieved at
Boliden are due to the skill of the ded­
icated rig operators, and the fact that
the rock itself does not generate any
noticeable overbreak.
So what are the main factors in
reducing overbreak?
First, the ambition of the site man­
agers and operators is extremely
important. Close monitoring of the
tunnel face is a must, in order to regis­
ter undue overbreak and take counter
measures, and a small bonus to the
people involved can lead to great
results.
Geological conditions can have a
large effect on hole direction. The drill
string has a tendency to deviate per­
pendicular to the foliation in
anisotropic rock like phyllite, schist
and gneiss. The problem is more acute
when longer rounds are used. A high
frequency of joints in the rock can also
influence the drilling direction.
Blasting is extremely important,
and employing the smooth blasting
technique with electronic detonators in
the periphery holes can contribute
greatly to a smooth tunnel contour.
Tunnel size affects drilling accuracy.
When booms and feeds are extended
to the full, they are not so rigid, and
deflections can occur. Exact computer­
ized compensation is not easy to
achieve, and the further out the booms
are, the greater the collaring and orien­
tation errors can be.
Alignment of the feed is critical at
the start of drilling. A tunnel face
which is not orientated perpendicular to
the drill rod may cause it to bend,
making for an inaccurate starting point.
Low feed force, and reduced impact at
the start, improves collaring, and thus
the straightness of the hole. The feed
force should be just enough to maintain
tight joints without bending the rod.
Fast and accurate drilling requires
dedication, experience, and reliable,
state-of-the-art drillrigs. With these
prerequisites, there are not many sites
where the economic advantages of
contour control can be ignored.
by Gunnar Nord
FACE DRILLING
 TALKING TECHNICALLY лшсьрсо

Improved Forward Support

With Boodex
Boodex, Son of Odex
Overburden drilling using eccen­
tric bits, or Odex, is used in sur­
face drilling, irrespective of the
type of rock. The method affords a
means of drilling through overbur­
den to install a casing tube, and
then continuing in rock without
interruption. This drilling tool also
works very well in horizontal
drilling when using a Boomer tun­
nelling rig, and this method is
known as Boodex. Long holes in
the range of 10-40 m can be drilled
just outside the periphery of the
tunnel. A moderate lookout angle
of some 5 degrees leaves enough
headroom for the next following
set of holes to be drilled. The drill­
solution. Boodex is a system built from Boodex drilling to establish portal at Tsuda tunnel,
holes can be spaced at 1 m down
Atlas Copco standard components. A Japan.
to 0.3 m, depending on ground
conditions. The casing tubes lining Boomer drill rig is equipped with a
each hole have an outer diameter feed suitable for drilling with the well- to facilitate these functions. To pump
of 115 mm, and may be perforated proven Odex drilling system. A casing or inject cement grout into the bore
for grouting. When the drilling has tube is left in the drill hole, and cement holes, a grouting pump is needed, such
reached full depth, the rod and
eccentric drill bit are retracted. The grout is pumped into the perforated as an Atlas Copco Craelius Unigrout
pipe can then be used for grouting casing tubes. An umbrella is formed, 200-100E-01.
of the ground around the hole. beneath which tunnelling can progress
The process is similar to the tube safely in soft rock formations.
a manchette method.
Drilling Method
The Boodex system is generally
For installing Boodex at the
tunnel portals, 3 m-long sections
mounted on twin boom rigs such as the Basic requirements of the Boodex
can be used in situations where Rocket Boomer L2C, or three boom rigs method are: an R38 extension rod; a
a small crane is available for such as the Rocket Boomer WL3 С On 115 mm casing tube perforated with a
handling. In underground appli­ one of the booms, the standard drifter number of grout holes; an Odex pilot bit,
cations, 1.5 m-long sections of feed is replaced by a specially designed diameter 90 mm; and an Odex eccentric
the tube are used in order to
feed, and on the standard rock drill, the drill bit, diameter 120 mm. The latter are
keep down the weight and bulk
of the rod-tube assembly. shank adapter is substituted by a special- mounted on the feed and the rock drill.
length adapter for the Odex equipment. The discharge head is pushed for­
On the feed is a modified front drill ward and connects to the rear end of
Introduction steel support suitable for guiding and the casing tube.
clamping of the 115 mm diameter The first extension rod is drilled
Tunnelling is, in many cases, not all casing tube. Also, the intermediate drill into the rock, with the casing tube fol­
that straightforward. Problems of vari­ support is re-designed to support the lowing immediately behind the drill
ous kinds are more often a rule, than casing tube during drilling, and when bit. Removal of drill cuttings is done
an exception! Bad ground conditions, adding casing tubes. The rock drill by a flushing medium, pumped into
poor rock overburden, fissures, non- cradle is equipped with a discharge the hole via the flushing hole in the
homogeneous rock, incoming water, head, mounted on the shank adapter of drill rod. Flushing medium and drill
high rock stresses, all challenge the the rock drill. The collector can be cuttings are then pumped out from the
skill of the tunnellers. In particular, moved in relation to the cradle by a hole, passing between the extension
tunnelling in soft rock formations can hydraulic cylinder, to facilitate adding drillrod and the inside casing tube.
be problematical. of casing tubes. Flushing medium and cuttings are col­
For many such situations, the Small modifications to the hy­ lected in the discharge head, and
Atlas Copco Boodex method offers a draulic system are necessary in order directed into a hose for disposal.

FACE DRILLING 17
 ШшСорсо TALKING TECHNICALLY
Boodex drilling at Dresden bypass.
The rock drill shank adapter is dis­
connected from the first extension rod.
Discharge head and rock drill are
pushed back to the rear of the feed.
The casing tube remains in the hole.
Additional rods and casing are added,
until the hole has reached its final
depth. When the hole is completed, all
extension drill rods are withdrawn from
the hole. Only the casing is left in place.
The grout pumping commences
with a hose with an expandable packer
mounted at its end. The packer ascer­
tains that grout is pumped into the
casing, and out into the surrounding
rock, via the perforated holes in the
casing tubes.
Handling of the rock drilling tools
and casing tubes is generally carried
out from an elevating platform.
The Boodex method should relieve
some of the hazards tunnellers are
bound to meet, when the tunnelling
gets tough. It can be used together
with almost any standard tunnelling
jumbo, and simply by switching
between the standard drifter feed and
the special Boodex feed, the tunnel
work can progress with as few inter­
ruptions as possible.
Case Histories
The first site where Boodex was used
was at the Tsuda tunnel in Japan,
where it was necessary to improve the
quality of the ground before the exca­
vation could start. In this case it was
decided that 28 x 36 m Boodex pipes
should be installed into the crown of
I 18
the 60 sq m face, and the whole crown
grouted using individual grout-lines to
each pipe valve. Drilling of each pipe
took 7 to 8 h, and hole deviation did
not exceed 2%. The full installation
took 20 days, working on day shift
only.
The objective was achieved, in that
the highway crossing the crown of the
drive at only 3-5 m clearance suffered
settlement of just 1 mm.
The Channel Tunnel Rail Link
(CTRL) is the link between King's
Cross Station in North London and the
tunnel terminal on the coast. This link
is being built in two phases. The first
comprises the 3.2 km-long North
Downs tunnel along with three other
major civil engineering contracts, and
was begun in 1998/99. The second
phase will comprise four separate
contracts and utilize a total of eight
TBMs. Phase Two started in 2001.
The contract to construct the North
Downs tunnel was awarded to
Eurolink, a joint venture between
Beton und Monierbau of Austria,
Miller of the UK and Dumez/GTM of
France. The tunnel was constructed
through chalk strata, common to the
region, using NATM techniques.
Due to poor ground conditions at
the London portal, some form of
additional ground treatment was
required to allow NATM tunnelling to
progress. A total of 24 holes were
drilled in the crown of the tunnel at
0.5 m centres. Depth of installed
casing was 15 m at 115 mm diameter.
The length of casing was 1.5 m, as this
would allow easier handling if Boodex
drilling was required once inside the
tunnel. The weight of a 1.5 m casing is
approximately 25 kg.
A false portal was built at the tunnel
entrance, and the spacing of the steel
arches was continued at 1.5 m whilst
under the Boodex umbrella.
A guide frame was not used, as the
drilling angle was not expected to be a
problem. A 2% deviation over 15 m
would result in 300 mm error. This
was the maximum envisaged given the
possibility of flint bands, the diameter
of the casing, and any errors in sur­
veying the angle of the feed.
Average penetration of the Boodex
drill string was 0.5 m/min and produc­
tivity rose to five holes/day, including
grouting. The remainder of the time
was taken up by rod handling from the
access baskets, and setting up of the
feed angle. As the actual drilling time
was relatively small, it was decided
that there would be no advantage in
using both booms.
The Atlas Copco Boodex method
was chosen for a variety of reasons:
installation is possible at any angle
and configuration; a standard drill
jumbo can be used, and the conversion
kit takes only a few hours to fit, either
at the portal or inside the tunnel; and
Boodex can be used as a micropile or,
when the casing is perforated, as part
of a grout umbrella.
Boodex has also been used exten­
sively in the construction of the
Dresden bypass, which is featured
elsewhere in this edition.
Conclusion
The likelihood of poor ground condi­
tions is increased at a tunnel portal,
where the weaker rock has been ex­
posed to weathering. Also, geotechnical
engineering calculations show that there
are increased stresses where the tunnel
barrel is discontinued at the portal.
An important point about the flexi­
bility of Boodex is that a standard drill
jumbo can carry out the installation.
Therefore, there are none of the standby
costs associated with having another
rig on hand. The only extra costs
involved are those associated with the
purchase of the consumable items.
by Gunnar Nord
FACE DRILLING
 TALKING TECHNICALLY |

Getting the Drift with

Magnum SR
Battling Worn
Threads
The tried and tested thread sys-
tems, R25, R28 and R32, have
served underground drillers well
for many years. However, with
the introduction of ever-more
powerful hydraulic rigs, these
battle-worn solutions started to
show weakness. Rod breakage at
the bit end, either just behind the
skirt or on the last thread, was
becoming distressingly common.
Why? Because it's the most vul-
nerable part of the rod. Con-
sequently, bits were lost, leading
to costly downtime. Even worse,
holes often had to be re-drilled,
sending productivity due south.
Putting it bluntly, drifting equip-
ment was struggling to cope
with the power of the new rigs. It
was high time for fresh ideas. Magnum SR bits and rods.
Intensive development by
Atlas Copco Secoroc has come
up with the new Magnum SR
the thread, and 32 mm at its tip. By The system was put through its
range, which counters problems adding 25% more steel at the end of paces in mines, and in a variety
with breakage, and offers per- the thread, the new design was given a of tunnelling projects. The results
formance to match that of the distinctive, conical shape. This con- were unequivocal: service life and
modern rock drill. cept not only tipped the fatigue resis- rig availability both enjoyed sharp
tance of the rods, but also reduced the increases.
Thread of Innovation tendency to deviate during collaring. The tests showed that the Magnum
The bits are also successful, SR35 system increased service life by
To solve the problem, Atlas Copco because they are very easy to un- 25-100% on the drifter rods, compared
Secoroc faced two choices: either couple, so the patented Atlas Copco to their conventional R32 counter-
increase the dimensions of the rods Secoroc Magnum SR has already parts; gave better service life of the
and bits in the same way as everybody proved a big hit with operators. bits; and created very high operator
else, or find a new way. Being notori- The new Magnum SR35 drifting acceptance, due to easy uncoupling of
ously stubborn innovators, the choice system, specially designed for the new the drill bits. This resulted in higher
was easy. generation of powerful drillrigs, drilling productivity, thanks to easy
During the creative process, three delivers more and straighter holes per collaring, straighter holes and better
important insights emerged. First, the shift, and has a considerably longer equipment availability during the
hole sizes should remain the same as service life than any competing system drilling cycle.
for drilling with standard equipment. or solution.
Second, the bits should be easy to Expanding Family
uncouple. And third, the old thread Field Tests Worldwide
design had to be replaced. The Magnum SR drifting system was
As with all genuinely groundbreak- Extensive field tests with the Magnum first introduced with the SR35, which
ing endeavours, the solution was SR have been carried out on four con- has a comprehensive selection of
deceptively simple. The secret of tinents, and involved more than a half equipment, including hexagonal 35 mm
the Magnum SR35 design is that the million metres of drilling over a in standard drifter and Speedrod
diameter is 35 mm at the end of period of one year. designs, and round 39 mm standard

FACE DRILLING 19
masCopco TALKING TECHNICALLY

Dawn of a New Era

The trend in drifting and tunnelling is
clear: the rounds are getting longer,
and the rigs more powerful. Magnum
SR was designed to withstand the high
pressures that are typical of today's
underground drilling operations.
Although Magnum SR is a new
product, the enthusiasm with which it
has been received, and the perfor-
mance that it delivers, have given an
indication of the direction in which the
product is heading.
Atlas Copco Secoroc is genuinely
confident that Magnum SR marks the
dawn of a new era in drifting and tun-
nelling, as well as for rockbolting.
The success of this innovative
Magnum SR Dome bit ready for reaming.
system is beyond dispute. Drillers
using it are not only drilling more and
drifter and Speedrods in lengths from A new member of the family is straighter holes than before, they're
3.1 m up to 6.1 m-long. SR32, which is specially designed for also finding that Magnum SR lasts
The SR35 Focus button bits are hole diameters of 38-41 mm. The prod- longer than any competing solution.
available from 43 mm up to 64 mm, uct underwent extensive field tests prior
and reaming equipment comprises to its launch in late-2002 to early-2003. by Anders Arvidsson
pilot adapters and reaming bits, as
well as the new Dome bits.
Magnum SR used in a bolting application.
For applications where accuracy
and straightness are paramount, the
Magnum SR Straight, with its 39 mm
diameter rod, plus SR35 guide bit, has
proved that it can deliver the expected
results.
The next addition to the family is
the Magnum SR28 range. Tests have
shown that SR28 is perfect for the
rapid drilling of holes for rockbolts,
but can also be used for small hole
drifting. This new line replaces the tra-
ditional R25 system in 33-35 mm
drilling.
Tests in rockbolting have shown
convincing increases in service life,
for both SR28 rods and bits. As with
all other Magnum SR products, the
bits are easy to uncouple, and as a
result the drillstring is subjected to
fewer damaging Shockwaves, facilitat-
ing rapid changes and more holes
drilled. Altogether, that means less
downtime changing bits and rods, and
more time spent drilling.
Magnum SR35, together with
Magnum SR28, are ultimately aimed
at helping drillers advance the tunnel
face, or drill bolt holes, quicker than
ever before.

20 FACE DRILLING

The Economic Case for
Bit Grinding
Cutting Hole Costs
The button bit was originally
developed to do the job of an
insert bit, without the necessity
for frequent grinding. However, it
was soon found that the service
life of a button bit increased con­
siderably if the cemented carbide
buttons were ground.
Nowadays, it has become
extremely important to grind
button bits at proper intervals, in
order to extend the service life of
the rock drilling tool, maintain
penetration rates, and drill
straight holes.
In all rock excavation opera­
tions, the cost is usually expressed
in cost per drilled metre (cost/dm),
in cost per cubic metre (cost/cu
m), or in cost per tonne.
The cost to produce a hole
depends on how fast it can be
drilled, and how many tools will
be consumed. The cost to pro­
duce a cubic metre of rock is
dependent upon the cost of the
hole, and the cost of blasting. If
the blasthole is of poor quality,
then more explosives will be con­
sumed in blasting the rock.
Unsharpened bits very often give
a poor quality hole with deviation.
Grinding constitutes around
2% of the costs of the entire
drilling operation. To run the
business without grinding could
multiply this cost, with up to
100% added when production
losses are taken into account.
Labour and material are the high­
est costs, while the machine
investment cost is low when
utilization is high, with a large
number of bits to be ground.
Grinding Methods
There are two different methods of bit
grinding to restore the buttons. The
preferred method uses a diamond
coated profiled wheel, and the other, a
grinding cup.
The profiled wheel provides a
smooth and efficient grinding operation,
FACE DRILLING
The Secoroc Grind Matic BQ2 grinding machine
can handle drillbits up to 127 mm in diameter.
which, throughout its life, maintains
the correct button shape and protru­
sion. It features correct centring on all
buttons, producing a high quality
cemented carbide surface, with no risk
of cemented carbide nipple. Long bit
life, and higher penetration rates, will
result from good grinding quality.
Disadvantages of using the grinding
cup are that it may produce an incorrect
button shape and protrusion. It is diffi­
cult to centre the grinding cup over the
gauge button, and there is also a risk of
producing a sharp cemented carbide
nipple on the button, and a possibility
of scratches due to the larger diamond
grain used. Reduced bit life will result
from poor grinding quality.
Several tests have been carried out
to find which method gives the best bit
performance. The grinding wheel
gives the correct shape to the button,
regardless of the amount of wear on
the wheel, ensuring that the bit will
achieve standard penetration rate
TALKING TECHNICALLY ЯОшСорсс
throughout its entire life. It has also
been shown that bit life is increased
considerably when grinding wheels
are used, rather than grinding cups.
Wheels also excavate steel around the
button, simplifying the grinding task,
and giving the bit a more exact profile.
Bit Life
With so many parameters involved, it
is difficult to estimate bit service life.
First, a proper grinding interval must
be established, preferably at the stage
when the button has a wear flat of one
third of the button diameter. When the
number of drilled metres to reach this
stage has been established, then a cal­
culation of bit life can be made, by
multiplying by the number of times it
can be reground. As a general rule, a
bit can be reground 10 times, but
smaller bits may achieve slightly less
than this figure, while larger bits may
achieve more. So, if the grinding inter­
val has been established as 60 drill
metres, then the average bit life will
be 660 drill metres (diagram 1). If a
bit is overdrilled, and the wear flat is
more than half of the button diameter,
there is a tendency towards cracked
buttons. There is always a sharp edge
created on the button, and this
becomes sharper the more the bit is
Diagram 1 : Typical bit life grinding at different
intervals.
Total bit life
drill metres
700
600
' 10 regrindings
500 per drill bit
400
300
/
-
200
/
/ Grinding interval
100 drill metres
0
21
aaasCopcc TALKING TECHNICALLY

the surface has to be ground away,

B u t t o n d a m a g e risk
otherwise the micro cracks lead to
100% more severe damage on the buttons.
Likewise, buttons which protrude too
B u t t o n d a m a g e risk vs b u t t o n w e a r much must be ground down to avoid
damage (diagram 2).
75%
Penetration Rate
When the right bit has been chosen for
the rock condition, it will provide
50%
maximum penetration rate, along with
Hard rock acceptable hole straightness. In rock
conditions like Swedish granite, with a
compressive strength of around 2,200
25% bar, the bit gets a wear flat after just
10-20 drill metres, accompanied by a
Soft rock small drop in penetration rate. When it
has a wear flat equivalent to one-third
I I l of the button diameter, the penetration
1/3 flat 1/2 flat 2/3 flat Button will have dropped by 5%. If the bit is
wear flat used further until it has a two-thirds
f \ f \ f \ wear flat, the penetration will have
dropped more than 30% (diagram 3).
Diagram 2: Risk of total loss when a bit is overdrilled.
When a bit has a heavy wear flat it
tends to deviate, and, by the time it
overdrilled. This sharp edge, especial­ When a bit doesn't show any vis­ reaches the bottom of the hole, it will
ly on ballistic buttons, is very brittle. ible wear flat, it may be suffering from have deviated far more than planned.
Once the edge cracks, pieces of micro cracks on the cemented carbide As a result, the blast will produce
cemented carbide break away and cir­ surface. This is known colloquially as coarse fragmentation, and much sec­
culate in the hole, causing secondary snake skin, and can be clearly seen ondary blasting may be required.
damage to the buttons. when using a magnifier. In this case, In contour hole drilling, it is of
utmost importance that the holes are
straight. If the holes deviate, the tunnel
Diagram 3: Penetration rate drops as the button profiles flatten.
walls will be uneven, making rock rein­
P e n e t r a t i o n rate
forcement more difficult than expected.
Rock formations with different
100% ^^^^^^Щ ^^^^^^^^ layers and joints are often character­
^^^^H ^^^^^
ized by heavy hole deviation, putting
Soft rock extra stress on the remaining rock
tools in the drill string. A sharp bit
75% always cuts better, and will prevent
both deviation, and its disadvantages.
Hard rock
Grinding Machines
50%
Two parameters guide the selection of
P e n e t r a t i o n r a t e vs b u t t o n w e a r the right grinding machine: the
number of bits to be ground; and
whether the machine should be
25% portable or stationary. Several kinds of
grinding machines are available to sat­
isfy these parameters. In most cases, a
simple machine will suffice for a small
I i i operation, grinding only a few bits.
1/3 flat 1/2 flat 2/3 flat Button The semi-automatic machines are
more suitable for larger operations,
Л~"\ f \ ( \ such as mines and construction sites,

FACE DRILLING
 TALKING TECHNICALLY /ШтСорсс

9
1
8 - * 1
7 -
• Labour cost
6 -
• Grinding material cost
5
4
• Machine cost

3
2 -
- Annual grinding volume - buttons. Figures
1
on the left side of the diagram show cost per
0 button in SEK.
Cost of grinding reduces dramatically with volume.
where the machine can be stationary, for threaded button bits, but small
and the rock tools can be brought to it. down-the-hole bits can be ground in
Grind Matic HG is a water or air- this machine. A steel spring is mounted
cooled hand held machine for grinding in the profile of the grinding wheel,
cups. Both spherical and ballistic cups where it functions as a centring device,
are available. The machine is driven allowing for easy grinding.
by up to 7 bar compressed air, and is Grind Matic Manual B-DTH is
suitable for a small grinding operation. similar to the Grind Matic Manual B.
Grind Matic Manual В is an air- It is mainly intended for down-the-
driven portable grinder using diamond- hole bits, but can also be used for
coated grinding wheels for spherical threaded bits with a special bit holder.
and ballistic buttons. The machine is As an optional accessory, the machine
mounted in a box fitted with wheels can be equipped with a belt grinder for
and handles for easy set up. It is mainly gauge grinding.
Comparison of grinding wheel with grinding cup.
Secoroc grinding wheel Typical grinding cup
New
grinding tool
Half worn
grinding tool
Loss of button
profile and
, protrusion
due to worn out
grinding cup.
Worn out
grinding tool
Diamond grinding wheels.
Grind Matic BQ2 is the latest semi­
automatic machine, with many features
such as auto-indexing device, timer
control, automatic feed, and an auto­
matic centring arm. These features,
coupled to an ergonomic design, ensure
high productivity, and the machine is
designed to handle large volumes of
threaded button bits. Cooling water is
recycled after the waste product has
been separated in a container.
Grind Matic BQ2-DTH is the latest
grinding machine for mainly down-
the-hole and Coprod bits. It can also
be used for threaded bits with a special
bit holder. The machine has the same
features as Grind Matic BQ2, and can
grind bits up to 7 in-diameter.
Grinding Advice
The Grind Matic machine's secret of
success is that both the grinding table
and the diamond grinding wheel
rotate. The result is perfectly ground
button surfaces, regardless of whether
the buttons are spherical or ballistic.
In addition, the machine's unique
diamond grinding wheel is designed to
ensure even wear on its grinding sur­
face, while still retaining its profile.
This, in turn, guarantees the button
shape throughout the life of the wheel.
Secoroc advice is to use Grind
Matic grinding machines, with profiled
diamond grinding wheels, for grinding
button bits. It is the only solution able
to consistently deliver perfectly shaped
buttons on customers' bits.
Correct grinding is important for
every drilling operation, particularly in
these days of cost consciousness and
fierce competition. It can make a
world of difference to the bottom line.

by Bo Persson

FACE DRILLING 23
Atlas Copco unveils a radically
different rock bolt.
The new Swellex Manganese Line.

At the risk of appearing immodest, our new
Swellex Manganese Line combines higher load
capacity and greater elongation than any other
range of rock bolts in history. How?
The clue lies in the name. The Manganese Line features
a special steel with higher manganese content and a
new manufacturing process - for greater strength and
deformability. The result is a strong and tough rock bolt
that can absorb strain that would make a lesser product
break.
Stretching the limits of rock reinforcement
Once installed, Swellex Manganese Line reacts to the
strain immediately - with margin to spare. And should
there be further movements in the rock, you'll find its
maximum load potential and 30% elongation capacity
will be more than enough to absorb them.
Although this is a radically different product, you'll
be glad to know some things remain the same. Like
productivity, reliability and controllability. And the high
level of technical support from Atlas Copco.

Always play it safe, visit www.swellex.com

Swellex4 Manganese Line

— a much safer investment

Atlas Copco Rock Drills AB

SE-701 91 Orebro, Sweden
Telephone +46 19 670 70 00 Fax +46 19 670 73 93
E-mail: swellex@atlascopco.com JttlasCbpco
www.atlascopco.com
 TALKING TECHNICALLY |

Improved Rock Drilling With

Diarot Analysis
Simulation Assists
Problem Solving
For over a decade, Atlas Copco
experts have gathered data from
mining, surface drilling and tun-
nelling projects all over the
world. This information has been
stored in Diarot, a rock drilling
simulation program. Diarot is a
unique system, which makes it
possible to simulate rock drilling
on a particular rig, and then eval-
uate the result. All without leav-
ing the office! Diarot assists the
customer in choosing the right
parameters for his rig before the
first hole is ever drilled. Likewise,
if a problem occurs in the field,
possibly because there has been
a change in the geology of the
rock to be drilled, Diarot can
delineate the problem and identi-
fy the solution. Numerous case
histories from different applica-
tions have been recorded where
Diarot has come up with the
right answer. Whether the drill
bit is wrong for the rock, or the
rock drill stroke is too long, or
the hydraulic oil temperature is
running too high, Diarot will
analyze the problem and make
recommendations to improve the
entire rock drilling process.
Diarot will always give an answer, Diarot will optimize drilling rates and drillsteel economy.
and, if the customer input is cor-
rect, the answer will be correct.
contained in a system, including the torque increases with the rotation
rock drill, bits and drill steel, feed, speed. The torque in the drill steel is
Introduction hydraulic system, parameter settings, proportional to the rotation pressure
and the nature and condition of the increase from idling to drilling. The
Achieving the optimal performance rock. drillrig control system should accord-
from a drillrig involves practical test- Good drilling economy requires ingly be designed so that the thrust
ing to evaluate penetration rate, grind- drill steel joints that are well tight- force is automatically adjusted to hold
ing intervals, service life and costs, to ened. A well-tightened joint is the rotation pressure at a predeter-
find the most efficient combination of obtained through sufficient rotation mined value. When drilling in softer
components such as drill bits and drill resistance from the bit. rock, the buttons penetrate deeper
strings. Friction losses in the hoses, the into the bottom of the hole, and a
Diarot contains a database, with rotation motor, and the gear in the greater torque is required to rotate
infonnation on each of Atlas Copco's rock drill all contribute to the idling the drill steel, unless the thrust force is
rock drills and other components, as rotation pressure. The geometry of the not reduced simultaneously. Diarot
well as rock data from various areas drill steel threads, and the dimensions tells the user what rotation pressure
throughout the world. The program of the bit, demand a certain torque for should be applied to obtain well-
takes into consideration all the parts joints to be well tightened, and this tightened drill steel joints. It simply

FACE DRILLING 25
 mascopco TALKING TECHNICALLY
Rocket Boomer LI C-DH drillrig at Linwood Stone.
specifies the settings for percussion
pressure, rotation speed, drill steel
dimensions, thread geometry, and so
on.
Unique Tool
Diarot is unique, with its library of
gathered information, and the pos­
sibility to simulate the activity of a
complete rig. For example, when pro­
jecting drillrig performance for a
runnel, or when designing equipment
upgrades, it is possible to simulate
drilling with a large number of differ­
ent rock drills, as their characteristics
are stored in the library. The settings
of these rock drills can be fine-tuned,
and tested, in order to arrive at the
right results for a particular project.
Likewise, different rock drills or drill
strings can be tested for the same
application in varying rock conditions,
in order to adjust settings such as feed
force, rotation speed, stroke position
and impact pressure.
The expected drilling rates can be
calculated, and the optimal setting of
the system can be delineated. It can be
decided whether new rock drills on
old rigs will be an alternative, or
whether it is better to buy new rigs.
Diarot will also work out if different
bit grinding intervals will make a dif­
ference to bit life.
Backward calculations using Diarot
make it possible to determine the
character of a rock, based on measured
production results. That calculated
rock quality can then be used to inves­
tigate the effect of changing other
| 26
parameters, such as rock drill, percus­
sion pressure, and stroke lengths.
When it comes to rock drilling,
there are many factors governing the
overall result, and all parts of the
process must work smoothly. Diarot is
a unique tool, in that it is possible to
measure and control the entire process,
before the first hole is even drilled!
Better performance
At a worksite close to Stockholm's
Arianda international airport, an Atlas
Copco ROC 642HP drillrig was bench
drilling 76 mm holes. The temperature
on the coupling was 80 degrees C,
and a Diarot simulation was carried
Going full-ballistic at Linwood. The new Secoroc
button bit model -37-66, with longer button
protrusion and improved flushing capacity, for
increased penetration rate in soft rock.
out to evaluate different drill bits,
with reference to the optimal settings
of the COP 1838HE rock drill.
Ballistic bits were tested, and proved
to be the best, resulting in increased
performance.
The COP 1838HE rock drill being
used has different stroke positions, as
opposed to a conventional drill with a
single fixed stroke length. Changing
the stroke length gives an extra dimen­
sion in tuning the impact energy and
frequency. In this case, position 3,
with an impact pressure of 180 bar,
had been used for drilling to date. The
Diarot recommendation was to change
to a shorter stroke, using position 2,
with an impact pressure of 205 bar.
Different rotation speed and feed
force settings were adjusted to the
higher frequency produced by the rock
drill, and the Diarot simulation also
provided a full recommendation for all
settings. The rock drill ran much more
smoothly, and the coupling tempera­
ture halved, from around 80 degrees С
to 40 degrees C.
The rig used 3.6 m-long T45 rods
for drilling holes ranging between 6 m
and 15 m deep, and the regrinding
interval was some 50 m. After ten
regrinds, it was difficult to maintain
the ballistic profile of the buttons, and
the customer re-sharpened them to a
conventional spherical profile.
With the application of the new
Diarot settings, wear on the threads
was low, uncoupling the rods was
easy, and the life of the Secoroc bits
exceeded 1,200 m.
Weekly production increased from
1,400 m to an average of 1,700 m, with
a best week of 1,820 m. Fuel con­
sumption was low at 15 lit/hour, a
figure which is less than half that of
comparable rigs, and which saved
more than a half litre of dieseline per
drilled metre. At 40,000 m/year, the
call to Diarot proved a great saver!
Improved Penetration
At Auersmacher in Germany, the Diarot
program was used on a diesel-hydraulic
single-boom Rocket Boomer LI C-DH
equipped with a COP 1838HF rock drill
to establish the correct settings for the
rig. Blast holes of 51 mm diameter are
FACE DRILLING

now being drilled to depths of 3.4 m in
limestone at 6-8 m/min, a doubling of
the previous standard performance. In
this case, the optimum rotation speed
was calculated to be 400 rev/min.
Dropping it to 300 rev/min reduces the
penetration rate by 2 m/min.
Another Rocket Boomer LI C-DH
was delivered to the Linwood Stone
mine in Iowa, USA for use in lime-
stone with an average compressive
strength of 165 Mpa. This rig is
equipped with RCS using ABC Basic
software for assisted boom position-
ing, collaring point, hole direction,
hole depth control, and statistics. The
result was actually better than calcu-
lated, because of changing the rotation
speed to 400+ rev/min and using a
newly developed button bit from Atlas
Copco Secoroc, with increased button
protrusion, and more and bigger flush-
ing holes.
The Rocket Boomer LI C-DH is
achieving penetration rates of 3.5 to
4.5 m/min, which is a doubling in
output over the previous generation
of drillrigs. The Diarot calculation
was used to find the correct settings
for the drillrig, without using trial and
error.
At Mineradao Serra Da Fortaleza in
Brazil, data was collected from a COP
1238ME rock drill mounted on a
Simba H254. The Diarot calculation
indicated that the regrinding interval
should be reduced to once every two
holes. The result was a penetration
rate increase to 1.09 m/min from
0.99 m/min. As a bonus, shank life
increased from 1,810 to 2,360 drilled
metres and rod life increased from 450
to 580 drilled metres.
At Companhia Vale Do Rio Doce
(CVRD) another COP 1238ME
mounted on a Simba H254 was stud-
ied, resulting in a recommendation
being made to decrease the regrinding
interval to one hole. Penetration rate
was increased from 0.99 m/min to
1.28 m/min. Shank life also increased
from 1,420 drilled metres to 2,450
drilled metres and rod life from 310
drilled metres to 530 drilled metres.
In both of these cases, the bits were
being over-drilled, with large risk of
button breakage, which can lead to a
reduction of the average drill bit life.
FACE DRILLING
In all cases, not only the impact
pressure had to be changed, but also
the feed pressure and the rotation
speed. It is very important to change
all settings according to the calcula-
tions, in order to achieve the forecast
result.
The measuring of the coupling tem-
perature during drilling is also impor-
tant. The worst condition exists just
before regrinding the bit, at the time
when it generates the lowest torque. If
the torque becomes too low, then the
wear of the threads will increase, since
the joint runs open, with a reduction of
drill steel life as a consequence.
Bit Life
Consumption of drill bits forms a sig-
nificant part of the costs of blast hole
drilling in construction and mining.
During drilling, the cemented carbide
buttons, or inserts, wear flat. When
drilling is carried out with constant
percussion pressure, the drilling rate
decreases with increasing wear fiat. If
the drilling continues long enough
without regrinding, then the drilling
rate finally becomes zero. This occurs
earlier for bigger drill bits, and for
harder rock.
The drilling rate and the wear fiat
increase are linked, and determined by
several input data, such as piston
mass, percussion pressure, drill steel
rotation rate, thrust force, drill steel
dimensions, bit diameter, number of
buttons and button size, button wear
resistance, flushing medium, and rock
hardness and abrasivity.
The ideal temperature on the coupling should be
down to B0°C for air flushing and 45°C for water
flushing.
TALKING TECHNICALLY miasCcyce
For example, water flushing pro-
vides better cooling and less wear fiat
than air flushing. However, when the
bit penetrates the bottom of the hole
with about the same velocity as the
impact velocity of the piston, which is
about 10 m/s, significant energy is
required to push away the water in
front of the bit. This results in a
reduced drilling rate in comparison
with air flushing.
The Diarot computer program uses
physical models for most factors that
determine the drilling rate and the
wear flat increase of the bit, and the
drilling economy. For the remainder,
empirical relations are used in terms
of analytical mathematical equations.
The constants in these empirical rela-
tions are always non-dimensional, and
are obtained by comparing calculated
values with measured ones from many
real drilling operations of widely
different character.
Snakeskin
The Diarot program allows the user to
calculate the stress on the bit that leads
to fatigue, or breakage of the buttons
or inserts.
Drilling in certain rock, such as
limestone and marble, causes neglig-
ible wear to the bit. The buttons are
heated by the friction, and cooled by
the flushing medium.
This results in micro-cracking in
the cemented carbide button surfaces.
When these cracks are not continuously
removed by abrasive wear, they grow
into the cemented carbide, and eventu-
ally become visible as snakeskin. If
such snakeskin is not regularly
removed by regrinding, then the but-
tons will eventually fall apart, or be
crushed.
Diarot does not allow longer
regrinding intervals than 400 m. If the
input data indicate a greater regrinding
interval than 400 m, then the program
adjusts the value of the regrinding
wear flat to below 400 m. The output
data indicates that 0.5 mm is ground
off the buttons to eliminate snake skin,
and that the number of possible
regrindings is calculated accordingly.
The total cost for the bit, including
regrinding, is of utmost interest for the
27
лашСорсо TALKING TECHNICALLY

customer. If the penetration rate drops,

INPUT DATA
the drill steel and the shank life
Project LINWOOD DAVENPORT IOWA decreases, and excessive vibration and
LINWOOD1838HF
Linwood1838HF.DAT
wear results on the drillrig.
File name

Application DRIFTING Diarot in Tunnels

Rig R.BOOMER L1 C-DH The Diarot expert program is available
Feed BMH6316
Rock drill
to owners of tunnelling drillrigs. All
COP1838HF-R38H35 05
Stroke length position that is required is for the customer to
Percussion pressure MPa 22,5 provide reliable drilling information to
Rotation motor OMS 100 his Atlas Copco service engineer.
Oil temperature °C 40 Details are needed of parameters, such
Oil viscosity at 40°C cSt 46
as percussion pressure, rotation rate,
Rock designation LIMESTONE and the corresponding accumulated
location LINWOOD IOWA USA drilling rate, plus the wear flat on the
compressive strength MPa 165 drill bit insert or button after one
stamp strength MPa 1650 regrinding interval. The service engi­
brittleness 1,15 neer will send the information to a
indexation parameter mm 8,10
Cherchar Abrasivity Index 2,00
Diarot specialist for analysis.
density kg/m 3 2700 He will start with a reverse Diarot
calculation to determine relevant rock
Hole depth m 5,1 data, which is then used to work out
Drilling direction (>0° is upwards) 0
the most effective drilling rates for
Drill steel designation R38H35 other settings, situations and equip­
length m 5,40 ment. The results are presented to the
male/female No customer, and, once the recommenda­
Bit diameter mm 51 tions are implemented, the Diarot spe­
insert type ballistic button
cialist will monitor the feedback. All
number of buttons 9
number of periphery buttons 6
communications can be via the
periphery button diameter mm 10,0 Internet.
RETRAC N In the Diarot system, calculation of
Rock-bit friction coefficient 0,20 the total performance of drillrig, feed,
Regrinding wear flat mm 5,0
control system, rock drill, drill steel
Flushing medium Air
and drill bit supports the concept of
Total Rock Drilling Technology.
OUTPUT DATA At the Viiki Extension Project in
Project LINWOOD DAVENPORT IOWA Helsinki, Finland, contractor YIT
LINWOOD1838HF compared the performance of a COP
File name Linwood1838HF.DAT 1838ME rock drill with the new COP
1838HF.
Application DRIFTING
Diarot calculations predicted a 20%
Percussion pressure MPa 22,5 increase in performance. Practical
Impact frequency Hz 69 drilling at the site with both rock drills
Relative drill stress % 91 produced the following penetration
Number of regrindings 2 rates for a 51 mm bit with ballistic
Diameter wear after 2 regrind ngs mm 1,7
Recommended air flushing flow l/sec 18
buttons: COP 1838ME 1.85 m/min;
COP 1838HF 2.33 m/min. In both
Optimum Reduced cases the "relative drill stress" was on
Rotation rate rpm 256 205 154 the same level. Parameters such as
impact pressure, feed pressure, and
Accumulated drilling rate m/min 3,62 3,53 3,26
Regrinding interval m 1109 1172 1260 rotation speed were set according to
Bit service life m 3326 3516 3779 the Diarot calculations. The HF ver­
sion was the clear winner, with a 26%
Shank service life m 6 990 higher penetration rate than its rival,
Coupling service life m 4 890
Rod service life m 4 040
the ME.

Selected diarot input and output data for COP 1838HF. by Ake Eklof

28 FACE DRILLING

The IREDES Initiative
Standard Formats
Cost pressure and cycling product
prices are pushing mining com­
panies to a permanent increase
of automation. In major mining
houses, remote controlled and
autonomous equipment is in
operation today. A further trend
to be expected, and already start­
ed, is the company-wide concen­
tration of all operation activities
in centrally located "operation
centres". Thinking ahead, this
philosophy will also make the
operation of smaller mining sites
feasible, some of which are
regarded as inefficient today.
However, in such environments,
all equipment in the mine has to
be data controlled. So, in order not
to end up in huge software pro­
jects, standardization of the data
exchange between the equipment
and central computer systems has
to be seen as a precondition.
Data Exchange
In an ideal situation, all computer sys­
tems and machines in the entire chain
of mining operations should be able to
talk to each other. In fact, the planning
is done a long time before the first
machine starts working, and this might
have been done on a CAD system not
able to communicate with the particu­
lar drill rig used.
Consequently, all information from
the CAD system has to be newly
entered into the machine's control
system. This is a laborious procedure,
and makes changes very difficult to
coordinate while the project is running.
As an alternative to manual data
handling, automated import/export
routines may be used, if available.
Setting up these customized software
programs requires a high effort, which
often is limited to one single project's
lifetime. Consequently, this job is not
undertaken, leaving most of the log­
ging information acquired during the
project unanalyzed. Such information
may have been advantageous to
enhance quality and efficiency of
FACE DRILLING
Analyze
^ Allgni
Л
"-Я">"'
Scan Mucking
Scaling! Sho)crete ^„пд
work, if analyses had been possible in
"real time" during the project.
The GSM standard for cellular
phone systems has shown that
standardization of corresponding data
exchange formats will have very posi­
tive effects on the productivity and
quality of operations, and on the use
of automated equipment in general.
The IREDES Approach
IREDES, the International Rock
Excavation Data Exchange Standard, is
an initiative to standardize all data
exchange between rock excavation
machinery and central computer sys­
tems. These advantages are explained in
the following sections using blasthole
drillrigs as an example for key machines
in underground mining operations.
IREDES defines one common elec­
tronic language to be talked by the
machines and the central computer
systems. This language defines data
formats, such as to supply a drilling
rig with the planned drill patterns or
data formats that the drillrig uses, and
for production performance logs, pro­
duction quality logs or tunnel scans.
Consequently, a CAD system, or
the underlying database, in the future
will need just one single export rou­
tine to supply all IREDES conformant
drillrigs, regardless of type or manu­
facture, with drill patterns using an
identical format.
When a drill pattern has been drilled
and blasted, an additional tunnel profile
scan might be available too. If this
TALKING TECHNICALLY /biasCbpcc
:
' working sequence of
Blast operation.
Venlilalion "^
Scan
?
scan was made using IREDES compat­
ible devices, the planning engineer is
able to see the result directly in his
computer. He is enabled to adjust the
planning for future drill patterns and
the charging of explosives during the
ongoing project. This will enhance
accuracy to reduce overburden, and
will consequently reduce costs.
Tunnelling Applications
Once the IREDES standard is com­
pletely established, the working
sequence in a tunnelling project using
the drill and blast method may be sup­
ported as follows.
The planning engineer uses his
CAD system to plan the tunnel. The
result is a tunnel line, together with
the corresponding profile information.
IREDES conformant information may
be used to specify the tunnel line.
The IREDES conformant tunnel
line is taken over by the software used
for drill pattern planning. As a result,
the drill pattern is available in an
IREDES conformant format as a
"Planning Data Set".
The drilling rig - regardless of its
manufacture - receives the IREDES
"Planning Data Set" to set up the drill
pattern for automatic drilling.
During drilling operation, a number
of IREDES conformant data sets may
be created by the machine, as for
example, Production Performance Log,
Production Quality Log, and Measure­
ment While Drilling Information
(MWD).
29
яашСорсо TALKING TECHNICALLY
After the pattern is drilled, the
MWD information may be used by the
charging equipment to adjust charging
of explosives according to the rock
conditions discovered while drilling.
The charging machine generates an
IREDES "Production Quality Report"
covering each single hole of the
charge operation.
After blasting and loading, a tunnel
scan may be performed, generating an
IREDES conformant tunnel scan.
The tunnel scan, together with the
MWD information and the charge
report, is taken over by analyzing soft­
ware to propose and/or to perform
adjustments for drilling the next
pattern.
The example shows how complete­
ly different types of equipment and
software systems may work together,
and interact in an environment using
IREDES standardized interfaces. If all
systems involved do support the
IREDES standard, no further cus­
tomized programming will be
required. This enables even smaller
companies and smaller work sites to
effectively perform high precision
mining projects at a reasonable cost
level, without customized software
development.
At the same time, all quality assur­
ance relevant logging information is
generated automatically. For analysis,
all that is needed are software systems
enabled to read the standardized
IREDES logging format.
The IREDES Architecture
The IREDES standard covers both
traditional, "file" based data exchange
using floppy disks or memory mod­
ules as carrier media, and on-line
networking data exchange using any
kind of wire-based or wireless com­
munication system.
In both cases, IREDES uses identical
procedures, so the application programs
do not need to know how the informa­
tion is transferred. Consequently, no
additional application programming
effort is required to exchange, say, drill
patterns via network or phone modem
instead of using a memory card.
IREDES is based on current tech­
nology and uses the Extensible Markup
30
IREDES supported
Drill and Blast
Cycles.
_
(^
All Results to be
used Tor planning
of future rounds
<rf£
Language (XML), which originally
was designed to specify the database
generated content of Internet pages, for
on-line shops or similar websites.
Consequently, all major databases
today provide standard XML import
and export features. This drastically
simplifies the use of the IREDES stan­
dard within database environments.
Furthermore, XML import/export rou­
tines are, or will become, available for
all major standard software.
The IREDES standard is set up in
different levels. The Application
Profile covers all general information
for one application purpose, such as
"Planning Data" or "Production
Quality Log", which is commonly
used for all types of equipment.
The equipment specific information
is covered by the corresponding
Equipment Profile, which defines
detailed equipment specific informa­
tion to be used within those applica­
tion profiles applicable to the specific
equipment type. The first Equipment
Profiles available will cover drillrigs
and loaders.
Openness and Flexibility
The IREDES standard will be entirely
open and published in the released
versions. It will be extended to further
equipment types and application pro­
files as demanded by the users.
Due to the standard's open architec­
ture consisting of application and
equipment profiles, more than just
rock excavation equipment may be
integrated. It might be applicable
1. Analyze: Tunnel Planning
Й I
Result: IREDES Tunnel Line and Profile
2. Drill Pattern Planning
(_) Result: IREDES Drill Pattern Planning Data Sets / Drill Rig
I 4. Drilling
Result: IREDES Production Planning Log / Drill Rig
» IREDES Production Quality Log / Drill Rig
IREDES MWL) Log
5. Charging
Result: IREDES Production Quality Log / Charge Machine
Blasting / Mucking and Tunnel Scan (6.)
О Result: Tunnel Scan
for charging equipment, rock rein­
forcement machines or ventilation
equipment. This can be done without
touching the existing parts of the stan­
dard, simply by adding new applica­
tion profiles and equipment profiles.
Standardization Roadmap
Up to now 23 leading companies from
the mining and construction industry
have joined the initiative. Original
expectations on 20 members have
been exceeded, and there will prob­
ably be more companies joining
during 2003. The on-going standard­
ization work is proceeding according
to the original roadmap, and it is the
drillrig profile that has come to a
final version. This profile has been
implemented in Atlas Copco's newest
series Simba production drillrigs, and
an IREDES integration project is
being carried out in LKAB's Kiruna
iron ore mine. Profiles that will be
ready for prototyping projects are
the LHD-profile and the networking
profile, which gives possibilities to
send real-time messages on the
network. This is a very important
function when on-line monitoring of
production performance is required.
During 2003, Atlas Copco will
introduce IREDES data exchange in
drillrigs with the new Rig Control
System (RCS).
by Jorgen Appelgren
Part of this article is published by
courtesy of the IREDES Initiative.
FACE DRILLING

Using Rocket Boomers to
Install Rock Reinforcement
Tunnelling in
Variable Ground
When taking on an underground
excavation project, it is of utmost
importance that the contractor
has the best available equipment.
This rule applies to both blast-
hole and rockbolt drilling. Atlas
Copco Rocket Boomers have
the required flexibility of applica-
tion, and are used for semi-
mechanized installation of some
of the most frequently used
rockbolts. These include Atlas
Copco Swellex rockbolts and
MAI Systems® Self Drilling
Hollow Core anchors, commonly
known as SDA. When used
together, the Rocket Boomer
and these rockbolts become
inseparable technology, getting
the job done quicker and more
efficiently than by using any
other combination.
Swellex Rockbolts
Regardless of manufacturing origin,
installation of rockbolts of lengths of
4 m and upwards is normally a heavy
and troublesome operation. The
Swellex Mn24 rockbolt is no excep-
tion. However, by adding a few
optional items, a standard Atlas Copco
Rocket Boomer can be modified to
take care of most of this work. It will
insert the Swellex Mn24 into the hole,
fully inflate it to optimal capacity, and
even test it! Not only is it quick and
easy, but also safer than the traditional
manual method.
Top of the list of optional compo-
nents is a service platform to assist
with the high level holes. An onboard
Swellex hydraulic pump is advisable,
and, for manual insertion, a Swellex
handle with Swellex chuck, or, for
mechanized insertion, the new
Swellex chuck mounted on the COP
hammer.
FACE DRILLING
Radial bolting
• ^ • ^
Atlas Copco Rocket Boomer, with its very capable BUT-booms and BSH drill steel support, makes it most
suitable for all kinds of rock reinforcement.
For mechanized handling of the
drill steel, a Rod Adding System
(RAS) can be mounted on the feed.
For semi-mechanized installation,
the following cycle of operations can
be used: select a drill steel length that
is slightly longer than the length of the
boll to be installed; drill the bolt hole
at the chosen spot, and to the full
length; keep the feed at the drill hole,
and recover the drill steel by the RAS
grippers; attach the Swellex chuck to
the COP hammer; manually locate the
Swellex bolt with faceplate in the drill
steel support at the top; insert the
Swellex bolt into its final position in
the drill hole, using the feed-force
The three different sections of the new Atlas
Copco Swellex Mn24E can be connected to form
any required length.
TALKING TECHNICALLY masCbpce
Spiling and fore poling
Face stabilization
from the hammer; and inflate the
Swellex bolt using the on-board
hydraulic Swellex pump. All done,
and ready for the next bolt!
Extendable Swellex
When there is a need for very long
bolts to be installed in a narrow drift,
tunnel or cavern, the solution can be
the Swellex Mn24E extendable rock-
bolt. This system comprises three dif-
ferent types of bolt section that can be
combined to practically any required
length. Each of these three sections is
characterized by its function. The first
section is sealed at its top end and
threaded at its bottom end. The middle
sections are threaded at both ends, and
the bottom section is threaded at one
end and designed to fit into the
Swellex chuck at the other. The sec-
tions are threaded together to form a
tight connection.
Installing Swellex Mn24E utilizes
the same optional components as for
the installation of long Swellex bolts,
with the addition of either the BSH
110 Swellex version, or by using a
Swellex retainer to keep the extendable
31
 masCbpcc TALKING TECHNICALLY

Swellex in place when tying in

Extendable Swellex rockbolts
Swellex sections. The RAS system
can greatly assist handling of the
Swellex Mn24E sections, using its two
gripper arms attached to the BMH
feed, which are remotely controlled by
the Boomer operator. Pilot tunnel
The bolt hole is drilled to full
depth using extension drill rods.
Recommended drill hole diameter is
45-48 mm, with maximum 51 mm,
using R28 drifter rods with a coupling
Expansion section
diameter of 44 mm.
The installation sequence is as fol­
lows: drill the bolt hole a little bit
longer than the full bolt length; recov­
er the drill string, and remove it from
the feed; place the top-section of the
Swellex Mn24E into the drill steel
support, and feed the bolt section into
the drill hole, either manually, or using
the COP rock drill; grip the bolt with
the BSH 110, or the retainer; thread in
the required number of middle sec­
Installing Extendable Swellex into a pilot drive.
tions using the feed and the COP rock
drill; grip the bottom of the string with
the BSH 110, and attach the bottom advance protection of the excavation; Additional lengths up to 12.0 m are
end section of the extendable Swellex, as root piles for reaction load of steel available on request.
with faceplate; feed it into place using support arches; and for slope stabiliza­
the rock drill and Swellex chuck; con­ tion of the tunnel portal. Poor Ground Conditions
nect the Swellex pump, and inflate the The Atlas Copco MAI bar is manu­
bolt. It will take a few seconds to fully factured from API standard heavy wall Advantages of MAI SDA are that they
expand the complete bolt. When the steel tubing, cold rolled to form a are particularly suitable for very diffi­
pump stops, the bolt is ready to take standard ISO rope thread profile. The cult and unstable ground conditions,
its full 24 t load. rolling process refines the grain struc­ such as broken, fissured and fractured
ture of the steel, increasing the yield rock formations, or unconsolidated
MAI Self Drilling Hollow strength, and producing a durable sands and gravels. Re-drilling time
Core Anchor drill rod suitable for a range of due to collapsing boreholes is avoided,
applications. and speed of installation is high, with
The MAI SDA rockbolt is a fully The MAI bar is produced in 12 m no primary drilling required. The
threaded steel bar which can be drilled lengths, and then cut to size depending drilling, placing and grouting of the
and grouted into loose or collapsing on customer requirements. Standard anchor is performed in one single
soils without the use of a casing. It delivery lengths are 1 m, 2 m, 3 m, operation, reducing the drill labour
features a hollow bore for flushing, or 4 m and 6 m. Recommended maxi­ required for cased boreholes.
simultaneous drilling and grouting, mum bar lengths are: R25N, 2.0 m; Since conventional rotary-percussion
and has a left-hand rope thread for R32N & S, 4.0 m; R38N 4.0 m; drilling equipment is used, the method
connection to standard drill tools. R51L&N 6.0 m; T76N & S 6.0 m. of installation is very similar for all
MAI SDA are installed in a variety
of different soils and ground condi­ Composition of the Atlas Copco MAI Systems® SDA rockbolt.
tions, ranging from sand and gravel to
inconsistent fill, boulders, rubble and Nut Anchor plate Anchor rod Anchor coupling Anchor rod Bit
weathered rock, as well as through
footings and base slabs. гЭ
Applications associated with under­
ground works include: radial anchoring iffl
H
f - 1 1 Mm - шшш - ш^шшшфтштт^• -
for stabilization of tunnel circumfer­
\
ence during NATM-style excavation;
as forepoles, spiles or umbrellas for
•aa

I 32 FACE DRILLING
 TALKING TECHNICALLY лшсьрес

ground conditions, and the bolts can

be installed in all directions, including
upwards.
There is an option to use simultane­
ous drilling and grouting techniques
during installation, to consolidate any
surrounding loose ground.
The anchor bar consists of a full
length left hand rope thread, which
gives the flexibility to adjust the bar
length to the actual requirement. This
is especially useful if anchoring has to
be performed in a confined workspace.

Installing MAI SDA with

Rocket Boomers
The Atlas Copco MAI SDA bolt is
designed to be used in ground forma­
tions that are so soft, fractured, or in
such weak rock that a normal drill
hole will collapse before a standard
rockbolt can be inserted. The bolt type
is not new, but Atlas Copco has devel­
oped components and functions on the
Rocket Boomer that make it the per­
fect installation tool.
The MAI SDA system comprises
standard items, such as the sacrificial
bit, bolt sections, couplings, faceplate
and spherical nut. The standard feed on
the Rocket Boomer should be
equipped with the BSH 110-SDA drill-
steel support to guide the bolt when
drilling, and for extending the SDA
bolt sections. The BSH 110-SDA is
designed to leave as little of the bolt
protruding out of the hole as possible,
in order to utilize the full length of the
installed bolts for support. The BSH
110-SDA has remote controlled func­
tions for guiding, gripping and drilling,
giving the operator full control of the
bolting sequence from his platform.
The BSH 110-SDA is fully compatible
with any BMH 6000 feed.
For those worksites where a lot of
SDA drilling will be done, COP 1238
and COP 1838 series rock drills can be
fitted with a special SDA shank
adapter and a hammer conversion kit.
The SDA shank adapter has a female
end, to eliminate the need for a loose
coupling sleeve, and thus save time
when unthreading the bolt. Handling
is also simpler when extending the
SDA bolts, boosting productivity and
improving safety.
The MAI SDA system is built around the Boomer, with add-on standard options, and backed up by Atlas
Copco worldwide presence, know how and support.
At work sites where the use of SDA
is not an everyday activity, a suitable
solution is to use a shank connector.
This simplifies the handling and use of
SDA bolts on a standard Rocket
Boomer. The shank connector is added
to the shank adapter on the rock drill,
and should match the thread on the
SDA bolt. Most frequently used
threads are R32 and R38. Once the
SDA activity is finished, the shank
connector is removed, and normal
drilling can continue. The shank
connector is available in the most
frequently-used thread types and
diameters, such as R32-R32, R32-R38,
BSH 110-SDA is a modification of the existing BSH
110 for handling MAI SDA rockbolts.
R35-R32, R35-R38, R38-R32, R38-
R38, and a few others.
Drilling Sequence
Using Rocket Boomers for rockbolt
installation greatly improves produc­
tivity and safety over manual methods.
To set up for semi-mechanized SDA
bolting, a suitable SDA shank adapter
is attached to the COP rock drill,
together with an SDA COP-kit to
match the thread on the MAI SDA
bolt. An MAI bit is attached to the
SDA, which is placed on the drillrig
feed. The bolt is threaded into the
shank adapter female end, and the
operator checks that the BSH 110-
SDA is in the correct position to guide
the bolt.
When starting to drill, the percus­
sion pressure must be adjusted to
match the chosen bolt type and pre­
vailing ground conditions. Normally,
for SDA drilling, this will be less than
half, and sometimes only one third, of
the hydraulic pressure set for blasthole
drilling.
The SDA shank adapter makes it
possible to drill the bolt close to the
tunnel sidewalk The bolt is gripped by

FACE DRILLING 33 |
 masCopco TALKING TECHNICALLY
Semi-mechanized MAI bolt installation from a Rocket Boomer.
the BSH to keep it in position, when
adding MAI bolt sections with suitable
anchor couplings. When the final sec-
tion of the MAI bolt is being drilled,
the BSH 110-SDA can be fully opened
to allow the shank adapter to drill it
fully into the rock, leaving 80-100 mm
of the bolt protruding from the face.
Simultaneous Grouting
MAI SDA rockbolts can also be
installed by simultaneous drilling and
grouting, using a Rotary Injection
Adapter (RIA) and a grout pump to
feed a suitable grout mix into the
hollow stem of the bolt. This grout
mix serves to transport the cuttings
produced by the drill bit, while stabi-
lizing the borehole, and consolidating
the undisturbed soil. Optimum filling
of the borehole is thus guaranteed.
The most common grouting method
is post grouting, as an independent
operation after the bolt has been
installed. This is carried out manually
from the drillrig basket, or any other
MAI M400 grout pump.
| 34
service platform, by connecting a
grouting adapter to the protruding end
of the MAI SDA bolt.
Suitable and flexible grouting units
are the MAI M400 grout pump, and
the Atlas Copco Craelius Unigrout E
22. The grout is pumped into the
hollow stem of the MAI SDA rock-
bolt, and is distributed through the
MAI drill bit into the borehole. Any
cavities and cracks along the bolt are
filled, along with the hole, resulting in
a strong adhesion between the SDA
rockbolt, the grout and the surround-
ing soil and rock. Once the grout has
cured, after some 8-12 hours, the SDA
rockbolt can be pre-tensioned to the
specified torque.
Umbrella System at
Montegiglio
mm—m~ — ••• •P>M»
The Montegiglio tunnel will assist
rock production at Colle Pedrino and
Montegiglio quarries, by providing
efficient conveyor transport of quarried
material to the Calusco d'Adda
cement factory. The tunnel is being
excavated by a TBM, which is operated
5 days/week in three 8 h shifts, with
maintenance carried out during the
first morning shift.
During the initial excavation in the
Flysch di Bergamo geology, contractor
Strabag Del Favero suspected weak
ground conditions lay ahead, and car-
ried out a horizontal investigation
along the axis of the tunnel. This indi-
cated that further advance with the
TBM would achieve only limited
Umbrella of 24 Atlas Copco MAI Systems® SDA
rockbolt, type R51L at Montegiglio.
results. In fact, at that point, the exca-
vation met some micaceous sand-
stones with silts and clay layers of the
consistency of damp sand, with very
low cohesion due to the weak grain
bond. TBM advance became
difficult, with material collapsing from
the crown.
Atlas Copco proposed the use of a
Boomer H145 with two booms and
COP 1440 rock drills. The feed length
was adapted to 4.4 m, to match the
diameter of the tunnel, Umbrellas
comprising 24 Atlas Copco MAI SDA
type R51L bolts were installed, with a
length of 9 m and an overlap of 3 m.
Each such umbrella permitted excava-
tion of 6 m lengths of tunnel, in steps
of 1 m.
After mechanical adjustments of
the Boomer, installation of the umbrella
took around 15 h, and excavation of
the tunnel proceeded successfully on
this basis.
by Olle Karlsson
Rock Reinforcement
Rock Reinforcement is a 120-
page reference edition from
Atlas Copco, dealing with
this subject in much greater
detail. For more information
and to secure a copy visit
www.rockreinforcement.com
FACE DRILLING
 ALPTRANSIT, SWITZERLAND
a
Ahead of Schedule at
Lotschberg
Sophistication at
Mitholz
The logistics of excavating 24 km of
tunnels to build 16.2 linear km of the
Lotschberg base tunnel in the hard
limestone of the Swiss Alps were
bound to generate a few new ideas.
Given the job, the Satco joint ven­
ture, comprising some of the world's
most experienced drill/blast contrac­
tors, came up with a complete pur­
pose-designed excavation system.
Spearheaded by some of the most
sophisticated drillrigs available, the
spoil clearance arrangements are
the most capital intensive ever to
be installed into a tunnel project.
Justification of this expenditure
places an enormous burden on the
prime face equipment supplier, both
to come up with the goods and t o
maintain their reliability. Rock has to
be excavated on a continuous basis
to keep the system fed, and speed
and efficiency are key elements of
success. Satco chose Atlas Copco
Rocket Boomer XL3 С drillrigs with
ABC Regular semi-automatic boom
control for production drilling, with
Rocket Boomer L2 С twin-boom
machines for the smaller-section
work. The rigs are equipped with
Secoroc rock drilling tools, and
Swellex rockbolts are used for imme­
diate support. This combination of
job-matched Atlas Copco equipment,
together with first-class on-site main­
tenance support, has given Satco a
vital edge. As a result, they have a
flagship project that is already six
months ahead of schedule.

Introduction
The Alps of Switzerland are a formidable
geographical barrier between the southern
and northern trading states of the European
Union. The roads and railways are con­
centrated into the narrow alpine valleys
and passes, and these have become corri­
dors along which increasing amounts of
goods are carried. The existing infrastruc­
ture has become grossly overloaded with
through traffic, and worries about the
impact of this situation have been voiced Atlas Copco BoomerXL3 С drills a full
for many years. face at Mitholz.
When the people voted in a referendum
to keep Switzerland out of the EU, it gave
fresh impetus to the idea of base tunnels
that would ferry freight trains through the
country on short, fast routes, relieving the
roads and improving the environment.
The Alptransit scheme was promoted on
this pretext, as the subject of bi-lateral

35 |
FACE DRILLING
ЕЭ ALPTRANSIT, SWITZERLAND
вРЧШ
, fx/sf/w; conventional
railway lines
i Lotschberg base tunnel
Map of Lotschberg tunnel alignment.
agreements between Switzerland and
the EU. The Swiss will invest in the infra­
structure, and the EU will pay the transit
fees.
The Gotthard and Lotschberg base tun­
nels are the major cost and time elements
in the Alptransit scheme, and are also on
the critical path.
Lotschberg Alignment
The Lotschberg route, which is being
developed primarily as a heavy goods
conduit, is in the most advanced stage of
construction, and will be ready for 2007.
The route runs through the Alps in the
west of Switzerland, building on the infra­
structure of the existing Lotschberg line,
and incorporating the modernized Simplon
base tunnel. The missing link is the
34.6 km-long Lotschberg base tunnel,
where excavation is being tackled on a
number of fronts. BLS AlpTransit AG has
been commissioned by the Swiss Federal
authorities to implement the design and
construction of the tunnel, using funds
derived mainly from tax revenue.
36
The overall plan caters for two separate
single-track tubes at 35 m separation.
However, in the first phase of construction,
only one of these tubes will be excavated,
between the north portals at Frutigen and the
projected service station at Mitholz. On this
section, the 7.5 km-long Kandertal explo­
ration tunnel, driven by a 5 m-diameter
Robbins hardrock TBM in 1994, runs
parallel with the main tunnel, and will per­
form the function of second egress for rescue
and emergency purposes. To the south of
Mitholz, as far as the southern portal in
Raron, two tubes will be driven, but, between
Mitholz and Ferden, only one of them will be
equipped for rail use for the time being.
Transverse connections will be made
between the twin tunnels at 333 m intervals,
to facilitate safe emergency evacuation.
Mitholz Attack
From the base of the Mitholz access adit,
the main Lotschberg running tunnels are
being driven by Satco, a joint venture led
by Strabag with Vinci, Skanska, Rothpletz
& Lienhard, and Walo Bertschinger.
Two drill/blast faces are underway for
8.7 km towards the south, and another face
is being driven some 7.5 km towards the
north portals. The decision on the timing of
the second drive north from Mitholz is still
awaited, so only the east tube is being exca­
vated in this direction for the time being.
The 1.5 km-long, 67 sq m Mitholz adit,
from which these three drives are accessed,
is located some 8 km from the north end of
the Lotschberg base tunnel alignment. Its
entrance is across a bridge built over the
river that runs through the worksite.
An old quarry area has been levelled, to
provide stocking room for rock spoil pro­
duced from the tunnel, and an overland
conveyor system has been installed from
the adit entrance.
At the base of the 12 % gradient adit is a
220 sq m cross-passage to house a perma­
nent electrical substation for the operating
railway. During the construction phase this
is serving as an aggregate stocking facility.
Main Face Development
Tunnels have been developed from the
base of the adit in both directions at cross-
sections of 120 sq m, to a maximum of
220 sq m at junctions to accommodate ser­
vice installations.
FACE DRILLING

km 14.500
The three main faces are being
advanced using computerized Atlas Copco
Rocket Boomer XL3 С drillrigs, each
equipped with ABC Regular semi­
automatic boom control with two control
systems, and using two operators working
from two panels. PC cards are used to
transfer drillplan data from the planning
office to the machines.
The big XL3 Cs are backed up by two
Atlas Copco L2 С drillrigs to handle all
work behind the faces, such as bolting,
cross passage development, and extraneous
excavation.
Standard Swellex rockbolts, in 3 m and
4 m lengths, are being installed as immediate
support, normally at 1.5 m spacing in the
roof and shoulders of each drive. The main
tunnels will be finished to a standard 62 sq m
cross-section. All of the ancillary face
equipment, such as transformers, ventilation
extensions, and cable reels, is installed on
backup platforms suspended on rails slung
from the roof. This arrangement affords
maximum manoeuvring room for the large
numbers of mobile equipment in operation.
Each full, 8 m-wide x 8.5 m-high, face
is drilled out by a Boomer XL3 С to 4.5 m
depth using Secoroc model-37 48 mm, 9-
button ballistic bits with R35 thread.
Between 105 and 120 holes are required,
together with two 102 mm breaker holes in
the centre. Average drilling rate is 3 m/min,
and face and rockbolt drilling takes some
3 h. The rock comprises good, hard lime­
stone, which is pregraded К1, K2 or КЗ by
the client's geologist. The various grades
are routed through the crushing and screen­
ing system, to facilitate reuse as aggregate.
In the north, probeholes are maintained
40 m ahead of the face, drilled in the
crown by a Boomer XL3 С equipped with
a RAS rod adding system. Methane detec­
tion triggers a warning system on the drill­
rigs, and the monitoring system on the
suspended backup will switch off HT
electrics if a dangerous concentration is
encountered.
FACE DRILLING
ALPTRANSIT, SWITZERLAND
•
km 49.110
In the karstic limestone to the south, Section ofLotschberg tunnel from
specialist sub-contractor Morissette is Frutigen to Raron.
coring 250-300 m-long horizontal probe
holes from one of the faces. Hydraulic test­
ing and ground probing radar are also
used. Average water inflows of 100 lit/sec
have been experienced, with a maximum
pressure of 42 bar.
These precautions will be needed for
another 3 km, until the faces are safely into
the Aar massif again. Until the south faces
reach their zenith, any major water flows
encountered will drain back into a channel
leading to the Kandertal exploration gallery.
Granite and gneiss are expected towards
the end of the drives. The total excavated
volume of rock at Mitholz is expected to
be some 1.8 million cu m, of which
700,000 cu m will be reused for shotcrete
and concrete.
Excavation and Mucking
All blasting at Mitholz utilizes site sensi­
tised emulsion (SSE) explosives supplied
by Dyno Nobel Sweden and charged using
two large-capacity Dyno trucks, each
equipped with two charging systems.
Some 2 t of the three-component mix is
used each working day. The inert bulk
component accounts for 99% by weight
and volume, so the secondary components
can be introduced in the hole using a static
mixer. Hence, the mixture does not
become explosive until it is safely in the
hole, avoiding most of the problems asso­
ciated with storage, transportation and
charging of live explosives.
The profile holes are charged at 50%
density, to control overbreak. Force venti­
lation for the main faces is provided
through 2.2 m-diameter flexible ducts for
the duration of drilling, support and load­
ing operations. The airflow is reversed
during blasting, aided by a secondary force
fan mounted on the suspended backup,
which provides flushing air through a Secoroc 48 mm button bit for Boomer
1.7 m duct. XL3 С at Mitholz.
37 |
н ALPTRANSIT, SWITZERLAND
A mountain ofSwellex rockbolts beneath the Mitholz
peak.
The blasted face is made safe using an
excavator-mounted rock scaler. A 5 cu m
LHD equipped with side-tipping bucket
carries the spoil back to a 1,000 t/h mobile
crusher, located some 50-100 m behind
each face. From here, the crushed rock is
delivered by a 330 m overlap stage con­
veyor to a 300 t/h trunk conveying system,
and thence to a handling plant operated by
a subcontractor close to the adit bottom.
Each round yields some 700 t, and there
is bunkering for 1.5 rounds from the south
faces and one round from the north face.
At each handling plant, the rock is further
crushed to -200 mm, with oversize scalped
by a grizzley. Vertical pocket elevators
carry the spoil 20 m up to the adit convey­
or loading points, from where two 400 t/h
tubed belt systems take it to the surface,
for transport to the nominated stockpiles.
A fleet of five articulated dumptrucks is
kept permanently available for use, in case
of conveyor breakdown.
Support and Lining
Prior to rockbolting, the roof and sides are
shotcreted, using one of four available
mobile concrete spraying systems.
Compressed air for shotcreting is supplied
by Atlas Copco stationary compressors.
Some 20-30 Swellex rockbolts are then
installed, using the Boomer XL3 С to drill
the 38 mm holes. Rock cover varies from
1,000 m to a maximum of 2,000 m beneath
the Mitholz peaks. In squeezing ground,
38
wire mesh and steel fibre reinforced shot-
crete will be used. Rockbursting may occur
at the far south end of the alignment,
where crystalline rock is expected.
Permanent lining is underway, with
250 mm-thick cast in-situ concrete formed
over a drainage membrane. Around a kilo­
metre had been completed by Autumn,
2002, with the crown of the tunnel posi­
tioned 7.2 m above the top of the rail track.
There is also a tunnel and shaft system
to facilitate permanent access to the elec­
trical substation, which is located between
the proposed running tunnel tracks. This
system will be used for access to the
visitor centre on the upper level, for
the duration of the project.
Progress
The site is working flat out on a 7 day/3
shift operation, with four face crews of 9
or 10 men rotating. Most of the workforce
comprises experienced crews from Austria
and Sweden, so training has not been diffi­
cult. The drillrig operators were given
basic conversion training by Atlas Copco
Suisse on the Rocket Boomer XL3 Cs
before delivery, and then received around
three months on-the-job instruction by
experienced Atlas Copco site engineers.
The maintenance fitters were supported by
Atlas Copco until competent, and an engi­
neer and service containers are located at
site for the duration of the contract.
Despite reaching the water-bearing
karstic limestone in the south faces, tun­
nelling progress is well ahead of schedule,
with over 50% of the Mitholz contract
completed. The drillrigs have been advanc­
ing 250-300 m/month on each face, with a
maximum achieved of 338 m/month.
If the Mitholz drillrigs reach the south­
ern contract boundary ahead of the Spring,
2005 schedule, they will probably carry on
to meet the Ferden north faces. The
Mitholz north face is currently six months
ahead of schedule, and should connect
with the Frutigen portals in mid-2003. •
Acknowledgements
Atlas Copco is indebted to Satco and
Alp trans it Lotschberg for permission to
publish this article and, in particular, to
Wolfgang Lehner, project manager at
Mitholz, for his assistance with interviews
and site visit.
FACE DRILLING
 PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
b.
Overcoming Mixed Geology
at Mrazovka
Drilling for Boodex
and Blastholes
When incorrect assumptions were
made about the hardness of the rock
on the south side of Prague's
Mrazovka Hill, the situation was
retrieved by using an Atlas Copco L2 С
drillrig. The full flexibility of the
drill/blast technique was instrumental
in easing the face past sensitive instal­
lations located both above and below
the drive. Meantime, in much softer
strata at the north end of the tunnel,
t w o L2 Cs were converted to the
Boodex system to enable the contrac­
tor to install and maintain an arch of
20-23 grouted umbrella holes over
the crown. This system employs a
90 mm Odex pilot bit with 123 mm ex- lane to Radlicka Street, while the eastern North portals of Mrazovka where the
centre drillbit to drill the holes, using tube will have two lanes plus an entry lane motorway through the Strahov tunnel
3 m-long R38 extension steel. This is from Radlicka Street. Both will have stan­ comes to an abrupt end.
followed into the hole by threaded dard cross-sections of 160 sq m. At the
3 m-long sections of 115 mm perfor­ south end, the tunnel will portal under
ated casing tube to full depth of 12 m.
Then the Odex bit and extension steel Radlicka Street in extensive box structures,
is withdrawn, leaving the casing in where it joins the proposed Zlichov-
place. The hole is pumped with stiff Radlicka road. The whole job is scheduled
cement at 5 bar pressure, through a to take four years and be complete by 2003.
hose with an expandable packer.
The manoeuvrability and adapt­
ability of the Atlas Copco L2 С drillrigs Designing Support
have enabled the contractors at both
ends of the tunnel to maintain opera­ A 700 m-long pilot tunnel with arched
tions under adverse circumstances, 12 sq m section was driven earlier by
with little impact on cost and time, Metrostav, using a roadheader from the
and without substantially changing north end of the alignment of the proposed
the overall completion schedule.
west tube of the Mrazovka tunnel, close to
the crown position. This probed the geology
Introduction
The Strahov tunnel in Prague, commis­
sioned in 1998 as part of the northern ring
road, exits at its lower portal in front of
Mrazovka hill. This is a physical barrier that
must be crossed by the highway before it
can link with the Barrandov bridge, the main
route to Bohemia and the Czech border with
Germany. Construction of the 1 km-long
Mrazovka tunnel and the associated 2 km-
long Zlichov-Radlicka road will complete
the city circle road in Smichov district.
The western tube at Mrazovka will Location of Mrazovka tunnel on the
STRAK0NICE
accommodate two traffic lanes and an exit Prague ring road.

FACE DRILLING 39 |
 PRAGUE. CZECH REPUBLIC
Excavating the bench behind the
sidewall headings at the north end.
Atlas Copco Rocket Boomer 352
rockbolting in the north crown heading
of the west tube.
| 40
along the first section at a depth of 40 m
beneath the hill. It continued under the
next valley, where tall buildings have only
15-20 m cover to the crown of the main
tunnel. However, assumptions were made
for the final 300 m of alignment, where the
cover is 50 m. Because there are no high
rise buildings on this section, the pilot
drive was deemed to be unnecessary, and
was discontinued.
Sampling from side galleries, and cores
from exploration holes, revealed soft,
Prague black shale along the length of the
pilot tunnel, and so the planners went ahead
with designs for soft ground main tunnels,
using NATM techniques from both portals.
Monitoring of the pilot tunnel assisted in
the design of the excavation and support
system for the north end of the road tunnel.
Contracts were let in late-1998 for the
construction of the west tube, with
Metrostav winning the north section, com-
prising 60% of the work by volume, and
Subterra getting the remaining work from
the south portal. Six cross passages, trans-
former and pumping stations, and the
79.2 m-deep ventilation shaft with lateral
connection were all included in the west
tube works. The total excavation volume
for the west tube is 176,729 cu m. Tunnel
for three-lane traffic is driven at 159 sq m
section, while two-lane is at 107 sq m, and
single-lane at 83 sq m. Where the tunnels
branch to form the two underground
junctions, the section increases to a maxi-
mum of 324 sq m. The underground fan
room is 207 sq m section.
The contract for the east tube from the
north portal was commenced by Metrostav
inearly-2001.
Geology
The bedrock along the route of the tunnels
was formed by sedimentation as part of the
north-east Ordovician Barrandian syncline,
which features a wide scale of alternating
pellitic and psamitic rocks. These are char-
acterized by different degrees of weathering,
changes of direction and pitches of bedding
planes, and numerous tectonic fault zones.
The overlying formations of diluvial sedi-
ments comprise sandy loams to sandy clays,
with consistency varying from rigid to solid,
and made ground of varying depth. Where
these are weathered, there is crack porosity,
and the water table tends to penetrate
deeper. This is prevalent in cracked, steeply
bedded quartzites, or in fault zones. From
the northern portal, the alignment passes
through Letna shales for about
200 m, with an overburden of 5 m to 40 m,
then into more Letna shales with 16 m to
21 m cover. Between U Santosky and
Bieblova Streets, the tunnels pass through
Revnice quartzites with 20 m cover, and
then into Letna shales with flysch, before
diving under Pavi vrch where, in the exhaust
ventilation shaft position, the depth is 80 m.
North Portal
The north end of the tunnel has the benefit
of good geological information and the
advantage of a pilot drive to follow.
Metrostav decided initially to drive a full-
width top heading, and the first 120 m was
successfully mined in this fashion, com-
mencing in January, 1999. However, the
amount of settlement measured on
Mrazovka Hill dictated a change in method
before passing under populated areas, and
the contractor opted for traditional NATM
side galleries developed 35 m ahead of the
FACE DRILLING
 PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC

crown excavation. The temporary shotcrete

walls of the side galleries were removed 55 m
behind the faces, when the crown excava­
tion had advanced some 20 m. The steel
arches, bolts, mesh and shotcrete of the
pilot drive were removed in the process.
Excavators were used in the shale, and
hydraulic hammers broke out the concrete.
When the faces ran into quartzite, which is
present in irregular quantities, two Atlas
Copco Rocket Boomer L2 С drillrigs and a
Boomer 352 were ready and available for
drill/blast operations. Up to 200 m of
drill/blast advance was planned. Face load­
ing was generally by excavator into articu­
lated dumptrucks, or by tracked loader on
back work.
The exposed face in the side galleries
was first shotcreted, and then rockbolts
were installed into holes drilled by one of
the Atlas Copco rigs. Four-strand lattice
girders were erected on the permanent
sidewalls, and three-strand girders on the
temporary inner walls. The heading was
then given a second coating of shotcrete.
Metrostav has driven the three-lane
eastern tube from the north portal, again
using the sidewall drift method. To shorten
the construction time, some 90 m of right
sidewall drift was excavated from an
opening at cross passage No 5, and another
110 m was driven from cross passage
No 3. The left sidewall drift was excavated Both of the Rocket Boomer L2 С drill­ Plan of the Mrazovka tunnel in Prague.
in 15 m lengths. This is being followed by rigs have been adapted to Boodex drilling
drilling and consolidation grouting of the by replacing the standard drifter feed by a
section passing under the built-up area. specially designed feed. The drifter shank
adapter is replaced by a special-length
Boodex System Boodex adapter. The front and intermediate
drill steel supports are modified to accept
An arch of 20-23 grouted umbrella holes the 115 mm casing tube, and the rockdrill
was maintained over the crown to protect cradle is equipped with a discharge head to
the stretches of tunnel that pass under sur­ collect the rock cuttings. A hydraulic cylin­
face buildings. These were installed by the der moves the collector to one side to facil­
L2 С drillrigs using the Atlas Copco Boodex itate the addition of casing tubes, and other
system, a derivative of the more conven­ small modifications are made to the
tional Odex drilling system. To drill the hydraulic systems to match the new duty.
hole, a 90 mm Odex pilot bit with 123 mm The drillrigs take an average of 3-5 min
ex-centre drillbit is used, followed into the to drill each 3 m length, and pipe addition
hole by threaded 3 m-long sections of takes another 10 min. The 3 m pipes were
115 mm perforated casing tube. 3 m-long chosen because they are light enough to be
R38 extension rods allow the hole to be manhandled, whereas longer pipes would
drilled and lined to full depth of 12 m or require lifting gear
15 m, when the Odex bit and extension steel Drilling was not always straightforward
can be withdrawn, leaving the casing in because of the proliferation of other steel,
place. Pumping of the stiff water/cement such as rockbolts and injection pipes,
grout is carried out using a Craelius Unigrout many of which were installed in the pilot
200-100E-01 pump at 5 bar pressure drive, and not mapped. A 20-hole umbrella
through a hose with an expandable packer. generally took 48 h to drill and grout.

FACE DRILLING 41 |
 PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC

South Portal
Work from the South Portal commenced
with a roadheader. This was replaced by a
Rocket Boomer L2 С when the rock quali­
ty changed.

ШШт Щ/1 However, because of habitation over­

PJK^-- - «дм»'.'.1' •"- Ц и Г Н
L№ 1 шьМ'-^-
^ И Р ^ Л р - ! ' .Jtt ""'
flodref Boomer 12 С drilling the top
heading at the south face.
South portals are accessed by a
temporary tunnel beneath the Zlichov-
Radlicka road.
П 76 sq m section. As they passed through a
llCm- 1 ш Est"
The whole 221 m-long section of the
western tube passing under the built-up
area was protected by 115 mm Boodex
spiles. According to Metrostav, these pro­
tection umbrellas significantly increased
ground stability, and reduced settlement.
On average, 18 pipes of 12 m or 15 m
length were installed in each umbrella,
with a 3 m overlap, using the modified
Rocket Boomer L2 С Total installation
length of Boodex spiles in the western tube
was 5,746 m.
Some 175 m of the eastern tube passing
under the built-up area also required
Boodex umbrella protection, with 15 m-
long pipes and 3 m overlap. With an esti­
mated 18-20 pipes per umbrella, the total
length of spiles drilled in the eastern tube
was 4,375 m.
Convergence stations are installed at
15 m intervals throughout the drive, and
these are monitored daily.
head, and a main collector sewer beneath,
progress was necessarily slow on the initial
60 m danger zone above the sewer with
just 6 m clearance, each round of 220 holes
in the top heading was drilled to only 1 m
depth in the 30-200 Mpa shale. They were
charged with packaged dynamite and
primed with millisecond delays, and blast­
ing was restricted to between the hours of
07.00 and 21.00. Two rounds constituted
one unit of advance, and four blasts/day
were achieved. The invert of the 107 sq m
full-section tunnel cleared the crown of the
sewer by just one metre!
There are two positive aspects of this
rather unexpected situation: the improved
rock quality required less support, so the
shotcrete thickness was reduced from
35 cm to 20 cm and the weight of the four-
strand lattice girders was cut; and the pro­
filing is much better than plan, with
overbreak averaging less than 1 sq m
against the contract allowance of 4.2 sq m/m
advance. A pattern of 10 x 3 m-long
Swellex rockbolts was installed, after shot-
creting, every 2 m on advance.
Once the sewer was passed, the drillrig
resumed 2 m rounds until it reached the
position of the ventilation drivage, where a
connection was made with the 75 m-deep,
7.5 m-diameter surface shaft. Once the
junction position was reached, it was pos­
sible to open a second face, on which
Subterra used one of its existing fleet of
Rocket Boomer 352 drillrigs.
Subterra has since completed excava­
tion of the single-lane tunnel branch В
from the south portal and the double-lane
section of the eastern tunnel, using the
roadheader as a main production tool. •

Acknowledgements
Atlas Copco is grateful to Jiri Mosler of
Metrostav and Jan Vinter of Subterra, who
gave freely of their time for interviews.
Further information on the Mrazovka
project is available from the Prague office
of Atlas Copco by e-mail request to
jindrich. hummel@atlascopco. com

| « FACE DRILLING

New Generation of Drillrigs
Introduced in Hong Kong
Computerization
Improves Efficiency
The use of new generation CAN-bus
drillrigs in Hong Kong has been moni­
tored at two different jobsites. The
first is at Рак Shing Kok, where Atlas
Copco Rocket Boomer L2C drillrigs
equipped with ABC Regular have been
working for Hyundai-Kier; and the
second is at West Rail, where larger
Rocket Boomer WL3C drillrigs are
working for Nishimatsu and Dragages.
Despite hard and abrasive rock in both
situations, good average penetration
has been achieved, allied to economic
consumption of drillbits and rods.
Operator wages have been reduced
dramatically, thanks to computeriza­
tion of the drilling operation, and pro­
filing has been as good as expected,
given the other variables involved.
Introduction
The development of Hong Kong as a major
southern gateway for China continues
apace. Integral to the overall plan is the
enlargement ofthe freight railway system to
handle the huge volumes of goods coming
through the container port, which is now the
largest in the world after Rotterdam. We
describe here two major railway tunnel con­
tracts at which new generation Atlas Copco
Rocket Boomer drillrigs equipped with
CAN-bus control systems are at work.
MTRC Рак Shing Kok Tunnels
The Hong Kong MTRC Рак Shing Kok
tunnels comprise a complex of five inter­
connected tunnels driven as nine tunnels
totalling 6 km in length. The tunnels have
a cross-section of some 35 sq m. They are
located in crystalline pyroclastic rocks
resulting in a high wear ofthe bits. For the
drill and blast operations, the contractor
Hyundai-Kier Joint venture employed
three Atlas Copco Rocket Boomer L2C
drillrigs. These are two-boom rigs with a
CAN-bus based control system.
FACE DRILLING
HONG KONG, CHINA
Rocket Boomer WL3 С drillrigs working
The rigs are equipped with ABC
Regular boom navigation system. The for Nishimatsu and Dragages at a
operator guides the booms and feeds to the iiOsqm face.
correct positions using a preset drill pattern
presented on the display screen in the
driver's cab of the drillrig. The feeds can
host up to 14 ft-long rods to provide a
maximum hole depth of 4.2 m.
The rock is hard and abrasive, but not
as brittle as regular hard crystalline
basement rock. As a result, expectations
for penetration would normally be on the
low side, and bit wear would be high.
However, the average penetration achieved
at Рак Shing Kok is in the range of
2.5 m/min, and the service lives of bits,
rods and shanks are estimated to be 400 m,
8-9,000 m, and 8-9,000 m respectively.
These results are considered as good,
taking into account the high penetration
rate.
A single operator controlled the two
booms on each machine, and the total
drilling time, including positioning, for a
70-hole, 4 m round was 1.5 to 2 h. As the
manual moving ofthe boom from one hole
position to the next generally takes about
40 to 50 seconds, the operator was busy
with the levers for two thirds ofthe drilling
time. The tunnels are to be concrete lined,
so it is very important to keep overbreak at
a low level (Fig 1 overleaf).
43 |
 HONG KONG. CHINA

West rail tunnel contract D & В 350 West rail tunnel contract D & В 350
Hong Kong Overbreak (m) Hong Kong Underbreak (m)
(after shotcrete support) (after shotcrete support)
90 _ , , _ , » • . J

60

70

60

I 50
I 40
30

20
n
10 П,п,п, Ч—Ч ИЧ-
0 U U i LJ i U JUL о
о"
о
о
о
N.
О о 1

Overbreak (m) Underbreak (m)

Fig 7. Profile results at West Rail
tunnel contract D&B 350 chainage
1556 to 1997.
Control panel of the new Rocket
Boomer WL3 С
Tunnel No 6 was the first to be excav­ rocks. The joint venture companies
ated, and the ambition was to keep Nishimatsu and Dragages split the runnel
overbreak low by demanding smaller half each.
margins than usual, and the consequence Nishimatsu is using the new generation
was too much underbreak. Some of the Atlas Copco Rocket Boomer WL3 С CAN-
underbreak is explained by application of bus drillrigs for face work. The tunnel
too much shotcrete for primary support. design, which was produced by the joint
Certainly, better results with respect to venture, is a double-track single tube tunnel
overbreak have been achieved on other with a cross-section of 110 sq m. A concrete
projects, but it always comes down to the wall along the centre-line will separate the
ambition of the management and the two tracks from each other. The two WL3 С
incentive and skill of the labour. drillrigs have feeds long enough to handle
5.8 m holes. The drilled length of the
West Rail Contract DB 350 rounds varies generally from 5.0 to 5.8 m.
In poor rock, these long rounds are short­
The West Rail contract DB 350 comprises ened. This is important to bear in mind
a 5 km-long double-track tunnel located when overbreak is discussed later. The rigs
in the Repulse bay formation, which are equipped with ABC Total, which moves
comprises mainly crystalline pyroclastic the booms and feeds to new positions auto­
matically, after each hole is drilled.
The two rigs are positioned side by side
at the tunnel face, and each drills 77 holes
of the total 154 holes for the 110 sq m
face, plus three 4 in holes for the parallel
cut. The contour holes are given a spacing
of 35 to 40 cm. Generally, all but the con­
tour and the bottom holes are being drilled
in the "Total mode". The pull of each
round is about 90%. Two rounds per day,
25 days per month gives a production of
200-220 m per month. If the perimeter pro­
file is free of protruding rock, automatic
drilling is also used for the contour holes.
The wear on drilling tools is the same as
for the MTRC tunnels described earlier,
with the exception of the bit life, which is
around 500 m. Here again, it can be con­
cluded that the CAN-bus rig is treating the
drilling tools well.

| 44
FACE DRILLING
 HONG KONG, CHINA

One man operates the three-boom rig,
and when the Total mode is utilized the
booms have no downtime, even for shorter
rounds. The time for the drilling operation,
including setup, is in the range of 2-2.5 h,
and the penetration rate for the 48 mm
spherical button bits is 2.5 m/min. In cases
where only one drillrig has been used at
the face, the drilling of a full round takes
3.5 to 4 h.
Considering the length of the round,
with respect to the poorer rock quality,
overbreak cannot match the result from the
MTRC tunnels. Without any splitting on
rock-classes, the results from 450 m of
tunnel are shown in Fig 2 below. Here, as
in the MTRC project, the drilling of the
contour holes starts 10 cm outside the
theoretical line, and the bottom holes
30 cm outside the theoretical line. What is
surprisingly encouraging, is that under-
break is found only in half the surveyed
sections and, where found, only small
quantities are registered. As the deviation
is a multiplication of 2x the length of the
hole, a 5.5 m-long hole can be expected to
deviate 50% more than a 4 m-long hole.
Consequently, the underbreak ought to be
more embarrassing than in the MTRC
case.
Information on the rock quality provid­
Conclusions Rocket Boomer WL3 Cs used at West
Rail.
It is very important for machine suppliers
to have good working relationships with
experienced customers, as they, to some
extent, become partners in the development
of new equipment. Atlas Copco believes
that its new generation drillrigs will
become profitable tools when chasing costs
in tunnel construction. Improvements, such
as better drill steel economy, savings on
operator wages, and higher utilization have
resulted in a good reception of the new
series of drillrigs in Hong Kong. While the
results for overbreak are not conclusive,
they are favourable, and there is no doubt
that the higher accuracy of the CAN-bus Fig 2. Profile results at contract 611,
drillrigs is a contributing factor. • MTRC.
Contract 611, MTRC Hong Kong
Over and Underbreak
0,500
0,400
0,300
0,200 1 m —n_
0,100
0,000 \ • | ш • • • - ' • • . ' "

i i ^ -
ed by the contractor shows that almost all
-0,10 0
excavation is in rock having a value higher
than 10, which can be considered as good. -0 . 2 0 0
Overbreak caused by geology should not Overbreak Tunnel 1-9
have been dominating in this case. Underbreak

FACE DRILLING 45 |
 DRESDEN. GERMANY
Driving the European Highway
Around Dresden
Twin Boomers Win on
Short Holes
At the highly-mechanized Dresden
site, face drilling in the top headings
was undertaken by two Atlas Copco
Rocket Boomer 352s standing side by
side. These were equipped with pro-
filers to feed hole positioning infor-
mation to the drillers, helping them
to drill accurately with minimum
overbreak. Contractor Walter Bau cal-
culated that, because of the short
holes and fast boom movements,
two-boom machines would give
better rewards than three-boom
machines. In soft rock, 70 holes/round
were drilled, but this number was
doubled in hard ground.
The added flexibility of the two-rig
system speeded up the drilling and
charging process, to the extent that
the entire excavation cycle could be
completed in 2.5 h. This facilitated up
to four rounds in each 24 h period,
leaving 14 h available for support
work and rock reinforcement, much
of which could be scheduled for the
night shift. The basket on the second
machine proved to be an extra asset
for charging and rock bolting.
Where immediate support was
required, Swellex rockbolts could be
installed and providing full support
up to 7 h earlier than conventional
cement grouted bolts. This was
invaluable in the softer ground near
the portals of the tunnels, where
pattern Swellex rockbolting was
used. Elsewhere, even in better rock
conditions, the project manager
favoured Swellex because the bolts
are faster to install and offer guaran-
teed support.
Dresden Bypass
The 8.85 km-long alignment of the
Dresden bypass from Gorbitz to
Sudvorstadt includes three tunnels and
three viaducts. The 345 m-long Altfranken
tunnel was constructed in cut and cover by
Hochtief, while Walter Bau undertook
the 1.07 km-long Dolzschen and the
2.337 km-long Coschutz conventional
| 46
tunnels using sequential excavation tech- Atlas Copco 352 equipped with drillrod
niques. All are three-lane, twin-tube cassette for umbrella drilling.
structures.
At the Walter Bau site, the 34 m-high,
225 m-long Talbrucke bridge over the
Wiesseritz Creek connects the Dolzschen
and Coschutz tunnels. The bridge con-
struction had to be completed before portal
access could be established at the north
end of Coschutz. Because Dolzschen is the
shorter of the two tunnels, the timing was
about right, and the second Coschutz face
was opened around the halfway stage of
construction. The Dolzschen tunnel broke
out onto the bridge in mid-2002.
The Wiesseritz Creek flows along a
steep-sided valley in which, in addition to
the river, there are also a road and a rail-
way. Properties along the ridge of the
valley had to be stabilized before any
portal work could commence. These
include Begerburg Castle, which was
underpinned using cable bolts from the
rock face to a purpose-built shaft. This was
a delicate exercise, and one which taxed
the resources of the most experienced
engineers.
The project is located in a semi-urban
environment, and Coschutz, in particular,
passes beneath a number of residential
properties. The Dolzschen alignment
passes close to the local Holsten brewery,
which is perhaps an even more sensitive
installation. In deference to the residents,
there are night-time blasting restrictions
from 20.00 to 06.00, and these dictate the
scheduling and sequence of operations.
FACE DRILLING

Coschutz and Dolzschen
The alignments of the two tunnels are pre­
dominantly in syenite, a hard rock with
around 10 % quartz content. They were
both driven by drill/blast in a single direc­
tion from twin portals, Coschutz from the
south-east and Dolzschen from the north­
west. They form a slow S bend with 900 m
minimum radius and 0.3 % grade.
Top headings of 72 sq m section were
established at both Coschutz and
Dolzschen, mainly in soft, mixed ground
requiring a lot of support.
The production fleet of 38 units of mobile
plant, which was split evenly between the
two sites, included eight Atlas Copco
Rocket Boomer 352 drillrigs to cover face
drilling, rockbolting, and umbrella drilling.
Shotcreting was handled by four jumbos,
and mucking by four loaders into nine
dumptrucks. Two excavators fitted with
small rock buckets were available for scal­
ing and digging out the corners of the faces.
Face drilling in the top headings was
undertaken by two Rocket Boomer 352s
standing side by side. These were equipped
with profilers which feed hole positioning
information to the drillers, helping them to
drill accurately and with minimum over-
break. The contractor calculated that,
because of the short holes and fast boom
movements, two-boom machines would give
better rewards than would be possible with
three-boom machines. The second machine
basket was an added asset for charging and
rock bolting. In soft rock, 70 holes/round
were drilled, but this number was doubled in
hard ground. Blasting utilized cartridged
slurry and millisecond delay detonators.
The added flexibility of the two-rig
system speeded up the drilling and charg­
ing process, to the extent that the entire
excavation cycle could be completed in
2.5 h. This facilitated up to four rounds in
each 24 h period, leaving 14 h available for
support work and rock reinforcement,
FACE DRILLING
DRESDEN. GERMANY
О 0uirlar^AullDllung
ф Pljner (miirb)
О Planei (! ( S I )
О Konglomeral
О Syenit (v2.v«)
Ф Syenii (vu.val
О TuMiie
О Porphyntlull
much of which could be scheduled for the Simplified geological section through
night shift. the two tunnels.
In the softer areas, rounds were drilled
1.4 m-deep for a 1.2 m pull, using 45 mm
ballistic button bits which averaged around
700 m useful life. Bit regrinding was con­
sidered uneconomic in these rock condi­
tions, and the bits were simply withdrawn
and disposed of when the drilling speed
slowed. A larger 48 mm bit was used ini­
tially, but the 45 mm size proved to yield a
better cost/metre.
At the 70 m mark, the Dolzschen faces
entered good rock, and, from then on,
rounds were drilled 2 m-deep for a 1.8 m
pull.
Swellex Support
Heavy gauge steel arches were set in the top
headings, with two layers of Q378 steel mesh
and two applications of shotcrete to roof,
sides and floor. A row of 4 m-long Swellex
rockbolts was set in a 22 m-long radial arch
at the face to give early support, and 5% of
these were randomly tested at 10 t pulling
pressure, as a routine matter of contract.
Where immediate support is required, it
was found that the Swellex rockbolts could
be in place and providing full support up to
7 h earlier than conventional cement grout­
ed bolts. This was invaluable in the softer High level of activity at the Coschutz
ground towards the ends of the tunnels, portals.
47 |
 DRESDEN, GERMANY
Drilling profile holes at the top
heading face.
Route ofDolzschen and Coschutz
tunnels around Dresden.
| 48
where pattern rockbolting was used.
Elsewhere, in better rock conditions, the
contractor favoured the system because the
Swellex bolts were faster to install and
offered guaranteed support. The consistent
use of top specification rockbolts is reck-
oned to improve the overall quality and
integrity of the tunnel.
When the ground got too soft for conven-
tional excavation, two Rocket Boomer 352
machines equipped with drillrod cassettes
were available. These were employed
drilling 15 m-long holes around the periph-
ery of the crown using Odex eccentric bits
and extension drillrods. The holes were then
lined with perforated steel tubes through
which cement grout was pumped to form a
protective umbrella. Beneath this umbrella,
a 12 m advance could safely be made.
The full, flattened ovoid section of
150 sq m has been achieved with a 41 sq m
following bench and a 37 sq m invert.
The benches were established once the
first crosspassage positions were reached,
at around the 300 m mark. The latter are
10 m-long between the two tubes, and
were mined at 4 m-diameter. This is larger
than required by the client, but permitted
the free movement of loaders, dumpers and
drillrigs whenever the bench ramps were
unavailable. Later on, they were lined with
thick concrete for use as pedestrian emer-
gency passageways. There are four cross-
passages at Dolzschen and seven at
Coschutz, the central one of which was left
large enough for cars.
The benches each required a drillrig
and shotcrete jumbo, as did the invert
excavations.
There will also be two underground
technical centres in the longer tunnel and
another in the second tunnel. These will
house control gear for fire detection, water,
cameras, telephones and emergency com-
munications, together with switchgear for
the permanent ventilation installations.
Three 10 m-deep shafts will connect the
technical centres with the surface, providing
separate access for cabling and pipework.
Each site is equipped with its own con-
crete mixing plant in order to give 100%
independence of supply. These are fully
automatic 120 cu m/h installations equipped
with 1,350 kW heating plants to combat the
wintry conditions in this part of Germany.
Hot air, dry steam and hot water can be used
to bring the aggregate temperature up to
20 degrees Celsius in the conical stockpiles.
The output of each plant was 9,000 cu m/
month of shotcrete for the top headings
and bench excavations. The plants were
also called upon to provide 450,000 cu m
of concrete with which to line the com-
pleted excavations. A fleet of six 8 cu m
mixer trucks transported shotcrete and con-
crete into the tunnels. •
Acknowledgements
Atlas Copco is grateful to contractors
Walter Bau for their assistance in the
production of this article.
FACE DRILLING
Long Awaited Encore at
Graz in Austria
Two Generations of
Hydraulic Drillrigs
When Ostu-Stettin was awarded the
second tube of the 9.9 km-long
Plabutsch tunnel that bypasses the
city of Graz, Austria, there was not
much doubt about whose drillrigs
they would choose. Twenty years ear-
lier, the same contractor had entered
the record books by achieving a pre-
viously unheard-of six rounds a day
when excavating the first Plabutsch
tube using the Raildrill TH-477 elec-
trohydraulic rig. The parameters of
face drilling have changed significant-
ly since then, but the underlying
requirement for quality of manufac-
ture and reliability in service remain
the same. At the second Plabutsch the west of Plabutsch mountain, which Plan and section of Plabutsch tunnel
project, the demand was for good would have bypassed Graz without the ben- located on the west side of Graz in
profiling to reduce the generation of efit of reasonable access, to tunnels of vari- Austria.
spoil; accurate drilling and blasting to ous lengths and configurations from the
avoid vibration damage to the paral- north suburbs to the south suburbs. In the
lel tube, which was still in operation;
and adaptability for multi-task drilling event, the shortest tunnel route was chosen,
for blasting, roof support, and ground involving a 9.9 km tunnel without the need
anchor installation. The Atlas Copco for junctions. The route simply utilized the
Rocket Boomer L3 Cs and L2 Cs mountainside to the west of the city as a
excelled in all three, resulting in the convenient medium by which to join the
excavation being completed on time
and within budget.
A9 north to the A9 south. Traffic condi-
tions at the time warranted a single-tube,
bi-directional tunnel which was duly built
Introduction over a 5-year period from 1982 to 1987. It
was preceded by a full-length 10 sq m
There was a long debate in the late 1970s exploratory drill/blast pilot drive driven
about the route that should be adopted for from both ends, positioned in the upper
the proposed bypass of the historic city centre section of the proposed main tunnel
of Graz, in Austria. The traditionalists alignment. Austrian contractor Ostu-Stettin
favoured a route through the suburbs, a developed the main face from the north end
suggestion which raised an outcry from the using an Atlas Copco TH-477 electrohy-
people whose homes were on the alignment draulic drillrig fitted with COP 1038HD
and would be adversely affected. The envi- drifters, and mucking with a Hagglunds HR
ronmentalists, who were particularly active shuttle train. The company records show
during that period, added their weight to that an average of six 3 m rounds was
the argument, pointing out that trunk roads blasted every 24 h, to produce a maximum
bring noise, vibration and airborne pollu- daily advance of 18 m - quite something in
tion in the form of dust and exhaust fumes. those early days of hydraulic rockdrills!
After some very public demonstrations, it
became clear to the authorities that an urban Design Foresight
motorway was not the solution, so a series
of seven alternatives was drawn up. These Meantime, the provincial authority respon-
ranged from a 30 km-long surface route to sible for financing the tunnel agreed a plan

FACE DRILLING 49 |
 GRAZ, AUSTRIA

panelled structures, supported by niches in

Atlas Copco Boomer L3 С drillrig at the
south bench.
Atlas Copco Rocket Boomer 352S
drilling the top heading.
that would take account of the perceived
future need of a second tube. Accordingly,
twin portals were excavated at each end of
the alignment, and the two ventilation
shafts and fan caverns were excavated to
the larger dimension.
The shafts were 90 m and 240 m deep,
and were blind raised using a raise climber,
and then back-slyped to 80 sq m throughout
their length. They were each equipped with
central dividers so that they could handle
both fresh air and exhaust ventilation. The
fan caverns at the base of each of the shafts
were excavated in 1982, and extended onto
the proposed line of the second tube, where
stub tunnels were installed to allow resump­
tion of excavation without interruption.
The ventilation distribution system in
the first Plabutsch tube is installed into the
roof of the tunnel, where separated fresh air
and exhaust ducts are contained in concrete
the tunnel walls and by steel suspension
braces from the crown. The panel separat­
ing the two ducts is cast in place around the
steel braces. The ventilation system is split
into five sections spread over the length of
the tunnel. There are horizontal access
roads to the ventilation caverns for use in
emergency. These are 50 sq m cross-section
and are 700 m-long at the north shaft
and 100 m-long at the south shaft.
Conveniently, the north emergency access
tunnel exits about 700 m from the Graz
General Hospital, making the Plabutsch
tunnel unique in its on-site facilities!
The alignment of the tunnel is straight
over most of its length from the north
portal, turning through 90 degrees to exit
in an easterly direction at the south end,
some 4 km from the airport. The tunnel has
a continuous gradient of 1%, with
40 m-long laybys at 900 m intervals, and
emergency phones installed at 212 m inter­
vals. There is video surveillance over the
whole tunnel length, and the electric doors
guarding the emergency exits can be oper­
ated by remote control, using the cameras
for observation. The existing tunnel carries
22,000 vehicles/day throughout the year as
a section of the A9 Pyrhn autobahn.
Plabutsch Two
The new, second tunnel is being construct­
ed from both ends by a joint venture of
Ostu Stettin Leoben and Hinteregger
Salzburg over a period of four years from
July, 1999 to Summer, 2003. This pro­
gramme allows two years for excavation,
one year for concreting, and one year for
equipment installation.
The alignment is parallel to the existing
tunnel on its west side, at a spacing of
50 m, and will be connected to it by pedes­
trian crosspassages at 400 m intervals.
Blasting restrictions are in force to limit
vibration which may affect the traffic
tunnel, and the maximum round allowable
is 4 m as a consequence. All mucking is by
loaders into dumptrucks, with the minor
exception of the crosspassages, for which a
low-profile LHD loader is used.
Both ends are advanced as top headings,
with 1.2-2.5 m following benches, and a
drain at one metre below floor datum. The
top headings, when in sound rock, are
drilled with a pattern of 45 x 45 mm holes,
using throwaway ballistic bits. Four Atlas

50
FACE DRILLING
 GRAZ, AUSTRIA

Copco Rocket Boomer drillrigs handle all

of the drilling requirements. These are
multi-task machines, and are equipped
with computer assisted hole positioning
and semi-automatic drilling programmes.

South End
At the south portals, some 700 m of cut and
cover was constructed as part of the 1980
contract, and this section has been used as
the west carriageway exit for some 15 years.
The northbound traffic crosses over from
the bi-directional natural tunnel to the cut
and cover section at the portals, to emerge in
the correct carriageway of the motorway.
This section of the original tunnel has now
been closed so that it can be utilized by con­
struction traffic for the duration of the con­
tract. Another 600 m of cut and cover has
been constructed to connect the existing cut blasting. The main problem was to keep it Installing 4 m-long Super Swellex from
and cover with the natural portal. This in place while supports were installed. The the Boomer basket.
extended cut-and-cover will hide the high­ second L3C drillrig was utilized to install
way from the Schloss St Martin, an historic R32 threaded self-drilling 3 m-long exten­
castle overlooking the site. sion rockbolts into the face. A 15 m string
It took a total of ten umbrella-drilled took around 12 minutes to install, and the
arches using an Atlas Copco 352 S to completed unit was grouted into place
establish the south drive. This first 120 m using a fast setting sand/cement mix. Three
of tunnel is still slightly wet, but beyond such anchors were positioned to stabilize
this point conditions are completely dry. the centre section of the face, and a 5 m
Drilling at the south face was taken over overlap was maintained. The face was also
by a new Atlas Copco Boomer L3C in lightly shotcreted, as a further precaution
March, 2000. Equipped with ABC Regular against spalling, after each advance.
advanced boom control, it immediately The top heading excavation was sup­
started achieving a smoother tunnel pro­ ported immediately, using 4 m-long Super
file. A second L3C, similarly equipped, Swellex bolts. The boltholes were again
was delivered a couple of weeks later. drilled by the L3C drillrig, and the bolts Business end of the Atlas Copco
Blasting is by 18 separate timing inter­ were expanded into full contact with the Bocket Boomer 13 С
vals of millisecond delays, because of their
finer controllability. This results in less
vibration, and also contributes a good pro­
file. Around 250 kg of dynamite is used to
backprime the holes, using 35 mm sticks on
the bulk charge, and 20 mm sticks in
the contour holes. Stemming is not required
on these loading ratios, because the holes
are little more than half-primed. A skid-
mounted mixing and pumping station sup­
plies the shotcrete, which is applied using
handheld nozzles. Arches are erected when
required but, for most of the time, a combi­
nation of Swellex and rcbar grouted bolts
with mesh and shotcrete is sufficient.

North End
The ground at the north face was soft and
friable, and could be excavated without

FACE DRILLING 51
 GRAZ, AUSTRIA
Handling a 4 m-long Super Swellex
rockbolt.
rock, using an onboard pump. The Swellex
bolts were installed just in time to stop the
roof peeling back, and were sometimes
also used in the face to secure hangings
while safety work was carried out.
A twin-boom crawler-mounted articulated
shotcrete jumbo, equipped with a hopper,
conveyors and twin pumps, was moved up to
the face for shotcreting operations. A similar
skid-mounted installation followed the bench
excavation, which was maintained at a safe
distance of around 100 m behind the face.
Once the face was mucked out into
dumptrucks. another eleven 6 m-long
grouted rebar bolts were set in the crown,
using bolting equipment mounted on the
L3 С basket.
The north end advanced on a
90-100 sq m section, with the first 600 m
in dolomite, where a Boomer 352 S was
initially utilized for face drilling. This
South natural tunnel portal is located
beneath the Schloss St Martin.
| 52
older machine was replaced by a new Atlas
Copco Rocket Boomer L2C in October,
1999. The drive passed beneath the
Thalgraben valley at the 700 m point, with
just 12-15 m ground cover, and then entered
a difficult geological section comprising
schist which exhibits squeezing characteris­
tics. The drillrigs were replaced by an exca­
vator through this plastic ground, and steel
lattice arches were erected, as required, at
intervals of 1.0 m, 1.3 m, and 1.7 m.
Overall Progress
Breakthrough of the top heading was
achieved on 9th April, 2001, and the bench
section was completed in July. Overall
completion is scheduled for the summer of
2003, when the Plabutsch tunnel resumes
its role as an integral part of the Pyrhn
motorway, which itself is a section of the
Trans-European Highway network.
The contractor has found that, when
using NATM with drill-lengths of 2-4 m,
the Atlas Copco advanced boom control is
an essential help, as is the function of
invariable depth of the boreholes, indepen­
dent of the face profile. Because of the
possibility of recording every drilling step,
the interpretation is much easier, allowing
the project managers to discuss rig perform­
ance with the operators. No change in
explosives consumption resulted from
using the new drillrigs. •
Acknowledgements
Atlas Copco is grateful to Ostu Stettin for
facilitating this article, and to project
manager Norbert Reichard for his
assistance at site.
FACE DRILLING
Central Wastewater Treatment
in Helsinki
Going Underground
The Viikinmaki central wastewater
treatment plant in Helsinki, Finland,
commissioned in the early 1990s,
was the largest underground facility
of its kind. It was also very success­
ful. So much so, that it is currently
being extended with the addition of
some 200,000 cu m of space to
accommodate denitrification filters
and extra treatment lines.
The extension has to be squeezed
into an area with low rock cover that
is close to surface development.
Hence, particular care has to be taken
with drilling and blasting, and with
rock reinforcement.
For the extreme drilling accuracy
required, contractor YIT used a new
Atlas Copco Rocket Boomer XL3 С
with COP 1838HF rock drills. The
faster drilling rate of the high fre­
quency machines combined with the
computer control of the drillrig
resulted in very efficient excavation.
Additionally, some 60,000 m of rock-
Wastewater was pumped from the old Atlas Copco Rocket Boomer XL3 С
bolts were installed using an Atlas
treatment plants to the new central treat­ drilling at Viikinmaki.
Copco Boltec 435 SH.
ment plant, and nearly 20 km of new sewer
tunnels was built. The treated water is led
Centralization of Treatment out to sea through an outfall tunnel, built in
the mid-1980s, and discharged into the sea
Helsinki's first wastewater treatment plants through a rock shaft, opening in the sea
were built in the 1910s. New plants were bottom near the island of Katajaluoto,
progressively added to the system as the 8 km from the southern tip of Helsinki.
population grew, until there were eleven
plants in operation by the beginning of the Rock Engineering
1970s. This figure had dropped to eight by
the mid-1980s, however, as the first steps Several factors favoured Viikinmaki as the
towards centralization were taken. ideal location for the new plant. It was
This development coincided with the centrally situated with respect to the older
completion of a feasibility study, which treatment plants. The area was undevel­
examined the possibility of replacing all oped, and it was high enough to allow a
the existing plants with one central treat­ single pumping stage from treatment to
ment plant built underground in rock. The outfall, even though it was underground.
goal was to construct a single technically All the wastewater and sludge treatment
and economically efficient plant capable of units are located underground in rock. The
raising treatment efficiency, while also plant's efficient layout and the excellent
meeting tough environmental restrictions. construction properties of the hard granite
The city council gave the go-ahead for and mica gneiss bedrock also helped to
the project in 1986, and construction of ensure a cost-effective solution. Further­
the Viikinmaki plant started early the more, the rock cover also provides a stable
following year. ambient temperature for the treatment

FACE DRILLING 53 |
 HELSINKI, FINLAND

25 mm diameter were installed to a

H E L S\l N К I
Kataiaiuoto
Location of Viikinmaki wastewater
treatment plant and outfall.
Sewer tunnel
Pressure sewer
Main pumping station
Area with combined
sewer system
plant all year round, despite the adverse
surface conditions during winter.
The rock engineering aspects of the
central treatment plant were unusually
challenging due to the plant's exception­
ally large size and the widely varying
bedrock conditions. The total tunnel
volume excavated was 1,000,000 cu m.
Rock cover over the plant is zoned for new
housing estates and is at minimum 10 m.
In dipping areas housing is not allowed.
There the halls are very near the rock sur­
face, with a minimum rock cover of only
4 m. These areas arc also characterized by
weakness zones which vertically traverse
the rock caverns. The span of the process
halls, 17-19 m, is also exceptionally large
with respect to the various thicknesses of
the rock cover. The halls are separated by
10-12 m-thick pillars.
Rock mechanical dimensioning calcula­
tions were used to ensure the stability of
the caverns. The large scope of the project
also placed a high priority on optimizing
worksite arrangements and logistics, the
distribution of contracts and the disposal of
the excavated rock.
Support and Stability
The excavated caverns were reinforced
with grouted rebar bolts and steel fibre
reinforced shotcrete. About 55,000 bolts of
typical depth of 4 m, and a total area of
199,000 sq m was shotcreted.
A network of drains was installed under
the shotcrete to channel dripwater to the
treatment process. Similarly, drainage mats
were placed between the rock and the con­
crete walls of the basins, with a layer of
macadam. Water leakage from the entire
treatment plant has been extremely low,
only about 200 lit/min.
Extensive rock mechanical calculations
were performed at the planning stage to
estimate the amount of rock movement, if
any, that excavation would produce. Every
effort was made to ensure the stability of
the rock, and to predict any changes likely
to be caused by excavation.
Several extensometers were used to
measure movements at critical points in
the roof and pillars during excavation and
construction. The loads placed on the
reinforcement structures, and changes to
the stress state of the rock, were also moni­
tored. Precision levelling was also used to
monitor movements in the rock surface
above ground. The calculated and mea­
sured results corresponded closely with
each other. Rock movements continue to
be monitored regularly.
Design of Extension
For nearly half a decade, the treatment
plant served mainly to reduce BOD and
phosphorus from waste water. In 1997,
extra equipment was installed to facilitate
50% nitrogen removal.
Initially, the total population to be
served was 750,000 inhabitants. Since
original commissioning in 1993, the popu­
lation in the area has increased by some
10,000, while the treatment requirements
have become stricter.
Helsinki Water is undertaking an ongo­
ing project to extend the treatment process
to meet the stricter requirements, especial­
ly regarding nitrogen, which has to be
reduced by 70%. The required 200,000 cu m
extension to the Viikinmaki plant will
house de-nitrification filters and additional
treatment lines.
The treatment process used is a typical
activated sludge process. Wastewater
organics are degraded by digesting sludge
first in four digesters, and then combusting
the digester gas to generate heat and elec­
tricity. The energy thus recovered adds up

54 FACE DRILLING
 HELSINKI. FINLAND

to roughly 50% of the total electricity con­

sumption and 100% of the heat require­
ment of the entire plant.
The main designer and process designer
was Plancenter Ltd.
Lack of available space necessitated the
filling of old access tunnels with concrete,
and using rock masses as close as possible
to the margins of the hill. The existing
plant employs gravity discharge, and so the
new facilities had to take account of its
elevation. Helsinki City Geotechnical
Division was the tunnelling designer, with
engineering firm Rockplan Ltd as subcon­
sultant.
The two new treatment lines are parallel
with the old existing ones. The filter
cavern and related facility cavern are
transversely positioned, at the ends of the
sewage treatment lines.

Excavation
Rock Mechanics Technology Ltd was
selected to measure and calculate the rock
stress using an overcoring technique. Rock
sample drilling, measure-while-drilling
(MWD), TV imaging, seismic sounding,
and radar were also employed. Propagation
of blasting vibration was studied using test
blasts. The two principal stresses were
found to be horizontal, with magnitudes of
8 MPa and 3 MPa. The third principal stress
is vertical, and its magnitude is 1 MPa. All
principal stresses are compressive.
Systematic monitoring of the movements
of the rock mass, and the rock quality, are
being carried out by Suomen Malmi Excavation to house one of the Viiki
(SMOY) and Geotek Oy, while ground­ denitrification chambers.
water level monitoring is the responsibility
of Helsinki City Geotechnical Division.
Residential houses, a school and streets
are being built simultaneously with the
construction of the sewage plant, imposing
limitations on underground blasting and
support work. Building is only allowed
where the rock cover exceeds 10 m.
The excavation contractor for the
200,000 cu m extension was Y1T
Construction Ltd. Their contract com­
menced in May, 2000 and was completed
in January, 2002, and was valued at Section of the Viikinmaki plant.

The treated wastewater flows out to sea bv gravitv.

. • 36.0 7 +38.0
+ 35.0

I I - t t 1 » i i. .« •!• :- Ы
v.. ...,:,

... ntation
tunnel
In itatlon
tunnel

FACE DRILLING 55 |
 HELSINKI. FINLAND
Isometric plan of the Viikinmaki
wastewater treatment plant.
56
€5.6 million. Because of proximity to the
operating sewage plant, flexible airtight
blasting barriers of wooden beams secured
by steel cables were installed. Initially,
these were found to be too flexible, and
had to be braced with profile steel.
Computer Based Drilling
YIT employed an Atlas Copco Rocket
Boomer XL3 С with ABC Total to drill
some 250,000 m of blastholes. This is a
fully-computerized hydraulic tunnelling rig
with high reaching Eagle console for huge
cross sections up to 179 sq m, and ideally
suited to conditions at Viikinmaki. It is
fitted with Atlas Copco's innovative Rig
Control System (RCS) with interactive
operator control panel with full-colour dis­
play of the computer-based drilling
system, which includes auto-collaring and
anti-jamming protection.
A major feature of this drillrig was that it
was one of the first to be equipped with the
HF version of Atlas Copco's successful
COP 1838 rock drill. The COP 1838HF has
a higher impact rate than the popular ME
version, delivering more frequent blows at
almost the same impact energy. The result is
up to 20% faster drilling in the 43-51 mm
hole range.
The long, slender piston of the COP
1838 series permits high impact energy to
be utilized, while considerably increasing
the service life of the drill steel. A
hydraulic double-dampening system absorbs
and dissipates the Shockwaves from the
rock, while establishing the best possible
contact for the drillbit. The reversible
rotation motor gives high torque, and rota­
tion speed is easily adjustable to match
changing rock conditions. The low profile
of the rock drill permits close drilling to
the sidewall, with only 2 degrees of look­
out angle. Nitrogen charged accumulators
reduce vibrations and wear on hydraulic
components.
Between July and September, 2001, the
Rocket Boomer XL3 С drilled 42,500 m in
203 percussion hours, an average penetra­
tion rate of 140 m/percussion hour.
Rock Reinforcement
An Atlas Copco Boltec 435 SH was used for
drilling and installation of some 60,000 m of
grouted steel rockbolts. YIT also placed
some 6,500 cu m of shotcrete and conducted
cement grouting where necessary. Some
disused sewage tunnels and access adits
were filled with 4,200 cu m of concrete to
rehabilitate the rock area for reuse.
All excavated rock has been crushed
and used in earth construction, where it
replaces natural gravel. Initially, the crush­
ing was carried out on the surface, but as
soon as there was space enough under­
ground, the crushing operations were
moved into a tunnel. Some 500,000 t of
rock was crushed underground using a
mobile crusher. The crusher capacity of
2,000 t/day over two shifts limited the rate
of rock excavation, despite optimum work­
site arrangements.
The bedrock is mostly hard and crys­
talline, but the extension site is crossed by
a fractured zone, affecting three of the tun­
nels, which have a span of 17 m and a roof
thickness of only 2-3 m. Here, rockbolting
of roofs and walls was carried out in fans
from two directions, while the excavation
advanced in small increments.
The excavation was completed in early
2002. The filter cavern will be commis­
sioned in late 2003, and the additional
treatment line in late 2004. •
Acknowledgements
The editor is grateful to Janne Lehto and
Veikko Koponen of YIT Construction Ltd
for their inputs and assistance with revision
of this article.
FACE DRILLING
 OVRE ARDAL, NORWAY

Replacing Norway's Tyin

Hydropower Plant
Environmentally
Sensitive Construction
Norwegian contractor Selmer Skanska
is well underway with construction of
the replacement for the 1940s
hydropower station serving the Ardal
aluminium smelter, located near
Sogndal in western Norway.
Overall cost of the project will be
approximately €180 million, with the
Selmer Skanska contract accounting
for €60 million. The new power
station is being excavated in rock,
together with 19 km of associated
tunnels of various cross sections.
The project is focused on environ­
mental preservation, and this is
reflected both inside and outside the
mountain, and includes health, envi­
ronment and safety. Norsk Hydro Five surface creek intakes are also One of the Atlas Copco Rocket Boomer
placed a lot of emphasis on this when under construction. These will be coupled 353 S drillrigs.
awarding the contract. The project is
demanding because it has to be car­ to the existing power tunnel, which will
ried out without interruption to then work as a top feed to the new tunnel,
Hydro's daily production of electricity. connected by a shaft to be located approxi­
Three generations of Atlas Copco mately halfway along its alignment.
drillrigs are in use at Tyin, ranging Selmer Skanska subsidiary Entreprenor
from the older Boomer H185 and 322,
Service will drill and ream the 1 m-diam-
through Rocket Boomer 353 S, to the
latest Rocket Boomer L2 С and fully eter x 25-50 m-long holes to connect the
computerized WL3 С equipped with creeks to the existing headrace.
the new 1838 HF rockdrills. Secoroc Currently, the water supply for Ovre
supplies its Magnum SR35 rock tools Ardal and the process water for the View of the Tyin powerstation turbine
for the drillrigs, and Atlas Copco has
refurbished a Robbins 97RL-DC raise aluminium smelter are taken from the hall.
borer for the surge shaft excavation.
There is even an Atlas Copco Wagner
ST1000 Scooptram at site!
Tyin is a testament to the ability of
a single company to supply and sup­
port all the equipment necessary for
a major tunnelling project, while
complying with the environmental
strictures placed on working in sensi­
tive areas of the world.

Tunnel System
The tunnel system will run from a laketap
intake in Lake Tyin to the existing storage
lake at Torolmen, and then on to the
powerstation penstocks and turbines,
finally discharging through a tailrace at
Ardalsvatnet.

FACE DRILLING 57
 OVRE ARDAL. NORWAY
Atlas Copco ROC 642 HP used for bulk
excavation of power station cavern.
back-pool of the existing power station.
Both supplies will have to be re-routed for
the new project, and the county has taken
on the responsibility for the local water
supply, while the contractor will handle the
process water installations.
An access tunnel 1.54 kin-long with
50 sq m cross section was driven down­
grade at 1:10 to reach the power station
site in June, 2002. The rock cover of
1.5 km is resulting in heavy pressure on
tunnel face and crown.
Atlas Copco Rocket Boomer WL3 С
equipped with 1838HFrockdrills at
tailrace tunnel face.
58
It involved some 75,000 cu m of exca­
vation using an Atlas Copco Rocket
Boomer 353 S equipped with 5.5 m-long
Secoroc Magnum SR35 rods to drill the
hard gneiss. Some 75-80 x 48 mm holes
were drilled per round, using Secoroc
Magnum SR35 button bits, to obtain a
4.85 m pull. Dyno Nobel slurry explosive
and Nonel detonation provided good
fragmentation, and spoil removal was
undertaken by a subcontractor.
Power Station
The power station is being excavated with
dimensions 17 m-wide x 60 m-long x 38 m-
high, with some 1.6 km of rock cover. It is
designed to replace output from the exist­
ing plant and to add an extra 15%, bringing
electricity production to 1,400 GWh annu­
ally, without changing the water reservoirs.
The power station roof was profile
drilled using a Rocket Boomer 353 S and
supported by 6 m-long resin anchored
rockbolts installed on a 2 m square pattern
in holes drilled by an Atlas Copco Boomer
HI 85 drillrig. Some 7-10 cm of steel fibre
reinforced shotcrete was applied, using a
truck-mounted jumbo.
An Atlas Copco ROC 642HP quarry rig
drilled 4 m-long x 64 mm-diameter vertical
blastholes with 2.5 m burden on the benches
for bulk excavation of the power house,
where the generator pit will eventually
house two Pelton turbines. These will be
driven by the hydrodynamic forces created
by over 1,000 m of head between Lake Tyin
and the powerhouse. Massive crane rails are
being installed to cope with the turbine
components and the 240 t transformers.
In late 2003, work will begin on pouring
7,000 cu m of concrete for the new power
station, and electrical and mechanical
installation will commence.
Tailrace
The tailrace tunnel is 2.7 km-long, and
9.5 m-high x 5.5 m-wide with 46 sq m sec­
tion. This is being driven by a new Atlas
Copco Rocket Boomer WL3 С drillrig
with three booms and a basket, delivered
in February, 2002. The WL3 С is equipped
with the latest COP 1838HF rockdrills,
which are drilling at 1.5 m/min in the gran­
ite gneiss. It is drilling 90 holes/round
using 5.5 m-long rods and 48 mm button
bits with Secoroc Magnum SR35 thread,
FACE DRILLING
and blasting is again by Dyno Nobel slurry At the controls of the Rocket Boomer
with Nonel detonators. WL3C.
The rock cover of 1.5 km is resulting in
heavy pressure on the mountain side of the
drive, causing blocky ground which has to
be secured using 4 m-long resin anchored
bolts. Some 12-15 bolts are installed per
round, in alternating rings of 6 and 7 at
2.5 m spacing. Where the rock tension per-
mits, 2.4 m-long bolts are used. Steel fibre
reinforced shotcrete is applied as a matter
of course.
Turning niches are excavated at 130 m
intervals for the wheeled loaders, which
discharge into road tippers. Rock from the
tailrace tunnel is carried by bottom dump
barges to an area of the fjord that is being
reclaimed as a nature reserve. The access
and tailrace tunnel entrances are 3 km
apart along a tarmac all-weather public
highway.
Large 1.8 m-diameter fans and 2 m
ducts provide 35 cu m/min of fresh air to
the faces. At the time of visiting in Towards the right downgrade side, the
Autumn, 2002, some 700 m had been drive is in granite, and towards the left
excavated in the tailrace tunnel, with a upgrade side, it is in phyllite. Each round
view to breakthrough in June, 2003. requires more blastholcs in the phyllite,
together with up to six 102 mm cut holes.
Headrace
Surge Shaft
The pressure tunnel has advanced 500 m at
27 sq m section on a 0.5% gradient from the At a position known as Tora Bora because
power station position towards Lake Tyin. of its remoteness, the surge chamber is
Meantime, development of the 350 m- nearly complete, using an Atlas Copco 322
long Biskopsvatn adit was commenced in twin-boom drillrig and ANFO to mine the
October, 2001, at a point approximately 9,000 cu m cavern. Poor access limited the
halfway along the 7 km alignment between size of equipment that could be used, and a
the power station and the storage lake Wagner ST 1000 Scooptram was amongst
known as Torolmen. Biskopsvatn adit the mobile equipment that made the Tailrace portal from which rock is
reached the pressure tunnel horizon by hazardous journey. removed by bottom discharge barges.
Christmas, 2001.
From here, some 2.2 km has been
advanced in each direction using two identi-
cal Atlas Copco 353 S drillrigs and tracked
loaders with 2.1 cu m side tipping buckets at
each face, operated by single crews on each
of two shifts. A maximum 35 rounds/week
has been achieved, with an average of 26
rounds, which equates to 65 m advance.
Both rigs use Secoroc Magnum SR35
equipment, 5.5 m-long rods and 48 mm
button bits, in the 29-30 sq m section, and
each round takes about 2 hours to drill.
The loaders make 5-6 passes at 27 sec to
load a 15 cu m truck.
A workshop has been established under-
ground at the junction of the Biskopsvatn
adit and the pressure tunnel drives.

FACE DRILLING 59 |
 OVRE ARDAL NORWAY
Preparing to blast in the tailrace
tunnel.
The 436 m-long x 4.04 m-diameter
surge shaft will be raise bored from the
surge chamber by Skanska Raise Boring
AB. For the work, Skanska is using its
Robbins 97RL, which is a high power and
low profile raise drill specially designed
for working on sites with size and weight
restrictions. Despite its low profile, the
97RL is one of the strongest raise drills
ever produced for up to 600 m-long raises
in the diameter range of 2.4 m-5.0 m.
Atlas Copco has recently upgraded the
entire system on the Skanska unit to a
state-of-the-art rig control system featuring
CAN-bus, hence the designation of the
machine is now changed to Robbins
97RL-DC CAN-bus.
Control Console for Robbins 97RL-DC
CAN-bus Raise Borer.
| 60
Due to weight restrictions and size
limits of the access road along the moun-
tainside, the machine had to be dismantled
and hauled in by tractor. It took Skanska
nine trips to get the raise drill into place,
and an additional 30-40 trips for trans-
portation of drill rods and accessories.
During winter, it is impossible to keep
the road open due to snowstorms, and the
raise drilling crew has to rely on helicopter
or snowmobiles for transportation. To avoid
a cumbersome commuting situation, night-
quarters will be fitted in the warm and snow
free tunnel, close to the working site.
Drilling of the 15 in pilot hole started
end-November, 2002 to be finished by
Christmas. A drift from the power tunnel
should reach the lower level of the pilot
hole by March, 2003, following which
reaming of the full 4.04 m-diameter hole
will take a couple of months.
Torolmen to Tyin
The final stretch of tunnel, from Lake
Torolmen to the draw off point in Lake
Tyin, is being driven from an adit using an
excavator loader and dumptrucks. The first
226 m is downgrade, followed by 2.4 km
slightly upgrade at 20 sq m section. The
face is drilled using an Atlas Copco Rocket
Boomer L2 C, and some 180 m had been
advanced in the six weeks since 1st
September, 2002, using ANFO as the
blasting agent.
Selmer Skanska and its subcontractors
have a total of 160 employees on site at the
Tyin project, of which 50 live at the inter-
mediate adit location, and the remainder
live in a camp in Ardal next to the site
area. Everybody works the North Sea
system of two weeks on and one week off.
The Tyin project began in September,
2001 and is scheduled for completion in
October, 2004. A total of 4,500 rounds will
be blasted to remove 680,000 cu m of
rock. •
Acknowledgements
Atlas Copco is grateful to Selmer Skanska
for arranging the site visit on which this
article is based. In particular, the contribu-
tions of Magnar Myklatun, project manag-
er for Selmer Skanska at Tyin, and Johan
Stagnebo, president of Skanska Raise
Boring are acknowledged by the editor,
with thanks.
FACE DRILLING
Mechanized Bolting at
Zinkgruvan
Partners in Production
Zinkgruvan Mining AB, Sweden's
third largest mining company, is a
member of Rio Unto Ltd's Copper
Division. Zinkgruvan Mining produces
zinc and lead concentrates for ship­
ment to smelters in northern Europe.
The mine has been continuously in
production since 1857, and ore output
now stands at about 835,000 t/year,
together with 185,000 t of waste
from development.
Production is obtained from open
stopes where, following difficulties
with seepage from hydraulic fill
when rock quality diminished, the
mine now uses paste fill. Rather than on a 2 x 7 h shift basis. The mine has an Atlas Copco Rocket Boomer M2 С
deepen the main hoisting shaft, the option to purchase a second twin-boom developing the sublevels.
main ramp access was developed Rocket Boomer, this time an M2 C, which
below the 800 m level, and will
bottom out at 1,100 m under present
is the mining version of their existing L2 C.
plans. Key to Zinkgruvan production
efforts is equipment supplied by Rock Reinforcement
Atlas Copco, which includes four
Simba production drillrigs, three The mine installs up to 20,000 resin
Rocket Boomers and two Boltec rigs,
together with maintenance and con­ anchored rockbolts each year, and, having
sumable supply contracts. upgraded its production process, found that
bolting became the new bottleneck. After
prolonged testing of the latest Atlas Copco
Lower Development Boltec LC, they ordered two units.
Using these machines, the working
In order to mine below the 800 m level, the environment for the bolting operatives has
mine uses three Kiruna Electric trucks for improved immeasurably, since the continu­
ore and waste haulage to the main crusher. ous manual handling of resin cartridges
A Simba M4 С longhole drilling rig is has been eliminated. The Boltec LC is a
used on production, drilling up to 40 m- fully mechanized rockbolting rig with
long x 76 mm or 89 mm-diameter blast- computer-based control system for high
holes. The machine produces some 50,000 productivity and precision. The Zinkgruvan
drillmetres/year, while an older Simba models feature a new type of magazine
1357 drills a similar number of metres in holding 80 resin cartridges, sufficient for
the 51-64 mm range. The mine is so installation of 16 rockbolts before refill. It
impressed with the stability of the Simba is equipped with a stinger, which applies
M4 С rotation unit that it has had an old constant pressure to keep it stable at the
Simba 1354 rebuilt to incorporate the same hole during the entire installation process.
unit. A Simba M7 С is being delivered for The operator can select the number of resin
cable bolt drilling. The drilling consum­ cartridges to be shot into the hole, for
ables are supplied by Atlas Copco Secoroc which the rig air capacity is excellent.
under contract. The ramp will be driven
from the current 980 m to the 1,100 m level. Vital Combination
An Atlas Copco Rocket Boomer L2 С is
used on ramp and sublevel development, The Rig Control System (RCS) features an
where the requirement is for 18 rounds/week interactive operator control panel with

FACE DRILLING 61 |
 KINGDOM OF BHUTAN
Wagner MT 420 dumptruck, one of
fourteen on the project.
| 64
bank of the reservoir will enable diversion
of a discharge of 171 cu m/sec. Three
desilting chambers sized at 250 m x 13.9 m
x 18.5 m will allow the incoming water to
settle sufficiently to remove silt particles
of up to 0.2 mm. A flushing tunnel will
remove the sediment, and cany it back to
the Wangchu river downstream of the dam.
A 23 km-long, 6.8 m-finished diameter,
50 sq m modified horseshoe-shaped,
concrete-lined headrace tunnel (HRT) with
design discharge of 142.5 cu. m/sec will
carry the intake water to the turbines. Five
intermediate adits are facilitating its con­
struction. The HRT is being excavated at
7.5 m diameter under minimum rock cover
of 60 m, and maximum of nearly one
kilometre.
A 168 m-high, 15 m-diameter surge
shaft at the downstream end of the HRT
will alleviate any overpressure from the
860 m head of water. Two steel-lined pres­
sure shafts inclined at 51 degrees, each
1.1 km-long and 4 m-diameter, will
emanate from the surge shaft, and trifur-
cate into 2.3 m-diameter penstocks near
the powerhouse to feed the six 170 MW
Pelton turbines, which will provide a total
capacity of 1,020 MW. Two intermediate
adits are facilitating construction of the
pressure shafts. The underground power­
house is 206 m-long by 20 m-wide and
45.5 m-high, and the transformer cavern is
191 m-long, 16 m-wide and 26.5 m-high.
A 3.1 km long x 7.75 m-diameter tail-
race tunnel will discharge the water back
into the Wangchu river.
Geology
The dam site is located in the Thimphu
gneiss, and the section of HRT up to 14 km
downstream from C-l is in gneiss with
quartzite bands and biotite schists. There
are joint sets, and the rock is highly fault­
ed, with foliation shears of varying thick­
ness up to 30 cm. From 14 km to 23 km,
the rock type is biotite gneiss with bands
of quartzite, mica schist, and sericite schist
with amphibolite. Rock conditions merit
III-VI on the NGI Q system, with pretty
poor conditions affecting parts of C-2, C-3,
and most of C-4. The rock formation in the
powerhouse, and penstocks, envisaged to
be in classification II-III, has shown a
large variance during actual excavation
towards the poorer side. Maximum over­
burden on the scheme is 1,200 m, and min­
imum is 65 m, with an average of
400-700 m.
The rock quality encountered has large­
ly been poor to very poor, with up to 67%
classes IV, V, and VI, and only about 33%
in the fair to good category class И and III,
while class I, described as very good on
the NGI Q system, has been seen only
rarely.
In class I and II rock, wherever
required, 3 off 25 mm-diameter, 3.5 m-
long rock bolts and 50 mm of steel fibre
reinforced shotcrete (SFRS) have been
installed per metre above springing level.
In class III rock, 7 off 25 mm-diameter,
3.5 m-long rock bolts per metre and
50 mm SFRS have been provided through­
out the tunnel section.
Class IV rock has been supported either
by 7 off 25 mm-diameter, 3.5 m-long rock
bolts with ISMB 200 steel ribs and 50 mm
thick SFRS, or by 13 off 25 mm-diameter,
3.5 m-long rock bolts with 100 mm thick
SFRS, depending on site requirements.
In class V rock, either 7 off 25 mm-
diameter, 4 m-long rock bolts with ISMB
200 steel ribs and 75 mm SFRS, or 13 off
25 mm-diameter, 4 m-long rock bolts with
150 mm-thick SFRS have been provided.
In class VI rock, 13 off 25 mm-diameter,
4 m-long rock bolts with ISMB 200 steel
ribs and 100 mm thick SFRS are used.
FACE DRILLING
 KINGDOM OF BHUTAN
i l l

Progress
Excavation of the 356 m-long diversion
tunnel was completed on 19th May, 1999
and diversion of the river was achieved
during January, 2000.
In the HRT tunnels, using the Atlas
Copco Boomer 352s in rock classes 1, II
and III, the average advance has been
120 m/month, and in class IV rock up to
70 m/month. Class V rock, which has to be
fully ribbed at 60-75 cm intervals, strutted,
bolted, meshed and backfilled with concrete
or shotcreted, slows advance to 30 m/month.
Atlas Copco Rock Tools supplied the start-
up packs of drilling accessories, and have
been supplying consumables to all three
contractors ever since. They also supplied
their state-of-the-art Terox S5 grinders to
ECC and Jaiprakash. The Secoroc button
bits are reported by the contractors to be to be supported by steel ribs, and the side- Atlas Copco Rocket Boomer 352 at
achieving up to 30% longer life than those walls have been clad with reinforced con- junction of Mirchingchu Adit with HRT.
from competing firms. crete. Excavation of the 6.4 km stretch of
HRT included in the C-1 package was
Package C-1 completed in May, 2002. It is accessed by
two construction adits, one near the dam
Contractor Hindustan Construction site, and the other about 5 km away.
Company (HCC) arrived at site on 17th Concrete lining of the HRT commenced
November, 1998 and commenced work on during May, 2001 and 4,150 m of overt
the diversion tunnel three days later, using lining was completed by end-2002.
one of the five new Atlas Copco 352 drill- Excavation of the desilting chambers has
rigs provided by THPA. The rock strength been completed by HCC, which has 2,000
in the diversion tunnel proved to be poor personnel at site working 2 x 12h shift
due to schist bands, and average of 2 kg of rotation, 7 days/week.
gelignite was used to blast each cubic
metre of solid rock, using Nonel detona-
Package C-2
tion. The 3.5 m-long rockbolts were pro-
vided anchorage by five, 28 mm x 200 mm Contractor Jaiprakash Industries Limited Lining the head race tunnel at Jala
resin capsules at the end of the hole, fol- had great difficulty constructing the Hydro.
lowed by injection of cement capsules.
100 mm-thick Dramix-reinforced shotcrete
was applied to walls and roof. The spoil
was loaded into Wagner MT 420 trucks by
a 90 t/h excavator fitted with a 1.2 cu m
loading bucket. The intake tunnels were
excavated using a third, refurbished
Boomer 352. The dam foundations and the
desilting caverns have been excavated con-
currently. Each of the three desilting cham-
bers is 250 m-long with a 250 sq m
section, and located in class I-V rock.
Some 180,000 cu m of the required
193,000 cu m of sequential excavation has
been carried out, mostly by top heading to
a full-width, followed by a bottom head-
ing, two side slashes, and a floor slash.
Because of cracks in the roof arch, the
crowns of the desilting chambers have had

FACE DRILLING 65
 KINGDOM OF BHUTAN
i l l

the original schedule, and concrete lining

is in progress, with 1,488 m completed by
December, 2002.

Package C-4
The 7.2 km-long section of HRT to be
excavated by HCC at C-4 required two
construction adits. The first adit was
320 m-long, and located near Mirchingchu.
The second adit was moved to Kalikhola
Nala, at the midway point between the
original adit positions, because of poor
rock conditions. HCC ordered five Atlas
Copco 352 drillrigs and two Boltec 435 H
rockbolters for this contract, where com­
pletion of the two adits made four faces
available for development. By end-2002,
some 6,400 m of HRT had been excavated,
and 1,800 m of concrete lining placed.

Яера/га underway on Bhutan National
Highway No 2.
267 m-long Padechu adit to facilitate exca­
vation of its 5 km section of HRT. Adit
excavation and support was undertaken by
drill/blast, using one of two new Atlas
Copco 352 drillrigs. Work was halted in
mid-May, 1999 by a 15 m-long face col­
lapse in the adit, some 118 m from the
portal, when the tunnel encountered an
underground aquifer discharging 300-
1500 lit/sec. The contractor inserted six
forepoles over the crown, and drilled
89 mm drainholes into which 2 m pipes
were inserted. This was followed by a
series of 102 mm angled holes to establish
an 8 m depth of cement-grouted zone above
the crown. The inflow was first arrested on
the left-hand side of the drivage, and then
on the right-hand side by backfilling the ribs
with dry cement in bags. The face was then
advanced cautiously, using a special blast­
ing pattern comprising 80 short holes, and
under the protection of three 15 m-long
probeholes. As a result, by June, 2001, only
1,231 m of HRT had been excavated from
this access. However, the geology improved
later on, and a length of 4,650 m had been
excavated by December, 2002.
Package С 3
Contractor ECC Group (Larsen & Toubro
Limited) has constructed the 963 m-long
Geduchu adit access to facilitate excava­
tion of its 4.4 km section of HRT. The
entire length of HRT was excavated within
Package C-5
Jaiprakash Industries is constructing adits,
powerhouse caverns, surge shaft, pressure
shafts and 3 km of tailrace tunnel (TRT).
The pressure shafts have been developed in
six sections, which can be accessed at the
525 m-level, the 765 m-level, the 1,010 m-
level, the 1,252 m-level and the 1,425 m
top level. Pilot holes for pressure shafts
between the 1,252 m and 1,010 m levels,
the 1,010 m and 765 m levels, and the
765 m and 499 m levels have since been
completed, and widening is underway. A
1.8 m-diameter pilot hole was raised in the
surge shaft by a Robbins raise borer, but it
was blocked by loose rock falls at about
90 m depth from the top. A conventional
3 m-diameter pilot shaft is being sunk from
the top to relieve this blockage. Some
1,910 m of TRT had been excavated by
December, 2002, and 86,400 cu m of the
machine hall cavern and 37,500 cu m of the
transformer hall cavern had been com­
pleted. Surge shaft, pressure shafts, and
TRT are now critical path activities, but the
overall project is back on track for commis­
sioning on schedule in September, 2005. •
Acknowledgements
The editor is grateful to the management of
Та la Hydropower Project Authority and in
particular to R N Khazanchi, D P Goyal
and К К Jolly for their help and assistance
in providing the background information
on which this article is based.

| 66 FACE DRILLING
 AUERSMACHER, GERMANY

Diesel Hydraulic Boomer

Doubles Drilling Rate
Diesel Powered
Flexibility
Electrical power is not necessarily
available at the production face in
tunnelling and mining situations. The
project site can be remote from a
suitable surface electrical connection,
or the face itself can be too far from
the entrance for economical or effi-
cient cabling. Sometimes, the drillrig
may be the only item of equipment
needing an electrical connection,
where diesel-powered loaders and
dumpers are employed. In these situ-
ations, a diesel-powered hydraulic
drillrig may be the answer. The new
Atlas Copco Rocket Boomer LI C-DH,
with its clean-burning Deutz BF6M
1013C water cooled, turbocharged
diesel engine is designed for this employed at the face. By 1961, the Rocket Boomer LI C-DH drills roofbolt
type of independent operation in Auersmacher mine had been completely holes at Auersmacher.
cross sections up to 64 sq m. It is a mechanized, and became the most modem
diesel-hydraulic tunnelling and min- operation of its kind in Europe.
ing rig with computer-based drilling
system for high accuracy and produc-
The mine's first attempts at percussive
tivity. Its application at Auersmacher drilling in 1986 failed because of the rock
limestone mine has been enormously properties. However, efforts resumed in
successful, ensuring a continuity of 1997, and were successful. At this time,
production under conditions where 42 mm-diameter blast holes could be
the operation was becoming uneco-
drilled to depths of 3 m at a rate of
nomic. The L1 C-DH can similarly be
applied to small and medium-sized 4 m/min. Blasting a 42-hoIe round pro-
tunnels, where an acceptable rate of duced some 240 t of limestone, and
advance can be achieved, without drilling operations were carried out on two
the expense of major electrical instal- shifts for a daily output of 1,500 t.
lations at the face.
The mine is working a room and pillar
system of extraction in the horizontal
Fifty Years of Mechanization deposit, and the normal face is 5 m high
and 6.5 m wide. The length of a room plus
Since 1936, almost 20 million tonnes of pillar is about 100 m. Some limestone is
limestone have been produced at Auers- left to form the roof, so the overall work-
macher, a border town in Saarland, ing height is insufficient to accommodate a
Germany. Mining activity has left a cavity cabin on the drillrig.
of nearly 7.8 million cu m in the form of
225 km of underground roadways. The Impressive Performance
mining area covers almost 4 sq km, with
overburden of approximately 50 m in thick- In 2000, the mine purchased one of the
ness and an average mining height of some new series Atlas Copco Rocket Boomer
6 m. The Triassic strata comprises a shelly LI C-DH diesel hydraulic drill rigs. This
limestone, which is excellently suited as an model is equipped with the CAN-bus
aggregate for the local steel industry. system and a powerful COP 1838HF rock
The first element of mechanization was drill. As a result, blast holes of 51 mm
introduced in 1950, when a loader was diameter can now be drilled to depths of

FACE DRILLING 67 |
 AUERSMACHER. GERMANY
3.4 m at a rate of 6-8 m/min - a doubling
of the previous rate. In addition, each V-
cut round of 35 holes produces up to 340 t
and takes only an hour to drill. The mine
works two 8 h shifts/day, 5 days/week,
with a Saturday morning shift for non-pro-
duction work if required. Since the Rocket
Boomer rig started operations, it has drilled
the entire daily production output in a one-
shift operation, returning very favourable
operating and wear costs. Mine output is
now 350,000 t/year, and the rig is drilling
six rounds/day, working dayshift only.
Experience with the diesel hydraulic unit
has shown it to be economic on fuel, and to
exhibit low exhaust gas emissions.
The Boomer LI C-DH features a new
BF6M 1013 CP engine with EMR and cat-
alyzer which consumes only about 19 litres
of dieseline for each percussion drilling hour,
and can complete two shifts on a single tank
of fuel. The excellent exhaust emission
values are very important in underground
mining, where ventilation can be costly.
Due to the very good drilling and flush-
ing characteristics using water mist, not
a single drill rod has been lost so far.
Water consumption varies from 2-5 lit/min
depending upon rock conditions, and a full
tank lasts a week. The watermist mix is
adjusted by the operator to achieve the
desired effect. With too little water, it is
impossible to drill, and with too much, the
cuttings become slurried.
The rotation speed has a profound effect
on penetration rate. In the limestone rock
at Auersmacher, the optimum speed is
View from the driver's seat of the
Rocket Boomer U C-DH.
68
400 rev/min; dropping it to 300 rev/min
reduces penetration rate by 2 m/min.
Generally, it is easy for the operator to
position the boom, complete collaring and
finish drill holes. The boom coverage area
is perfectly adequate for the duty, and the
machine drills to the edge of the face.
Problems occur when the driller
encounters a void in the limestone, which
can cause some deviation.
The computer settings have to be
changed to cope with variations in rock
characteristics in different parts of the
mine, and the rotation pressure has to be
adjusted if the anti-jamming mechanism is
operating too quickly. Raising the pressure
will allow the rig to complete the holes
without the anti-jamming coming into
operation unnecessarily. The rig's working
lights provide excellent illumination of the
face, but do not adversely affect the read-
ability of the operator's screen.
The mine, with assistance from Atlas
Copco, retrained two experienced
hydraulic rig drillers in just one week. This
was sufficient for them to achieve the max-
imum level of performance expected.
The combination of the Deutz engine
management system and Atlas Copco
fault monitoring provides reports on the
operator's screen displays, making it easy
for him to identify the reasons for machine
stoppages. The only problem so far has
been the generation of one false fault
report relating to a specific engine com-
ponent. This resulted from a signal con-
version problem between the Deutz
FACE DRILLING

management system and the Atlas Copco
system, which has since been rectified by
Atlas Copco in collaboration with Deutz.
Long Service Life
Drilling is carried out exclusively with
Atlas Copco shank adapters and drill rods,
and the very good dampening and anti-wear
properties of the equipment has resulted in
enormously long service lives, despite the
high work capacity. For example, the
approximate service life of drill bits is 3,200
drilled metres, rods 10,000 drilled metres,
and shank adapters, 18,500 drilled metres.
Secoroc shank adapters and steels are
used with a 51 mm ballistic bit. The mine
switched from 42 mm bits for a 2 m/min
improvement in penetration rate and
improved the ANFO blast yield. The mine
modifies the bit to improve hole flushing.
When used on earlier drillrigs, the same
bits achieved only 1,000 m wear life and
the rods 2,000 m.
The high average for rod life reflects the
fact that the mine has lost no rods during
five months' operation with the new rig.
The huge improvement is attributed to the
damping system on the Rocket Boomer.
The mine has tested an alternative
Secoroc bit, which lasted for 5000 m, and
will test the Magnum system. Needless to
say, it is not economic to regrind bits that
are achieving this order of wear life.
At the start of each drilling shift the
operator takes around 15 minutes to check
the engine oil, feed hoses and grease
points. His training as a mechanic helps
FACE DRILLING
AUERSMACHER. GERMANY
iHiinn.miiii
nmnrrinirir.r.rn1
lllWHUIIIfllttK,
illli: 'isiiiiiiui'
i n n ;iimri»«ri
1
• i n -1ВИ1ИИГ1
WWMt
й<
v
* ' • ^. ч - >
?"YT
him to get the best out of the sophisticated Atlas Copco Rocket Boomer L1C-DH
engine. The servicing requirements have drillrig needs no electrical connection.
no negative impact on mine production.
The rockdrill requires high temperature
greasing of the gearbox after 40 hours,
or once a week. So far it has drilled
50,000 m without a maintenance stoppage.
The Deutz engine servicing requirements
are: 50 hour oil changes; 500 hour full
lubrication service; 2,000 hours hydraulic
oil change; and full service at 10,000 hours.
Conclusions
The management is more than satisfied with
the new rig's performance, because it is
achieving better cost savings than expected
without creating any other problems. The
only future improvement is likely to be
increasing the depth of round to 4.5 m.
The specific reason for choosing diesel
hydraulic rigs is that there is no suitable
electric supply to the mining areas to
power an electric rig. Minimizing operat­
ing cost is also essential for survival, and
this is reflected in the very basic nature of
the mine infrastructure. The close support
of the Atlas Copco team has resulted in a
collaborative relationship that gets the best
out of the equipment. Spares documenta­
tion is satisfactory, and parts delivery has
presented no problems.
The Auersmacher mine has taken an
important step forward in drilling tech­
nique by buying this drillrig. In terms of
what is currently technically feasible, the
drilling results achieved so far place the
mine at the forefront of progress. •
69
 HELSINKI, FINLAND
Ц,
VIE PH
^••вРЧ
m%
•ZjHf ^K"»
i
V
LEMMFfl&NEPf
Core testing shotcrete is undertaken
Fast Drilling
as a matter of routine.
An Atlas Copco Rocket Boomer XL3 С
with ABC Total has been the production
mainstay since November, 2001, backed
up by a smaller Rocket Boomer L2 C.
Both are hydraulic tunnelling rigs with
computer-based drilling systems for high
accuracy and productivity. The Rocket
Boomer XL3 С is equipped with three
booms and high-reaching Eagle console
for cross sections up to 169 sq m,
whereas the L2 С has two booms and
basket and is suited to 90 sq m sections.
Both are equipped with Rig Control
System (RCS) with interactive operator
control panel and auto-collaring and anti­
jamming protection.
Both Rocket Boomers are fitted with the
latest 1838HF rock drills which have a
20% faster penetration rate than the earlier
ME version.
Excavation rates of around 2,500 cu m/
day are the norm, working a 3-shift, 24 h
day, 7 days/week. Drilling and blasting is
undertaken between 07.00 and 22.00 on
five days each week. A bulk charge of
ANFO is used in production holes. Kemix
pipe charges with dynamite primers are
utilized in profile holes. All blasting is by
Nonel detonation, and no vibration prob­
lems have occurred. Some 600 m of verti­
cal shafts have also been longhole drilled
and blasted, and one 80 m-deep x 1.5 m-
diameter shaft will be raise bored.
At the time of visiting in Autumn, 2002
all tunnels were complete, together with
four sections of Silo 4, three sections of
Silo 3, two sections of Silo 2, and the roof
| 72
section of Silo 1. Silo 4 is nearest the
decline, and was the first encountered. The
Rocket Boomer drillrigs were used to mine
most of the tunnels, while an Atlas Copco
ROC 748HC trackdrill was one of the
main machines that worked the benches.
The final 2 m in the base of each silo has
to be accurately mined, so the Boomers are
also used here.
Rock Support
Generally, 6 m-long x 25 mm grouted steel
rebars have been used as roof support in
grids measuring 1.8 m square, and 5 m-
long grouted rebars have been installed in
the walls on grids of 2.5 m square. A
100 mm layer of steel fibre reinforced
shotcrete is applied to the roof, with
20 mm of unreinforced shotcrete as a pro­
tective finish. Drainage channels are
installed in the walls of the silos in posi­
tions decided by the geologist, and the
walls are then given a 50 mm steel rein­
forced shotcrete application with another
50 mm protective layer of unreinforced
shotcrete. A core drill is used to obtain
samples of set shotcrete for testing.
The entire Hiili project will require
installation of some 105 km of rockbolts,
together with 13,000 cu m of shotcrete.
Shotcrete is batched underground at a plant
located close to the decline.
A high pressure Craelius Unigrout
grouting rig has preinjected some 700 t of
microcement with plasticizer and grout aid
at 40 bars to seal the lightly fissured rock.
This was placed as a curtain, by drilling
downwards from each bench around the
periphery of the excavation, varying the
drilling angle, starting at 65 degrees from
vertical on the top lift, to 12 degrees for
the bottom lift.
The crane track ring that will support
the coal charging mechanism has to be
accurately installed around the roof of each
silo, and this work has been undertaken as
part of the first lift in each silo.
Handover of the completed project is
scheduled for mid-2003. •
Acknowledgements
Atlas Copco is grateful to Janne Lehto and
Veikko Koponen of YIT for arranging and
attending the site visit on which this article
is based, and for the helpful assistance of
shift foreman Tino Seppald.
FACE DRILLING
 BREMANGER, NORWAY

Total Performance at
Skatestraum Fjord Crossing
Lowest Common
Denominator
When a contractor chooses to rely on a
single drillrig to perform all drilling
operations in his tunnel, then he has to
be very sure of his supplier. Atlas
Copco has been the prime supplier of
rock drilling equipment in Norway for
as long as anybody can remember.
During that time, the Norwegians have
become the leading exponents of the
art of hard rock tunnelling. So, when
Atlas Copco comes up with a new
product, Norway is the most reliable
testbed. Hence, when Statens Vegvesen
decided to progress the Skatestraum
project, the new Rocket Boomer WL3
С equipped with ABC Total found its
first job. As the only drillrig on the
Construction of these structures com­ Ferry Aurland provides access to
menced during the course of 2000, with the Bremanger at present.
project, the WL3 С was called upon
to drill blastholes, breaker holes, road and tunnels on Rugsund costing €8.5
probeholes and rockbolt holes. It million, and the bridge some € 5 million.
needed to combine pinpoint accuracy Meantime, the 1.89 km-long
with high efficiency, while drilling a
full face to 5.2 m depth from a single Skatestraum underwater tunnel, which will
setup in two hours. The high level complete the fixed link to the mainland, has
of computerization, combined with been constructed from Klubben on
Tunnel Manager Lite software, Bremanger to Hamnen at the west end of
ensured the accuracy, while the COP Rugsund. It is the first underwater fiord
1838ME rockdrills provided the clout.
The result was a satisfied client,
crossing in the County of Sogn og Fjordane,
and yet another advance for the diving on gradients of 1:10, some 40 m
Norwegian Tunnelling Method. below the seabed, to reach a lowest point
80 m below sea level. It has been constructed
to the Norwegian T-8 standard, which pro­
Introduction vides a 54 sq m finished section for two
lanes of bidirectional traffic, and will be
The National Route Rv 616 is the name well-equipped, with emergency stop zones
given to the mainland connection to the with firefighting equipment and telephones. Route of the Skatestraum tunnel
island of Bremanger, located in the It will be possible to use cellular phones and between Klubben and Hamnen.
Nordfjord on the west coast of Norway.
The new road will use the island of
Rugsund as a staging post, hugging the
coast on the south side of the island and
traversing virtually its entire length. The
Rv 616 will be 4.9 km long and 6.5 m-
wide, to accommodate two lanes of bi­
directional traffic. Halfway along Rugsund
there will be a small rock tunnel, and at
the east end of the island the proposed
470 m-long Krakevik tunnel will connect
with a 311 m-long bridge to Kolset on the
mainland.

FACE DRILLING 73 |
 BREMANGER, NORWAY
Skatestraum portal with double
silenced 1.4 m fan and exhaust branch.
Section of Skatestraum fjord crossing.
| 74
listen to the radio while driving through the
tunnel. In the event of an accident, police,
fire brigade and ambulance will use dedicat­
ed radio channels, and the tunnel will be
monitored at all times by the Emergency
Surveillance Station in Floro, and by the
Roads Administration controlling stations in
Laerdal and Bergen. Automatic extraction
fans will ensure good air quality at all times.
During the construction phase, water
leakage was controlled by injection of
cement grout. It is expected that a certain
volume will leak during the operational
phase, and so the road will be shielded
from dripping water.
Rock extracted from the tunnel was
transported to Berlepollen, where it is
being used in the construction of the new
road to Berleneset. The cost of the tunnel
is calculated as €9.5 million. It is man­
aged by the Department of Development,
and constructed by the Production
Department, of Statens Vegvesen Sogn og
Fjordane for its parent, the Norwegian
Public Roads Administration.
When opened, the new fixed link will
offer ferry-free access to the mainland for
the 1,900 inhabitants of Bremanger, with
safe and reliable road transport for the
products of its fishing industry,
A second phase of road construction
will upgrade the Rv 614 road between
Leirgulen and Kolset, decreasing the dis­
tance between Bremanger and Svelgen by
33 km, and cutting out the need for the
ferry between Smorhamn on Bremanger
and Kjelkenes on the mainland.
Phase 1 was completed by end-2001,
while Phase 2 will not be included in the
priority list before 2007.
Construction
The fjord tunnel was built on a gentle
S-bend from the Bremanger side in gneiss,
phyllite, and serpentite, with a zone of
banded gneiss with quartz. Geological
exploration comprised a 300 m-long direc-
tionally-drilled borehole some 6 m above
the crown of the tunnel, collared from a
small island at the end of a mole on the
Klubben side.
Six 51 mm probeholes were maintained
ahead of the face, drilled at 27 m length
with minimum 7 m overlap, using exten­
sion rods and button bits. One probehole
was drilled at each corner, with 7 m look­
out, and the remaining two were drilled
forwards in the centre of the face. If more
than 10 litre/min of water was measured in
any probehole, grouting was undertaken.
Grouting was carried out over the first
150 m in 27 series of probeholes, and
again in the banded gneiss zone. The first
180 m of tunnel was driven using an Atlas
Copco Rocket Boomer 353 drillrig previ­
ously employed by Statens Vegvesen at
Aurland on the Laerdal tunnel, the world's
longest road tunnel. From January, 2000
all drilling within the tunnel was carried
out using a new Atlas Copco Rocket
Boomer WL3 С drillrig.
The standard face round comprised 92 x
51 mm blastholes with 4 x 102 mm breaker
holes, all drilled to 5.2 m depth for a 5 m
FACE DRILLING
 BREMANGER, NORWAY

pull. The drilling operation took two hours,

and charging a further hour. A 200 mm
dynamite primer cartridge, with Nonel
detonator, was placed at the back of each
hole, before the main charge of ANFO was
introduced. The ANFO was mixed weekly
by Dyno, and stored in a licensed maga­
zine at site.
Mucking by a subcontractor using a
wheel loader with side dumping bucket
into 24 cu m road semi-trailers took around
two hours, and the face was scaled using a
1.5 t hydraulic hammer mounted on a 15 t
wheeled excavator.
Around twenty 2.4 m-long grouted
rebar rockbolts were installed in the roof
for each round, a density of four per linear
metre of advance. A jumbo then applied
1.5 cu m of shotcrete per metre of advance, the office PC, using TML software, and A tlas Copco Rocket Boomer WL3Cat
reinforced by 40 kg/cu m of steel fibre. transferred to a PC card. Skatestraum main face.
Two 9.5 h/day shifts were operated, and At the face, the drillrig was centred and
two excavation cycles/day were regularly lifted on its jacks, and its position was
achieved. A 350 mm x 59 m-long vertical confirmed by placing one of the feeds in
connection was drilled from the pumpshaft line with the tunnel laser. The feed was
excavation at the base of the tunnel to a adjusted, so that the laser passed through
settling tank positioned on the shoreline. the hole in the centre of its rear target plate
From here, clear water will gravitate back and hit the centre of its front target plate.
into the fjord along a 11.9 m-long, The PC card was inserted into the rig
400 mm-diameter hole drilled at 60 degrees computer, the drill pattern was read
angle through the rock. into it, and the operator entered the
The pumped water will originate from a chainage number for the section. The booms
4,000 cu m collection sump excavated 8 m then automatically went to the initial
below the lowest point of the tunnel road­ start positions of their drilling sequences
way as an 85 m-long chamber. and drilled the programmed holes. •

Atlas Copco WL3 С Acknowledgements

The Rocket Boomer WL3C is a hydraulic Atlas Copco is grateful to the production
tunnelling drillrig with extra wide boom con­ department of Statens Vegvesen, Sogn og
sole that is designed for excavation of high­ Fjordane for its assistance with this article
way tunnels and underground caverns. and, in particular, to project manager ANFO charger for Dyno site mixed
It features Rig Control System (RCS), Jostein Fjosne for revising the text. blasting agent.
with interactive operator control panels
with full-colour display of the computer-
based drilling system. Automatic functions
in the drilling process, such as auto- .. *
collaring and anti-jamming protection, as
well as improved regulation of the rock
drill, provide high performance and out­
- 1 4
standing drill steel economy.
The three rockdrills are high-
m Ш
performance COP 1838s, for high-speed \
drilling with drill steel economy.
The Skatestraum WL3 С featured ABC
Total, which is the most advanced form of
boom control in the Atlas Copco ABC
series. The drill pattern and the drilling
sequence for each boom were created on

FACE DRILLING 75 |
 NORTHERN PORTUGAL

Challenges at Venda Nova

Primary Source of
Power Venda Nova
Dam worksite
The Venda Nova Dam is situated on
the river Cavado in Ruivaes-Vieira do
Minho, in the far northern reaches of
Portugal, some 75 km north-east of
Porto. Portugal has very few natural
resources of fossil fuels, having to
import about 80% of its needs, so
hydroelectric power has become the
primary source of local energy.
As the need for electricity has
increased, the utility that owns the
dam, Companhia Portuguesa de
Producao de Electricidade (CPPE)
decided on a refurbishment project,
to include provision for two new
93 MW turbines. The project re­
quired the drill/blast excavation of
300,000 cu m of rock to provide a
2.8 km inlet tunnel, a 1.4 km discharge
tunnel, a powerhouse cavern, a 625 m-
long ventilation tunnel, a 1,210 m
access tunnel, and a 130 m water
intake. There are also two raise-
bored shafts of 415 m and 110 m.
A consortium of three Portuguese
companies, Somague, Moniz da Maia
Serra & Fortunato (MSF) and Mota,
was formed to complete the civil
works of the Venda Nova project.
They chose Atlas Copco equipment Location map for Venda Nova Dam worksite.
for the main operations, using Rocket
Boomer drillrigs, Secoroc rock tools,
Swellex rock reinforcement, and a
Robbins raise borer. Uppermost in Atlas Copco Rocket Boomer 12 С in the tailrace tunnel.
the contractors' minds was the need
for high performance with reliable
spares and service backup, and train­
ing where required. Atlas Copco was
the only company able to provide the
complete service.

Favourable Rock Conditions

Rock conditions at the site are mainly
favourable. The host rock is granite, with
some areas of schist, and zones with frac­
tures and faults. However, geological prob­
lems have not been a factor in the project.
In the tunnels, 3 m or 4 m-long Swellex
bolts are the standard support, with steel
arches installed in the weakest rock condi­
tions. During drill and blast operations, the
rock is classified round by round, and the
areas requiring the least support have
three to nine rockbolts/m. Only 20% of the

| 76 FACE DRILLING

tunnel required concrete lining as final
support.
Atlas Copco Rocket Boomer drillrigs are
used for investigation and excavation
drilling. For the tunnels, Somague has one
Rocket Boomer L2 С with ABC Regular,
while Mota & Companhia has another
Rocket Boomer L2 С with ABC Total, as
well as a single boom Boomer 281 rig for
smaller sections. They find that computer­
ized drillrigs with profile control create less
overbreak, saving the time and cost of spray­
ing concrete. Atlas Copco provided training
support for operators who were not skilled in
working with the drillrigs. At the start of the
project, a round was taking 5-6 h to drill, but,
by the end, this had been reduced to less than
2.5 h. Work is progressing steadily at three
faces, and averaging 80 m-90 m per heading
and month, with a site record of 110 m.
The relationship between Somague and
Atlas Copco goes back some 40 years. They
use many Atlas Copco products such as:
Swellex bolts; Craelius grouting equipment,
tools, and registers; and Secoroc drilling
materials and rock drilling tools, for which
a contract guarantees adequate consignment
stocks. Advice is available on what equip­
ment to use, what kind of lifetime figures to
expect from the rods, bits and shanks, and
how many metres they will drill in different
conditions. Somague is the leading com­
pany in Portugal for drilling, mining and
civil works, providing a complete service
from the start to finish of a project.
Raising Expectations
One of the most challenging aspects of the
project was the development of a 110 m
escape and ventilation shaft. This has a
decline of only 26 degrees, from the tur­
bine hall to the existing ventilation and
escape system.
Drillcon Iberia Lda, a subsidiary of
Drillcon AB of Sweden, used a Robbins
73R raiseboring machine to develop the
shaft in fairly hard granite of 170 MPa.
The raiseborer was mounted on a concrete
platform in the escape tunnel, from where
the pilot hole was drilled down to the
turbine hall. The tunnel was then reamed
upwards, back to the escape tunnel.
A Secoroc RRL 3.5 m reamer was
flown in from Australia especially for the
job. The cutters performed perfectly, and
the mucking was very easy, using water
pressure to assist with flushing the muck
FACE DRILLING
NORTHERN PORTUGAL
out during reaming. A total of 18 new cut­ Checking the raiseborer drillstring in
ters were used on the reamer: nine 5-row the 110 m shaft.
cutters, and nine 4-row cutters. The raise
was completed in May, 2001, and the de­
viation on the hole was 40 cm, which is
less than 0.5%.
Atlas Copco assisted the contractors
with every step of the raiseboring process,
from training drillers on the Robbins unit,
to helping install new cutters on the
reamer. When the hole was finished, Atlas
Copco personnel were on hand to demon­
strate servicing of the reamer, maintenance
of the cutters, and re-greasing.
Primarily a core drilling company,
Drillcon is also involved in a number of
raiseboring projects in Portugal and Spain.
At the Somincor Mine, they have two
Robbins raiseborers permanently on-site,
drilling approximately 2,500 m/year.
Cavern Excavation
For bench drilling in the caverns, Somague
has an Atlas Copco ROC 748 drillrig, and
MSF has a ROC D5. Both were used
extensively in the turbine hall, which rep­
resents almost a third of the project, where
excavation was completed in September,
2002.
Three phases of drilling and blasting
were necessary, with a drift on the top
gallery, and two side drifts with a central
rock pillar. The cavern roof was supported
using one 9 m-long bolt per sq m, installed
with a BSH system on one of the Rocket
Boomer rigs. This avoided overhead
drilling and manual installation.
Bolting was followed by shotcreting,
and the central pillar was removed. The
"I
 NORTHERN PORTUGAL

Atlas Copco ROC D5 drillrig under maintenance.

rest of the cavern was blasted and

mucked out via the access tunnel. Then
the cavern walls, requiring less support,
had 6 m bolts installed on a 2 m x 2 m
pattern.
The new Venda Nova plant and tunnel
system is scheduled to be in operation in
2004. Apart from providing much-needed
generating capacity for the national grid,
Venda Nova will also act as a pumped
storage station serving its companion
dam Paradela, further downstream. When
electricity demand is low, water that
has passed through the powerhouse for
storage at Paradela can be pumped back
through 4 km of tunnels to the Venda Nova
Lake, to provide extra power at peak
periods. •

Secoroc - at the leading edge of cutter design

Secoroc RCC Duro Cutters were designed with
outstanding performance and service life in
mind. The cutter body is made from high quality
alloy steel. Thanks to improved geometry, the
new chisel inserts deliver more aggressive
drilling, and a faster penetration rate.
All cutters feature an internal pressure-
compensating device to protect the seals from
excessive lubrication pressure and heat.

Secoroc RCC Duro Cutter

Tungsten carbide insert

Secoroc RRL 3.5 m reamer as supplied to Venda Nova.

Furthermore, pre-loaded tapered roller bearings

Pressure
provide maximum shock resistance. The ser-
compensator viceability of the Secoroc cutter is superb. All
parts are replaceable, giving an added boost to
total service life.
Secoroc reamers are available from 0.7 m-
diameter, all the way to 6 m. Secoroc supplies
standard, box hole and down reamers, as well as
custom solutions.

78 FACE DRILLING
 ITALY OVERVIEW
И
Tunnelling Across Italy
Regenerating an af Senates
Pprlez;za
Industry Mori
After the near-collapse of the Italian * .
tunnelling industry in the early-
nineties, one could be forgiven for
wondering whether the contractors Bologna
ogna^ ./
would ever recover. For a long period,
there was simply no new work avail­
Firenze
able, but, then, slowly and surely, the
seeds of recovery began to take root,
and, by the start of the new millenni­
um, the flowers began to bloom. ~t
During the inevitable sales reces­
sion. Atlas Copco Italia scaled down
its operation, but carried on supply­
ing spares and service, and assisted
where possible by refurbishing drill-
rigs for clients. Meantime, they kept
pace with next generation drillrig
developments in Orebro, while moni­
toring the marketplace and briefing
customers. As a result, when recov­
ery came, the company was well-
placed to react to the demand for top
quality equipment for tunnels on Palermo Messina
highways around Lake Garda and
Sicily, and towards Bolzano and
Como. Meantime, the Trans Apennine
railway tunnels between Bologna and
Firenze, which carried on unscathed
during the downturn, have been re-
equipped with Rocket Boomers.
All in all. Atlas Copco Italia is
coming through with flying colours. joined by a new generation Rocket Map of Italy showing some of the sites
With fresh products and a streamlined Boomer WL3 С fully computerized drillrig mentioned in this article.
operation in place to serve a confi­ with automatic boom control, ABC Total.
dent, revitalized tunnelling industry, To establish the portals for the first
the future looks much rosier.
36 m, four micropile umbrellas were
required in each tube, and the first 180 m
of each drive was on a divergent course, in Atlas Copco XAH S350 compressors
Mori Bypass to Lake Garda order to achieve a maximum separation of at Mori.

Italy's Brenner Autostrada has been the

subject of much delay over the years, first
due to the slowdown in the construction
industry in the early 1990s, and then
because of lack of funding.
Contractor Cariboni - Strade e Gallerie
started construction of the Mori bypass, that
will replace a part of the SS 240, Lake Garda
to Brenner highway, in October, 1999.
The project includes a twin tunnel at
Mori, in Trento, comprising 2.2 km-long,
two-lane 90 sq m tubes driven 80% in sed­
imentary and 20% in volcanic rock.
Tunnelling was commenced using an Atlas
Copco Rocket Boomer 353 E, which was

FACE DRILLING 79
 и ITALY OVERVIEW
Atlas Copco Rocket Boomer WL3 С at
Mori portals.
| 80
23 m, or 35 m centres. The tunnels are fol­
lowing a curve of around 800 m radius,
and the maximum ground cover is 210 m.
There are just 30 people working for
Cariboni covering the two-shift, 06.00 to
22.00, five-day week, with maintenance-
only weekends. Mucking is on a separate
subcontract employing around 15 people.
Each face crew comprises seven people,
two of whom are rig drillers.
Complex Geology
In the first 400 m, the tunnel advanced
within the Red Scaglia formation, charac­
terized by fine grained, thin-layered lime­
stone. Subsequently, it entered the
Chiusole formation of highly fractured,
marly limestone. At station 800, the tunnel
encountered a more compact, brownish
coarse-grained limestone, known as the
Besagno formation. This section is 520 in-
long in total, but it is crossed by a basaltic
eruptive flow. The rock is compact, micro-
crystalline and hard, determining the
tunnel conditions for a length of 400 m.
The last part of the tunnel, from station
1,320 to 2,182, passes through the ivory-
white Noriglio limestone. Evident stratifi­
cation, and variable numbers of fractures,
make its stability difficult to forecast, and
these can create an undesirable level of
overbreak. The tunnel's overburden varies
from 40 to 210 m, and there are difficult
hydrological situations, especially in the
highly permeable limestone where the for­
mations are fully saturated, resulting in
pressurized water inflows.
Good Performance
The Rocket Boomer WL3 С drillrig at Mori
is equipped with the Atlas Copco rig control
system (RCS), featuring interactive operator
control panels with full-colour display of the
computer-based drilling system. Automatic
functions in the drilling process, such as
auto-collaring and anti-jamming protection,
as well as improved regulation of the COP
1838ME rock drills, provide high perform­
ance and outstanding drill steel economy.
The WL3 С is currently being used at the
west end, and is drilling 5 m-deep rounds on
two faces alternatively. Performance has
been good, despite the poor rock conditions
along the tunnel, where the situation changes
continuously. The extremely flexible auto-
regulation of the drilling parameters of the
WL3 С has been able to overcome almost all
the drilling difficulties, with good perfor­
mance in all types of rock encountered.
Drilling a full face round of 93-97 holes
of 51 mm diameter takes around 2.5 h, and
installation of rockbolts takes another
1.5 h. The main blasting charge comprises
175 kg of gelignite and 275 kg of capsu-
lated slurry, with 25 kg of 20 mm gelignite
in the profile holes. Support and shotcret-
ing takes 1.5 to 2 h. Alternating patterns of
eight and seven radial boltholes are drilled
at 1.5 m separation for 4 m-long anchored
and grouted bolts. These form the initial
support, and are followed up by steel arches
at 1 m intervals with mesh and 30 kg/cu m
of steel-fibre reinforced shotcrete.
By late-2002, over 2.2 km of tunnel had
been excavated, leaving approximately
600 m to be completed in each drive to
break through. Excavation is planned for
completion by December, 2003.
To date, the best performance has been
12 m of tunnel/day, with an average of
55 m of tunnel/week and 230 m/month.
The WL3 С is utilized in semi-automatic
mode almost continuously.
Trans Apennine
High Speed Railway
Atlas Copco originally supplied three
Rocket Boomer 353 ES drillrigs in flame­
proof version to Cavet, the main contractor
on the Trans Apennine high-speed railway
connection between Bologna and Firenze,
and subsequently supplied a fourth to
replace one destroyed by accident.
FACE DRILLING
 These drillrigs are working at different
job sites along the 75 km railway align­
ment, which is virtually entirely in tunnel.
Presently, one is at Osteto, where some
2-3 km of tunnel is still to be excavated;
the second is at Marzano, where 3 km of
tunnel remains to be excavated; and the
third is at Castelvecchio, with 1.2 km of
tunnel to complete.
Overall, some 80% of the total
drill/blast tunnelling has now been com­
pleted. During the four years since startup,
performance of the Atlas Copco drillrigs
has been excellent, even in very difficult
rock conditions. Thanks to the efficient
electronic control system (ECS) fitted to
these rigs, the drilling parameters are auto­
matically adapted to the rock condition
while drilling is underway, obtaining the
best possible performances in terms of
penetration and efficiency.
Best penetration rate has been
3.5 m/min, and production over more than
48 months has averaged 160 drill metres
per percussion hour. Average production of
each rock drill is 98 drill metres per
drilling hour. Average drilling tool life SSI 13, and even their names are exotic. Rocket Boomer 353 ES in flameproof
is: shanks 8,000-10,000 m; rods 3,000- Under construction for completion next version at work on the Trans Apennine
3,500 m; and bits 1,500-2,300 m. The rigs year are Torre Finale (1.02 km/1.07 km) railway.
are generally utilized in semi-automatic and Cozzo Minneria (2 x 2.48 km).
mode. Such steady performance is fully
appreciated by the customer, especially Torre Finale
after four years of operation, and there is
no reason to believe it will change in the The Torre Finale portals were constructed
future. Drill/blast excavation along the with 12 m width and 40 m separation, and
Bologna to Firenze line is scheduled for the faces were established using umbrella
completion by the end of Spring, 2004. drilling for the first 54 m in each drive.
The fullface section of 98 sq m was
Sicilian Missing Link achieved by driving a top heading with fol­
lowing bench.
The 250 km-long coastal A20 motorway Double-web steel arches were set at 1 m
from the Sicilian capital Palermo to intervals and shotcreted in position, and
Messina has been under construction from 6 m-long grouted rockbolts were installed. Rocket Boomer WL3 С at Torre Finale.

both ends for the last 12 years. For most of

its length, the sea is in sight, and the views
are inspiring. Where the alignment is
forced inland in order to avoid a town, the
elevation increases dramatically, and the
highway becomes a series of tunnels and
spectacular viaducts. This is exactly the
situation in which Italian tunnelling con­
tractors excel, and those working for
Consorzio per le Autostrade Siciliane
(CAS) are no exception. A total of around
34 km of twin tunnels have been complet­
ed, leaving around 4-5 km under construc­
tion. These form the missing link that will
£g*»#ft*.
complete the replacement for the existing

FACE DRILLING 81

Castelbuono tunnels and viaduct gives
an idea of the Sicilian terrain.
Rocket Boomer WL3 С at the Torre
Finale top heading face.
82
An Atlas Copco WL3 С 3-boom drillrig
was used to drill 4.5 m blastholes in the
mainly flysch geology with argillite, sand­
stone and mudstone. The top heading face
was lightly shotcreted before drilling 50-90
holes, according to the friability of the
rock, and blasting using gelatine explo­
sives. The advanced boom control (ABC)
system on the WL3 С guides the operator
in accurate drill hole positioning and align­
ment, to reduce costly overbreak.
Mucking was by a Cat 966G loader, and
much of the scaling and profiling was
handled by a Cat 330B excavator with
Krupp silenced hammer.
Some 50-60 m/week was excavated in
the Torre Finale tunnels, which are being
concrete lined throughout.
Cozzo Mineria
The Cozzo Mineria tunnels were estab­
lished using top headings with steel arch
and shotcrete support. There were multiple
faults and dislocations evident in the strata
at the faces, and advance proved difficult.
Once rock conditions improved, and a
full 100 sq m section could be opened, the
Rocket Boomer WL3 С was introduced.
To date, it has drilled about 3,000 m of
tunnel. The drill pattern has changed to
suit the rock conditions, and some 85-120
holes are drilled at 4.5 m depth in around
one hour. Best 24 h advance has been 12 m
of tunnel, and 60 m has been achieved in a
week. Average daily advance is 8 m.
Another 1.9 km of tunnel remains to be
excavated, of which only 800 m will be
drill/blast, and the project should be com­
pleted by end-2003.
The WL3 С is equipped with ABC
Total, but has been utilized 98% in semi­
automatic mode due to the rock conditions,
which require continuous monitoring by
the tunnel supervisor. However, the rig has
performed test rounds in fully automatic
mode, to the full satisfaction of the cus­
tomer C.E.C Gitto, the contractor.
Making Safe at Val Senales
Regional Roadway No 3 in Val Senales in
Bolzano province became a very danger­
ous road due to falling rock. To mitigate
the risk to drivers, the Authority decided to
move the line of the road and excavate two
tunnels of 1,292 m and 194 m. The exca­
vation of the longer tunnel started in July,
2001 and is almost completed. The second
tube was started in the middle of
September, 2002. Between the two tunnels,
consolidation work has been necessary,
with cemented bar, steel mesh and shot­
crete used to support the sidewalls.
An Atlas Copco Boomer WL3 С with
ABC Total has been used for both tunnels
by contractor COSSI, where sections vary
between 68.6 and 70.75 sq m, according to
the rock classes as per RMR parameters by
FACE DRILLING
Bieniawski. Two 48 m-long x 97.6 sq m
safety enlargements have been excavated in
the middle of the longer tunnel alignment.
The tunnels pass through metamorphic rock
comprising gneiss, paragneiss and schist.
The drill pattern was planned for 90 up
to 110 holes/round, length 4.5 m, diameter
51 mm, according to the rock conditions.
Thirteen bolt holes, length 3 m to 4.5 m,
have also to be drilled every round.
The drilling time per round, including
bolts, has been around two hours in any
rock condition, with average drilling speed
of 2.2 m/min. The best production has been
50 m tunnel/week and 180 m tunnel/month.
Bit life has averaged about 650-680 drill-
metres. The customer is very satisfied with
the performance of both drillrig and rock
tools. The rig has generally been used in
semi-automatic mode, using manual opera­
tion only for the bolt holes.
Particular attention has been given to
the firing method, especially in the zone
where the tunnel had to be excavated close
to the penstock of the nearby hydropower
plant. The minimum separation was
130 m. Vibrations have been monitored all
along the tunnel, due to the risk of falling
rock on the existing road. The maximum
speed level of vibrations accepted was
30mm/sec.
Albogasio Towards Como
The construction of the Albogasio road
tunnel forms part of the modernization and
adaptation of the SS № 340, a project
commissioned by the State Highway
Authority (ANAS) from Milan towards
Como, more than 10 years ago. It will
replace the narrow roadway through the
villages of Cressogno, S.Mamete and Oria
running along the shore of Lake Ceresio
which is subjected to heavy traffic in the
vicinity of the Swiss border. Some 800 m
of excavation was completed in the early
1990s, before abandonment. CETTI Spa
restarted the job in November, 2001 and a
year later had completed 2,100 m of the
remaining 2,750 m, using two adits, one of
which was started in April, 2002.
In the vicinity of Oria village, Moltrasio
Limestone was encountered at the 755 m
mark, followed by Dolomite Conchodon at
965 m. Then, good rock was replaced by
Zu limestone at 1,030 m, with poor geo-
mechanical characteristics as far as the
outskirts of Cressosogno village.
FACE DRILLING
CETTI commenced tunnelling on 1st Portal of Torre Finale frames Rocket
December, 2001 using an Atlas Copco Boomer WL3 С
Rocket Boomer XL3 С at the first
entrance. At Cressogno adit, following
consolidation work, excavation started in
April, 2002 using a Rocket Boomer HI88.
The standard section of 82-86 sq m has
been drilled with 118 holes of 4.5 m depth,
using Secoroc 51 mm button bits and a V-
cut breaking face. Some 300 m of tunnel
had to be drilled at 2 m depth and utilizing
millisecond delay detonators to keep the
seismic speeds under 10 mm/sec.
By end-November, 2002, some 1,405 m
of tunnel had been excavated using the
Boomer XL3 C, of which 955 m was sys­
tematically reinforced with 4.5 m steel
rockbolts and 10 cm of fibre-reinforced
shotcrete.
Another 450 m was excavated and
supported by steel arches with 25 cm of
shotcrete.
Face drilling took between 90 and
120 min/round, and a total of 172,000
drilled metres had been completed.
Average lives of drilling consumables
were recorded as: bits, 1,800 m; speedrods,
5,217 m; shank adapters, 6,738 m;
couplings, 6,220 m.
The rig has been used in mainly auto­
matic mode. The Rig Control System
(RCS), apart from its absolute reliability,
has given great satisfaction and has been
one of the factors which assured the best
results out of the COP 1838 rock drills. The
Rotation Percussion Controlled Feed force
(RPCF) was seen as the major factor in
obtaining the highly satisfactory results. •
:z GARPENBERG. SWEDEN

Driving the Garpenberg Decline

Replacing Production
Garpenberg and Garpenberg Norra
mines are 3 km apart in the Dalarna
region of central Sweden. The ores at
the two mines contain copper, lead,
zinc, silver and gold, in deposits that
have been exploited since the 13th
century. Production from the two
mines in 2000 was 983,000 t, contain-
ing 33,300 t zinc, 14,400 t lead, 800 t
copper, 106,000 kg silver, and 340 kg
gold.
Over the next couple of years, pro-
duction will shift from the Kanal ore-
body, in the older Garpenberg mine,
to newly-developed reserves at
Garpenberg Norra, where full scale
operations started in 1972. The two
mines will be joined by a drivage
from the 900 m level at Norra to the
800 m level at Garpenberg, so that
full hoisting capacity can continue to
be utilized, together with the existing
preparation plant.
Garpenberg Norra has two shafts,
one equipped with skip and counter-
weight, and the other with mancage.
It also has a surface access ramp, Atlas Copco Rocket Boomer 352 S
open to below 1,000 m. Development reaches I km depth on the Norra ramp
of this, together with associated development.
mains and sublevels, is undertaken
by the mine, using computerized
Rocket Boomer drillrigs in order to
reduce overbreak to the bare mini-
mum. The exceptional profile control
of these rigs has contributed to a
reduction in overbreak from above
30% to below 10%, with accompany-
ing savings in time and waste rock
handling and disposal.

Ramp Extension
In 1994, Boliden AB, owner of
Garpenberg Norra Mine, decided to devel-
op the reserves between the 800 m level
and the 1,000 m level with 3 km of 1:7
ramp extension and exploration drift. The
standard drift section is 28 sq m, with
dimensions 5.0 m-wide x 5.8 m-high.
Historically, contractors had handled
this type of work, drilling 4.05 m rounds
for a pull of 3.5 m, and inducing more than
30% overbreak. This was not satisfactory
to the mine management, so they decided
to take over the key elements of the work,
electing to handle drilling, charging, Garpenberg Norra shaft headframes.

84 FACE DRILLING
 GARPENBERG, SWEDEN

: =
blasting and rock support themselves. The
objective was to reduce overbreak, increase
pulls, limit damage to the contour of the
drive, and improve conditions for rock sup­
port. Loading, transport, scaling and shot-
crete application was left to contractors.
The mine's traditional demands on
drilling equipment were: increased produc­
tion at lower cost; reduced downtime; and
high availability. To these were now added
accurate hole positioning and direction.

Contour Control
An Atlas Copco Rocket Boomer 352 S,
equipped with contour control, was pur­
chased by the mine to handle the ramp
extension work. The contour control system
displays the collaring point, hole direction
and depth on a screen in the cabin, and the wanted a trouble-shooting system on the Atlas Copco Rocket Boomer 12 С
operator uses the information to guide the rig; data collection and reporting; ground drilling a crosscut entry.
boom and feed. Data such as hole number monitoring ahead of the face; drill plan
and type, and drilling time per hole are generation; links to the mine planning
logged. Hole length was 4.05 m, and each department database; trouble-free drilling
round comprised 72 x 45 mm blast holes in variable ground conditions with no
and two 102 mm opening holes. Spacing in stuck rods; operator-friendly systems; and
the contour was 70 cm, and lookout 30 cm, extendable PC technology.
increasing to 40 cm in the bottom holes. In 2001, the mine purchased one of the
The contour holes were charged with Gurit new generation Atlas Copco Rocket
17, the second row with Emulit 22, the slash Boomer L2 С drillrigs with Rig Control
and cut holes with Prillit, and the bottom System (RCS). RCS is an easy-to-use
holes with Dynamex 32. Scaling was by graphical interface between operator and
hydraulic hammer, following which 30 mm drillrig, with multi-lingual support, menu-
of steel fibre reinforced shotcrete was based settings, different levels of access,
applied, and 2.7 m-long x 20 mm-diameter and no need for specialized knowledge of
grouted rebar rockbolts installed. software or hardware. ABC Regular helps
Contour control ensured that the drillers the operator with collaring position, hole Lars Norling and Kjell Wester on the
used no more lookout than was required, and direction and depth. The Rocket Boomer L2 С development drillrig.
the drill pattern saved 20 minutes/round for
marking up the face. Most importantly, the
period spent scaling was minimized because
of the care taken to preserve the contour by
accurate drilling, well controlled blasting
and efficient rock reinforcement. The Rocket
Boomer 352 S returned 14 rounds/week, a
total advance of 220 m/month.
Pull increased from 3.5 m to 3.9 m, and
overbreak reduced from 30% to 9%. The
reduced volumes of mucking and trans­
port, and economies achieved on scaling,
rock reinforcement and shotcreting
operations, yielded substantial savings
amounting to €220/round.

New Generation
By 2000, fresh demands were being placed
on the drillrigs at Garpenberg. The mine

FACE DRILLING 85 |
 GARPENBERG SWEDEN
: =
Checking cores obtained from wireline
drilling to delineate the ore body.
L2 С also has built-in diagnostic functions,
making for easy servicing and trouble­
shooting. The hardware is PC-compatible,
with common electronic components, to
which it is easy to bolt on additions.
Development
Garpenberg Norra is using the new drillrig
for development and to mine the new con­
nection drift to Garoenberg. The round
cycle required drilling of 72-76 blast holes
4 m-deep using 48 mm steel, and two
102 mm opening holes. Some 27 holes for
2.7 m bolts were also drilled, bringing the
total drill metres/round to about 400 m,
taking four hours to complete. Bolt instal­
lation took an hour, and charging with
emulsion SSE using a Dyno Nobel mixer
truck took another hour. Blasting was at
the end of shift, and one hour was required
for ventilation before re-entry. Mucking
then took 3 hours using an 8 t loader and
27 t trucks, scaling took an hour, and shot-
creting some 30 minutes, to make a total
cycle time of 12 hours. Shotcrete is sup­
plied in tombola cars from a plant some
20 km distant, and is applied using a Jama
machine.
Access drifts for the orebody are
installed at 30 m vertical intervals.
Development takes place on two
shifts/day, from 06.00 to 16.15 and 18.00
to 04.15, with three teams alternating
dayshift and nightshirt, two weeks on, one
week off. The drillrig is used for up to 20
hours/day.
The crews have found the ergonomics
of the L2 С are better than on the 352 S.
Some were unwilling to adapt to comput­
erized drilling, so were replaced rather
than run the risk of mistakes on input
resulting in poor rounds. Care has to be
exercised by the drillers, particularly on
calculations. The fallback navigation
system is used more by production drillers
than by their development counterparts.
The Rocket Boomer L2 С has averaged
20 rounds/week, or 320 m/month, which
equates to 8,000 drill metres/week. More
important, overbreak was maintained at
9%, which is close to the minimum theo­
retical calculated value. Drillrig mainte­
nance is carried out by the operators on a
daily basis, with a weekly 6-8 h service in
the underground workshop. Any major
work is undertaken during the two-week
summer shutdown.
Crossbits are used for profile drilling for
their accuracy, and button bits are used for
the rest of the round. There is a cost/m bit
supply contract in force, backed by a well-
equipped grinding shop. The Dyno Nobel
emulsion charging system measures the
exact amount of explosives into each hole.
Plastic tubes are inserted into the lifter holes
to avoid blockages and save time. The
charge is detonated by a two-minute safety
fuse, which triggers the Nonel detonators. A
3.85 m pull results from the blast, and this
increases to the full 4 m after scaling.
All drivages are mined on a slight cross
gradient, in order to divert any water to
one side. This is found to be easier than
installing channel drains. •
Acknowledgements
The editor is grateful to Lars Norling,
Senior Engineer at Garpenberg, for assis­
tance with the site visit and reading draft.
FACE DRILLING
 DRILLRIG SPECIFICATION MasCopto

Rocket Boomer SI L

Direct controlled hydraulic tunnelling and Main optional equipment

Hole blowing kit, with 2x20 I air receiver
mining rig for low roof heights. Big hole drilling kit
For cross sections up to 29 m 2 . Rock drill lubrication warning kit
Extension drilling set BSH 110 (only for BMH 2000)
• Specially designed drill rig for drifting, crosscuts, and Automatic boom lubrication system, rear part of boom
roof holes in very narrow and low drifts and tunnels. Electronic lookout indicator FAM1 or FAM2
Tramming height only 1.30 m Exhaust catalyser
• Direct controlled drilling system with anti-jamming Fire suppression system ANSUL
function RPCF (Rotation Pressure Controlled Feed Alternative roof stops; min 1500 m m , max 1700 m m
force) Guards to prevent start of tramming with jacks d o w n ,
slide beam out or roof up
• COP 1838 rock drill with modern double reflex
dampening for high speed drilling and excellent drill
steel economy
• BMH 2800 heavy-duty aluminium hydraulic feed with
double bottom for high torsional resistance
• BUT 28 heavy-duty boom for direct, fast and accurate
positioning between holes
• Sturdy, articulated carrier with four wheel drive for
easy manoeuvring in narrow tunnels and drifts
• Basic rig includes telescopic FOPS-approved protective
roof, fixed seat, water booster pump, cable reel, and
work lights

M a i n specifications
Rocket Boomer S I L
Rock drill 1 x COP 1838ME
Feed 1 x BMH 2800-series
Boom 1 x BUT 28
Drilling system DCS 18-S1 L
Length 13450 m m
Width 2500 m m
Height roof up 1700 m m Coverage area (with 2° look-out angle)
roof down 1300 m m
Turning radius 5600/2900 m m
Weight 12500 kg
Visit www.facedrilling.com for more information

FACE DRILLING 87
AtlasCopcc DRILLRIG SPECIFICATION

Rocket Boomer 104

Direct controlled hydraulic tunnelling drill rig Other versions

with one BUT 4 boom and COP 1838 rock drill. Boomer 104 with COP 1432 or COP 1238 rock drills

For high speed drilling in small tunnels up to

20 m 2
• Specially designed drill rig for drifting, crosscuts, and
roofholes. Compact transport width of 1.22 m
• Direct controlled drilling system with anti-jamming
function RPCF (Rotation Pressure Controlled Feed
force)
• COP 1838 rock drill with modern double reflex
dampening for high speed drilling and excellent drill
steel economy
• BMH 2800 heavy-duty aluminium hydraulic feed with
double bottom for high torsional resistance
• BUT 4 heavy-duty boom for direct, fast and accurate
positioning
• Sturdy, articulated carrier with four wheel drive for
easy manoeuvring in narrow tunnels and drifts
• Basic rig includes telescopic FOPS-approved protective
roof, cable reel, water booster pump, and work lights
Main optional equipment
Hydraulic feeds BMHE 2000 and BMHS 2000
Hydraulic drill steel gripper BSH 110 for extension drilling
(only for BMH 2800)
FAM 104 electronic look-out indicator
FOPS-approved cabin
Big hole drilling kit
Hole blowing kit with external air
Rock drill lubrication warning kit
Exhaust catalyser
ANSUL fire suppression system
Electrical system 1000 v, direct start only

strB
M a i n specifications
Rocket Boomer 1 0 4
Rock drill 1 xCOP 1838ME
Feed 1 x BMH 2800-series
Boom 1 xBUT4
DCS 18-104
4410
Drilling system
Length 9710 m m 4760
Width 1220 m m
Height roof up 2685 m m Coverage area (with 2° look-out angle)
roof down 1985 m m
Turning radius 4400/2530 m m
Weight 8400 kg
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FACE DRILLING
 DRILLRIG SPECIFICATION JtOasCopco

Rocket Boomer 281

Direct controlled hydraulic tunnelling drill rig Other versions

with one BUT 28 boom and COP 1838 rock Boomer 281 w i t h COP 1432 or COP 1238 rock drills.
Rocket Boomer/Boomer 281-1B w i t h one service
drill. For high speed drilling in cross sections platform HL210
up to 31 m 2 . Rocket Boomer/Boomer 281-L low-built versions,
tramming height 1.73 m
Designed for drifting, crosscuts, and roofholes.
Compact transport width of 1.65 m
Direct controlled drilling system with anti-jamming
Main optional equipment
Telescopic feed BMHT 2800
function RPCF (Rotation Pressure Controlled Feed Hydraulic drill steel gripper BSH 110 for extension drilling
force) (only on BMH 2800)
COP 1838 rock drill with modern double reflex FAM electronic look-out indicator
dampening for high speed drilling and excellent drill FOPS-approved cabin
steel economy Big hole drilling kit
Hole blowing kit with external air
BMH 2800 heavy-duty aluminium hydraulic feed with Water reel
double bottom for high torsional resistance Water mist flushing
BUT 28 heavy-duty boom for direct, fast and accurate Rock drill lubrication warning kit
positioning Automatic boom lubrication system, rear part of boom
Manual lubrication system
Sturdy, articulated carrier for high mobility and stable Exhaust catalyser
set up. Four-wheel drive, power steering, fail-safe ANSUL fire suppression system
brakes and central lubricated chassis Electrical system 1000v, direct start only
Basic rig includes telescopic FOPS-approved protective
roof, cable reel, work lights, water booster pump, and
pump unloading function for easier start with low
voltage

M a i n specifications
Rocket Boomer 2 8 1
Rock drill 1 x COP 1838ME
Feed 1 x BMH 2800-series
Boom 1 x BUT 28
Drilling system DCS 18-280
Length 11700 m m
Width 1650 m m
Height roof up 2800 m m Coverage area (with 2° look-out angle)
roof down 2100 m m
Turning radius 4900/2800 m m
Weight 9300 kg
Visit www.facedrilling.com for more information

FACE DRILLING
/ШшСорсе DRILLRIG SPECIFICATION

Rocket Boomer L1 С

Hydraulic tunnelling and mining rig with Main optional equipment

Telescopic feed BMHT 6800-series (not with ABC)
computer-based drilling system for high Hydraulic drill steel support BSH 110
accuracy and productivity. Rod Adding System RAS, max 18+12 ft
For cross sections up to 70 m2. Rod Handling System RHS for 6 rods, incl. RAS and BUT 35SL
Automatic boom lubrication system, rear part of boom
• Rig Control System (RCS) with interactive operator Advanced Boom Control - ABC available in three levels
control panel with full-colour display of the computer- FOPS-approved cabin
Additional operator's control panel
based drilling system. Autocollaring and anti-jamming
Alternative mounting heights of cabin or protective roof
protection
Hole blowing kit, with 80 I air receiver
• COP 1838 rock drill with modern double reflex Water mist flushing with external water and air supply
dampening for high speed drilling and excellent drill Rock drill lubrication warning kit
steel economy Exhaust water scrubber 95 I
• Integrated diagnostic system can immediately identify Exhaust catalyser
faulty electronic components Ansul fire suppression system, dry or wet
• Advanced Boom Control ABC - assists the operator to Service platform HL 210-MBE
achieve accurate drill hole location and improve the Hydraulic Swellex pump
Manual lubrication system
quality of the drilling by optimising the drilling pattern
1000 V electronic system, direct start only
and reducing costly overbreak
• PC-card for transfer of data and for service engineers to
store preferred drill settings
• Modular design of electronic and mechanical
components
• Ergonomic cabin as optional, reduces noise level below
80dB(A)
• Heavy-duty aluminium hydraulic feeds with double
bottom for high torsional resistance
• BUT 35 heavy-duty booms for direct, fast and accurate
positioning between holes. New powerful feed rotation
unit and increased coverage. Improved linkage in main
boom joints and new axial bearings in all boom joints
• Sturdy, articulated carrier with four wheel drive for
easy manoeuvring in narrow tunnels and drifts,
powered by low emission, water-cooled diesel engine
• Basic rig includes telescopic FOPS-approved protective
roof, adjustable operator's control panel, fixed seat,
hydraulic driven compressor and water booster pump,
cable reel, and work lights.

Main specifications
Rocket Boomer L1 С
Rock drill 1 xCOP 1838ME
Feed 1 x BMH 6800-series
Boom 1 x BUT 35G
Drilling system RCS
Length 14220 m m
Width 2210 m m Coverage area (with 2° look-out angle)
Height with fixed cabin 3010 m m
Turning radius 6250/3750 m m
Weight 17800 kg
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90 FACE DRILLING
 DRILLRIG SPECIFICATION MmCopco

Rocket Boomer L1 C-DH

Hydraulic tunnelling and mining rig with Main optional equipment

Hydraulic drill steel support BSH 110
computer-based drilling system for high Rod Adding System RAS, max 18+12 ft
accuracy and productivity. Rod Handling System RHS for 6 rods, incl. RAS and BUT 35SL

For cross sections up to 70 m 2 . Automatic boom lubrication system, rear part of boom
Advanced Boom Control - ABC available in three levels
• Rig Control System (RCS) with interactive operator Basic, Regular and Total
control panel with full-colour display of the computer- FOPS-approved cabin
Additional operator's control panel
based drilling system. Autocollaring and anti-jamming
Alternative mounting heights of cabin or roof
protection Hole blowing kit, with 80 I air receiver
• COP 1838 rock drill with modern double reflex Internal water mist flushing with water tank (940 I) and air supply
dampening for high speed drilling and excellent drill Rock drill lubrication warning kit
steel economy Exhaust water scrubber 95 I
• Integrated diagnostic system can immediately identify Exhaust catalyser
faulty electronic components Ansul fire suppression system, dry or wet
• Advanced Boom Control ABC - assists the operator to Service platform HL 210-MBE
achieve accurate drill hole location and improve the Hydraulic Swellex pump
Manual lubrication system
quality of the drilling by optimising the drilling pattern
and reducing costly overbreak
• PC-card for transfer of data and for service engineers to
store preferred drill settings
• Modular design of electronic and mechanical
components
• Ergonomic cabin as optional, reduces noise level below
80 dB(A)
• Heavy-duty aluminium hydraulic feeds with double
bottom for high torsional resistance
• BUT 35 heavy-duty booms for direct, fast and accurate
positioning between holes. New powerful feed rotation
unit and increased coverage. Improved linkage in main
boom joints and new axial bearings in all boom joints
• Sturdy, articulated carrier with four wheel drive for
easy manoeuvring in narrow tunnels and drifts,
powered by low emission, water-cooled diesel engine
• Basic rig includes telescopic FOPS-approved protective
roof, adjustable operator's control panel, fixed seat,
hydraulic driven compressor and water booster pump,
cable reel, and work lights.

M a i n specifications
Rocket Boomer L1 C-DH
Rock drill 1 x COP 1838ME
Feed 1 x BMH 6800-series
Boom 1 xBUT35G
Drilling system RCS
Length 14220 m m
Width 2210 m m Coverage area (with 2° look-out angle)
Height with fixed cabin 3010 m m
Turning radius 6250/3750 m m
Weight 18650 kg
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FACE DRILLING 91
 АОшСорсе DRILLRIG SPECIFICATION

Rocket Boomer 282

Direct controlled hydraulic tunnelling drill rig Main optional equipment

Telescopic feed BMHT 2800
with two BUT 28 booms and COP 1838 rock Hydraulic drill steel gripper BSH 110 for extension drilling
drills. For high speed drilling in cross sections (only on BMH 2800)
up to 45 m2. FAM electronic look-out indicator
FOPS-approved cabin
• Designed for drifting, crosscuts, and roofholes. Big hole drilling kit
Compact transport width of 1.98 m Hole blowing kit with external air
Water reel
• Direct controlled drilling system with anti-jamming Water mist flushing
function RPCF (Rotation Pressure Controlled Feed Rock drill lubrication warning kit
force) Automatic boom lubrication system, rear part of boom
• COP 1838 rock drill with modern double reflex Manual lubrication system
Exhaust catalyser
dampening for high speed drilling and excellent drill
ANSUL fire suppression system
steel economy Electrical system 1000v, direct start only
• BMH 2800 heavy-duty aluminium hydraulic feed with
double bottom for high torsional resistance
• BUT 28 heavy-duty boom for direct, fast and accurate
positioning
• Sturdy, articulated carrier for high mobility and stable
set up. Four-wheel drive, power steering, fail-safe
brakes and central lubricated chassis
• Basic rig includes telescopic FOPS-approved protective
roof, cable reel, work lights, water booster pump, and
pump unloading function for easier start with low
voltage

Main specifications
Rocket Boomer 2 8 2
Rock drill 2 x COP 1838ME
Feed 2 x BMH 2800-series
Boom 2 x BUT 28
Drilling system DCS 18-280
Length 11820 m m
Width 1980 m m
Height roof up 3000 m m Coverage area (with 2° look-out angle)
roof down 2300 m m
Turning radius 5500/3000 m m
Weight 17500 kg
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| 92 FACE DRILLING
 DRILLRIG SPECIFICATION AtlasCopcc

Rocket Boomer M2 С

Hydraulic tunnelling and mining rig with Main optional equipment

Hydraulic drill steel gripper BSH 110 for extension drilling
computer-based drilling system for high Rod Adding System RAS, for 14+10 ft rods
accuracy and productivity. Advanced Boom Control ABC available in three levels:
For cross sections up to 45 m 2 . Basic, Regular and Total
FOPS-approved cabin
• Rig Control System (RCS) with interactive operator Additional operator's control panel
control panel with full-colour display of the computer- Alternative mounting heights of cabin or roof
Hole blowing kit with external air
based drilling system. Auto-collaring and anti-jamming
Water mist flushing
protection Rock drill lubrication warning kit
• COP 1838 rock drill with modern double reflex Automatic boom lubrication system, rear part of boom
dampening for high speed drilling and excellent drill Exhaust catalyser with silencer
steel economy Manual lubrication system
• Integrated diagnostic system can immediately identify ANSUL fire suppression system
faulty electronic components Hydraulic Swellex pump
• Advanced Boom Control ABC - assists the operator to Electrical system 1000v, direct start only
achieve accurate drill hole location and improve the
quality of the drilling by optimising the drilling pattern
and reducing costly overbreak
• PC-card for transfer of data and for service engineers to
store preferred drill settings
• Modular design of electronic and mechanical
components
• Ergonomic cabin as optional, reduces noise level below
80 dB(A)
• BMH 6800 heavy-duty aluminium hydraulic feeds with
double bottom for high torsional resistance
• BUT 32 heavy-duty booms for direct, fast and accurate
positioning between holes
• Sturdy articulated carrier with four wheel drive for easy
manoeuvring in narrow tunnels and drifts, powered by
low emission, water-cooled diesel engine
• Basic rig includes telescopic FOPS-approved protective
roof, adjustable operator's control panel, fixed seat,
hydraulic driven compressor and water booster pump,
cable reel, and work lights

M a i n specifications
Rocket Boomer M 2 С
Rock drill 2xCOP1838ME
Feed 2 x BMH 6800-series
Boom 2 x BUT 32
Drilling system RCS
Length 14220 m m
Width 2210 m m Coverage area (with 2° look-out angle)
Height with fixed cabin 3010 m m
Turning radius 6250/3750 m m
Weight 18650 kg
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FACE DRILLING 93
AtlmCopce DRILLRIG SPECIFICATION

Rocket Boomer L3 C-2B

Three-boom hydraulic jumbo, with t w o Main optional equipment

Telescopic feed BMHT 6800 (not with ABC)
service platforms for high speed tunnelling Hydraulic drill steel gripper BSH 110 for extension drilling (only on
adapted for the micro-benching method. BMH 6800)
For cross sections up to 114 m 2 Rod Adding System RAS, for 20+10 ft rods
Extended b o o m reach with 700 m m long fixed boom segment
• Rig Control System (RCS) with interactive operator Advanced Boom Control ABC available in three levels: Basic,
control panel with full-colour display of the computer- Regular and Total
Measure While Drilling MWD - logging drill data
based drilling system. Auto-collaring and anti-jamming
Additional operator's control panel
protection Liftable cabin, 1100 m m
• COP 1838 rock drill with modern double reflex dampening Hole blowing kit with external air
for high speed drilling and excellent drill steel economy Water mist flushing
• Integrated diagnostic system can immediately identify Rock drill lubrication warning kit
faulty electronic components Automatic boom lubrication system, rear part of boom
• Advanced Boom Control ABC - assists the operator to Exhaust catalyser with silencer
achieve accurate drill hole location and improve the Manual lubrication system
quality of the drilling by optimising the drilling pattern and ANSUL fire suppression system
Hydraulic Swellex pump
reducing costly overbreak
Electrical system 1000 v, direct start only
• Two service platforms side-mounted and especially
designed for micro-benching, providing flexibility,
efficiency and operator's safety
• PC-card for transfer of data and for service engineers to
store preferred drill settings
• Large and ergonomic cabin with noise level below 80dB(A)
• BUT 35 heavy-duty booms for direct, fast and accurate
positioning between holes. New powerful feed rotation
unit and increased coverage. Improved linkage in main
boom joints and new axial bearings in all boom joints
• Modular design of electronic and mechanical components
• Sturdy carrier with all-wheel drive for easy manoeuvring.
Powered by a turbo-charged, water-cooled 6-cylinder, low
emission diesel engine for high mobility. Four jacks for
stable set up.
• Basic rig includes FOPS-approved cabin, adjustable
operator's seat with armrest controls, hydraulic driven
compressor and water booster pump, cable reel, and work
lights

M a i n specifications
Rocket Boomer L3 С-2В
Rock drill 3 x COP 1838ME
Feed 3 x BMH 6800-series
Boom 3 x BUT 35G
Service platform 2xSP4
Drilling system RCS
Length 17170 m m
Width 2500 m m Coverage area (incl. 250 mm look-out)
Height with fixed cabin 3660 m m
Turning radius 11800/6800 m m
Weight 50000 kg
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96 FACE DRILLING
 DRILLRIG SPECIFICATION ЯОтСорсо

Rocket Boomer L3 С

Hydraulic tunnelling rig with fixed boom Main optional equipment

Telescopic feed BMHT 6800 (not with ABC)
console for high capacity tunnelling. Hydraulic drill steel gripper BSH 110 for extension drilling (only on
For cross sections up to 114 m 2 BMH 6800)
Rod Adding System RAS, for 20+10 ft rods
• Rig Control System (RCS) with interactive operator Extended boom reach with 700 m m long fixed boom segment
control panel with full-colour display of the computer- Advanced Boom Control ABC available in three levels: Basic,
based drilling system. Auto-collaring and anti-jamming Regular and Total
protection Measure While Drilling MWD - logging drill data
• COP 1838 rock drill with modern double reflex Additional operator's control panel
dampening for high speed drilling and excellent drill Liftable cabin, 1100 m m
Hole blowing kit with external air
steel economy
Water mist flushing
• Integrated diagnostic system can immediately identify Rock drill lubrication warning kit
faulty electronic components Automatic boom lubrication system, rear part of boom
• Advanced Boom Control ABC - assists the operator to Service platform
achieve accurate drill hole location and improve the Exhaust catalyser with silencer
quality of the drilling by optimising the drilling pattern Manual lubrication system
and reducing costly overbreak ANSUL fire suppression system
• PC-card for transfer of data and for service engineers to Hydraulic Swellex pump
store preferred drill settings Electrical system 1000 v, direct start only
• Large and ergonomic cabin with noise level below
80dB(A)
• BUT 35 heavy-duty booms for direct, fast and accurate
positioning between holes. New powerful feed rotation
unit and increased coverage. Improved linkage in main
boom joints and new axial bearings in all boom joints
• Modular design of electronic and mechanical
components
• Sturdy carrier with all-wheel drive for easy
manoeuvring. Powered by a turbo-charged, water-
cooled 6-cylinder, low emission diesel engine for high
mobility. Four jacks for stable set up.
• Basic rig includes FOPS-approved cabin, adjustable
operator's seat with armrest controls, hydraulic driven
compressor and water booster pump, cable reel, and
work lights 0 0 0 \
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l_l l_j 1
en
о о о

M a i n specifications &ьД
Rocket Boomer L3 С
Rock drill
Feed
3xCOP1838ME
3 x BMH 6800-series
fJPlh 1
Boom 3 x BUT 35G 12750
Drilling system RCS 13600
< •
Length 17070 m m
Width 2500 m m Coverage area (incl. 250 mm look-out)
^
Height with fixed cabin 3660 m m
Turning radius 11800/6800 m m
Weight 37000 kg
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FACE DRILLING
» I
ЯОшСорсс DRILLRIG SPECIFICATION

Rocket Boomer XL3 С

=
• ' •

16960 ( B M H 6820)

Hydraulic tunnelling rig with high reaching Main optional equipment

Telescopic feed BMHT 6800 (not with ABC)
Eagle console for railway tunnels and Hydraulic drill steel gripper BSH 110 for extension drilling (only on
underground caverns. BMH 6800)
For cross sections up to 179 m 2 Rod Adding System RAS, for 20+10 ft rods
Extended boom reach with 700 mm long fixed boom segment
• Rig Control System (RCS) with interactive operator Advanced Boom Control ABC available in three levels: Basic,
control panel with full-colour display of the computer- Regular and Total
based drilling system. Auto-collaring and anti-jamming Measure While Drilling MWD - logging drill data
Additional operator's control panel
protection Liftable cabin, 1100 mm
• COP 1838 rock drill with modern double reflex Hole blowing kit with external air
dampening for high speed drilling and excellent drill Water mist flushing
steel economy Rock drill lubrication warning kit
• Integrated diagnostic system can immediately identify Automatic boom lubrication system, rear part of boom
faulty electronic components Service platform
• Advanced Boom Control ABC - assists the operator to Exhaust catalyser with silencer
achieve accurate drill hole location and improve the Manual lubrication system
quality of the drilling by optimising the drilling pattern ANSUL fire suppression system
Hydraulic Swellex pump
and reducing costly overbreak
Electrical system 1000 v, direct start only
• PC-card for transfer of data and for service engineers to
store preferred drill settings
• Large and ergonomic cabin with noise level below
80dB(A)
• BUT 35 heavy-duty booms for direct, fast and accurate
positioning between holes. New powerful feed rotation
unit and increased coverage. Improved linkage in main
boom joints and new axial bearings in all boom joints
• Modular design of electronic and mechanical
components
• Sturdy carrier with all-wheel drive for easy
manoeuvring. Powered by a turbo-charged, water-
cooled 6-cylinder, low emission diesel engine for high
mobility. Four jacks for stable set up.
13050

• Basic rig includes FOPS-approved cabin, adjustable

operator's seat with armrest controls, hydraulic driven
compressor and water booster pump, cable reel, and
work lights " •
1 '
M a i n specifications
Rocket Boomer XL3 С
Rock drill
Feed
ЗхСОР 1838МЕ
3 x BMH 6800-series
1 1
Boom 3xBUT35G 14400
Drilling system RCS
Length 16960 mm
16100
Width 2700 mm Coverage area (incl. 250 mm look-out)
Height with fixed cabin 3660 mm
Turning radius 11800/6700 mm
Weight 42000 kg
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 DRILLING SPECIFICATION /ОШСорсо

Rocket Boomer WL3 С

Hydraulic tunnelling rig with extra wide Main optional equipment

Telescopic feed BMHT 6800 (not w i t h ABC)
reaching boom console for highway tunnels Hydraulic drill steel gripper BSH 110 for extension drilling (only on
and underground caverns. BMH 6800)
For cross sections up to 163 m2 Rod Adding System RAS, for 20+10 ft rods
Extended boom reach with 700 m m long fixed boom segment
• Rig Control System (RCS) with interactive operator Advanced Boom Control ABC available in three levels: Basic,
control panel with full-colour display of the computer- Regular and Total
based drilling system. Auto-collaring and anti-jamming Measure While Drilling MWD - logging drill data
Additional operator's control panel
protection
Liftable cabin, 1100 m m
• COP 1838 rock drill with modern double reflex Hole blowing kit with external air
dampening for high speed drilling and excellent drill Water mist flushing
steel economy Rock drill lubrication warning kit
• Integrated diagnostic system can immediately identify Automatic boom lubrication system, rear part of boom
faulty electronic components Service platform
• Advanced Boom Control ABC - assists the operator to Exhaust catalyser with silencer
achieve accurate drill hole location and improve the Manual lubrication system
quality of the drilling by optimising the drilling pattern ANSUL fire suppression system
Hydraulic Swellex pump
and reducing costly overbreak
Electrical system 1000 v, direct start only
• PC-card for transfer of data and for service engineers to
store preferred drill settings
• Large and ergonomic cabin with noise level below
80dB(A)
• BUT 35 heavy-duty booms for direct, fast and accurate
positioning between holes. New powerful feed rotation
unit and increased coverage. Improved linkage in main
boom joints and new axial bearings in all boom joints
• Modular design of electronic and mechanical
components
• Sturdy carrier with all-wheel drive for easy
manoeuvring. Powered by a turbo-charged, water-
cooled 6-cylinder, low emission diesel engine for high
mobility. Four jacks for stable set up.
• Basic rig includes FOPS-approved cabin, adjustable
operator's seat with armrest controls, hydraulic driven
compressor and water booster pump, cable reel, and
work lights

Main specifications
Rocket Boomer W L 3 С
Rock drill 3xCOP1838ME
Feed 3 x BMH 6800-series
Boom 3 x BUT 35G
Drilling system RCS
Length 17220 m m
Width 3010 m m Coverage area (incl. 250 mm look-out)
Height with fixed cabin 3660 m m
Turning radius 11800/6600 m m
Weight 43000 kg
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FACE DRILLING
ЯЯшСорсс ROCK DRILL SPECIFICATION

Hydraulic rock drills

COP 1532 Top hammer rock drill forhole diameter range 35* -64 mm
A powerful rock drill with very high capacity and less "Back hammering" function makes it possible to use
stress in the drill steel. COP 1532 is the shortest rock the impact mechanism as an aid to take out a stuck dril
drill in its class for the best utilisation of the feed steel.
length. Impact power and frequency can be controlled *One rod drilling
and adjusted independently of each other. A modern
hydraulic reflex dampener gives the rock drill the best Technical data
protection from reflected shock waves. COP 1532
Weight 172 kg
Length 850 m m
Impact power, max 15 kW
Impact rate 65 Hz
Hydraulic pressure, max 230 bar
Rotation speed range, max 0-220 rpm
Rotation pressure, max 150 bar
Rotation torque, max 1140Nm
Flushing air pressure 10bar
Lubricating air consump.at 2bar 5 1/s
Shank adapter, male R28, R32, T38
Shank adapter, female R32, R38

COP1838ME/MEXTOP hammer rock drill for hole diameter range 64 - 89 mm

COP 1838ME is specially suitable for small to medium efficiency and double acting function. As the feed and
hole sizes. Adjustable stroke length makes it possible to the boom are not subjected to unnecessary strain, the
adjust impact rate and energy to actual rock conditions entire drill string will give you longer service life. The
and hole size. Powerful, stepless variable and reversible automatic tightening system of the drill string results in
rotation motor gives high torque and excellent speed straighter holes and optimum penetration.
control. The efficient reflex damping system of the COP COP 1838MEX has built-in hydraulic extractor.
1800 series is called "dual damping" due to its high.
Technical data
COP COP
1838ME 1838MEX
Weight 170 kg 229 kg
Length 1008 m m 1206 m m
Impact power, max 18 kW 18 kW
Impact rate 60 Hz 60 Hz
Hydraulic pressure, max 230 bar 230 bar
Rotation speed range, max 0-340 rpm 0-340 rpm
Rotation pressure, max 175 bar 175 bar
Rotation torque, max 1180 Nm 1180 Nm
Flushing air pressure 10 bar 10 bar
Lubricating air consump. at 2 bar 6l/s 6l/s
Shank adapter R38, T38, T45

COP 1838HFTop hammer rock drill for hole diameter range 43 - 76 mm

COP 1838HF is an alternative to the COP 1838ME for the
small to medium hole sizes. It has a significantly higher
drill speed than the ME version but gives the same
outstanding drill steel economy. The COP 1838HF doesn't
hit harder - it hits 20% faster. Powerful, stepless variable
and reversible rotation motor gives high torque and
excellent speed control.
The efficient reflex damping system of the COP 1800
series is called "dual damping" due to its high
efficiency and double acting function. As the feed and
the boom are not subjected to unnecessary strain, the
entire drill string will give you longer service life. The
automatic tightening system of the drill string results in
straighter holes and optimum penetration.

Technical data
C O P 1838HF
Weight 170 kg
Length 1008 m m
Impact power, max 22 kW
Impact rate 73 Hz
Hydraulic pressure, max 250 bar
Rotation speed range, max 0-460 rpm
Rotation pressure, max 175 bar
Rotation torque, max 740 N m
Flushing air pressure 10 bar
Lubricating air consump. at 2 bar 6 l/s
Shank adapter R32, R38, T38, T45

100 FACE DRILLING

 ROCK DRILL SPECIFICATION ЯОшСора>

COP 1238 METop hammer rock drill for hole diameter range 35*-89 mm
The COP 1238-series of rock drills have an excellent include the ability to shock waves. "Back hammering"
reputation for high productivity, dependability in function makes it possible to use the impact mechanism
operation, and good economy in bench drilling. as an aid to take out a stuck drill steel.
Powerful, stepless variable and reversible rotation *One rod drilling
motor gives high torque and enables great
possibilities with rotation speed. Additional benefits Technical data
COP 1238ME
Weight 151 kg
Length 1002 mm
Impact power, max 15 kW
Impact rate 40-60 Hz
Hydraulic pressure, max 230 bar
Rotation speed range, max 0-340 rpm
Rotation pressure, max 175 bar
Rotation torque, max 1180 Nm
Flushing air pressure, bar lObar
Lubricating air consump. at 2 bar 5 1/s
Shank adapter R32, T38, T45

Overhaul kit COP 1238ME

Complete kit for overhaul and service of the rock drill
Main features
• This kit contains all parts needed for making service
and overhaul of your rock drill COP 1238ME as per
factory recommendation.
• With this kit you will bring your rock drill back to
factory specification, and optimize your production in
an economical way.
• The parts are contained in a solid wood box, for
shipping and handling at the job site.
• One part number for easier order handling and
logistics.
• The kit also includes the overhauling instructions
and spare parts list which you need for overhauling
COP 1238ME.
• Competitive price compared to buying individual items.

Rebuild kit Rebuild k i t

For C O P 1 2 3 8 M E - T 3 8 Part number 3 1 1 5 1 4 3 6 9 0 For C O P 1 2 3 8 ME-T45 Part numer 3 1 1 5 1 4 3 5 9 0
Part number Specification Part number Specification

3115 0288 90 Including above kit 3115 1436 90 3115 0288 92 Including above kit 3115 1435 90
and below item and below item
3115 0288 00 Piston 1 3115 0288 00 Piston 1

3115 0288 91 Including above kit 3115 0288 90 3115 0288 93 Including above kit 3115 0288 92
and below items and below items
3115 1823 00 Valve piston 1 31151823 00 Valve piston 1
3115 2078 00 Flushing head 1 3115 2079 00 Flushing head 1

Seal Kit COP 1 2 3 8 Part number 3 1 1 5 9 1 5 0 9 5

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FACE DRILLING 101

MlasCopcc DRILL RIG OPTIONS
Advanced Boom Control - ABC
Quality drilling systems with different levels of automation
Advanced Boom Control system, ABC is an optional
tool, which helps to improve the accuracy of the
drill hole alignment to achieve an accurate tunnel
profile with reduced overbreak resulting in lower
reinforcement, lining and mucking costs
ABC Basic
A guidance system in which the boom
and feed are moved and positioned
manually by the operator with the help
of a display showing feed inclination.
Drilling is initiated by the operator,
with collaring of the hole taking place
automatically. There is no drill pattern
support or logging facility.
ABC Regular
With ABC Regular, boom and feed are
positioned manually by the operator.
The display shows collaring point, hole
direction and hole depth according to
pre-programmed drill patterns. As drill
holes are completed they are shown
on the display. During drilling each
hole is logged on the PC-card.
Main features ABC Regular
• One multifunctional panel for the
control of up to three booms on the
rig. Extra panel as optional.
• Simple, logical panel layout easy to
learn, easy to master.
• Direct-touch-keys for quick access to
drill plan and other functions.
ABC Total
Offers complete automation of the
drilling process. Boom and feed are
positioned automatically according
to a pre-programmed drill pattern and
drilling sequence plan. Fully automatic
collaring and drilling of each hole in
the sequence then takes place. Drill
pattern and drilling sequence are
created on an office PC, using Tunnel
Manager software. ABC Total sets a
new standard for computerized
drilling, offering more control over
the drilling operation.
Main components
The system consists of
a number of sensors
for monitoring the
boom and feed position,
resolver module
for connecting sensors
to the RCS rig control
system. The information
is shown on the
operator's colour
display on the rig.
Visit www.facedrilling.com for more information
102
Advanced Boom Control system, ABC is available in
three levels of automation, ABC Basic, ABC Regular
and ABC Total.
The ABC systems are available for Atlas Copco Rocket
Boomer rigs with computer-based drilling system.
Main features ABC Basic
• User friendly and interactive system
• Simple, logical panel layout easy to
learn, easy to master
• Can optionally be upgraded to ABC
Regular
• Drill plan easily created on site office
PC with Windows based Atlas
Copco Tunnel Manager software.
• Data transfer between the office PC
and the rig through a PC-card.
• Possible to select common hole
depth so that all holes end at the
same plan.
• Logging of drill hole data on PC-card
for drill round analysis.
• Calibration of sensors done directly
from control panel.
• - / • Built-in compensation for boom
deflection.
• Upgradeable to ABC Total
Main features ABC Total
Besides the ABC Regular's main
features, ABC Total also includes the
following specific features:
• With push of two direct-touch-keys on
the panel, control can be taken over by
the operator or transferred back to the
rig.
• Possible to operate the booms in
semi-automatic mode.
• Possible to activate/de-activate anti-
collision control between the booms
when operating in fully automatic
mode.
ABC Regular Sensors function
ABC Total 1. Boom swing angle
2. Boom lift angle
3. Boom telescope
ABC Basic 4. Feed swing angle
5. Feed lift angle
6. Feed rotation angle
7. Feed lockout angle
8. Feed extension
u\. >
9. Hole depth
10. Feed inclination
Also including two sensors for
indication of rig position (X and Y).
FACE DRILLING
 DRILL RIG OPTIONS /ШшСорсо

Safe Bolting System

A b o o m conversion kit has been developed that
allows the operator to place a rockbolt into the feed
or change drill bit f r o m the safety of the operator's
p l a t f o r m . This eliminates the need for the operator
to w o r k under unsecured rock, w h i c h may be the
case w h e n the face drilling j u m b o is used for both
bolt hole drilling and installation of rockbolts.
The p r o b l e m is solved w i t h a new b o o m system,
based on the well proven BUT 32/35 b o o m s , which
lets the operator put the bolt in the feed and install
it w h i l e standing on the p l a t f o r m .
This is accomplished by changing the rotation
unit and the feed holder, and fitting a longer feed tilt
cylinder. W h e n the new c o m p o n e n t s are installed,
the feed can rotate a full 180° f r o m the face,
backwards facing the operator's platform.
A dead-man's handle ensures the operator does
not inflict any damage onto him/her self or to the
machine. A small platform is m o u n t e d on the side
of the rig where the operator can stand to install
the bolt, or change a drill bit.

The operator can perform the bolt hole drilling and bolt
installation without leaving the drill rig.

After the drill steel is removed and the bolt installation From the platform the operator can easily put a
tool is attached to the rockdrill, the bolt is placed into the washer on the rockbolt or change a drill bit.
feed.

T h e S a f e B o l t i n g S y s t e m includes:
• B o o m part c o m p o n e n t s for left- or right-hand
side b o o m
• Hydraulic and electric c o m p o n e n t s incl. dead-
man's handle
• Platform set for left- or right-hand side m o u n t i n g Visit www.facedrilling.com for more information

FACE DRILLING 103 |

AUasCopce DRILL RIG OPTIONS

Ergonomically designed workspace

with advanced technology
vertically and laterally adjustable and slewable for
easy entry. The control levers are located in the
collapsible armrests. Full colour display contains
all the i n f o r m a t i o n needed to operate or supervise
the drill rig. A n optional extra control panel for a
standing or seated operator adds to the cabin's
flexibility.
Rigs w i t h smaller cabins feature an adjustable
operator's seat and ergonomically designed drilling
control panel w i t h large colour display. A n optional
extra control panel for a standing operator adds
to the cabin's flexibility.
Good insulation affords a noise level below 80 dB,
and rubber d a m p i n g of the cab m o u n t i n g reduces
vibration and gives greater c o m f o r t during
t r a m m i n g . Cabin complies w i t h European and
International safety d e m a n d s for Falling Object
Protective Structure FOPS.

The interplay between man and machine starts
in the operator's cabin, and Atlas Copco has
expended great effort in designing a cabin w i t h
operator comfort in m i n d . Even the smallest
details have been considered to produce a m o d e r n
workstation. The cabin offers excellent visibility
for both drilling and t r a m m i n g . The laminated
windscreen is equipped w i t h a large wiper, as is
the rear w i n d o w . Effective air ventilation clears
condensation mist f r o m all of these w i n d o w s . The
cabin is designed so that the operator can m o n i t o r
and control the entire drilling process f r o m a
comfortable position.
The ergonomically designed operator's seat is
F e a t u r e s in s u m m a r y
• Ergonomically designed drilling control panel
w i t h large colour display.
• Option of t w o control panels for 1- and 2-boom
rigs.
• Option of t w o control panels for 3-boom rigs w i t h
t w o sitting or t w o standing, or one sitting and
one standing operator. Sitting operator w i t h
armrest controls.
• Spacious and comfortable w o r k i n g environment
inside the FOPS-approved cabin.
• I m p r o v e d w o r k i n g and t r a m m i n g lights.
• Excellent visibility for both drilling and t r a m m i n g .
• Noise level below 80 dB(A).
• Hydraulically driven air conditioning unit
continues to operate during t r a m m i n g .

Right armrest keypad with
control levers for boom and
drilling, buttons for boom
console, service platform,
cabin and selection
of different ABC Total
functions.
Left armrest keypad with Adjustable operator control Increased visibility during
boom/feed control lever panel with high resolution drilling due to the 7.1 metre
and buttons for boom colour display. cabin lift and wider front
selection, start and stop, window with no visible
and selection of ABC Basic frames.
or Regular functions.

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104 FACE DRILLING

 DRILL RIG OPTIONS WmCopcc

FAM angle indicator for DCS rigs

A easy-to-use instrument for increased drilling accuracy
measurement (option), w h i c h instantaneously
shows the reached hole depth w h e n drilling.
FAM is menu-driven w i t h icons w h i c h makes it
universal to all languages. A built in fault indication
and fault finding system helps to detect and locate
electronic faults.
FAM is used on rigs w i t h direct controlled drilling
system and w i t h Atlas Copco BUT 28, BUT 32 and
BUT 35 b o o m s .

FAM (Feed Angle Measurement) is a system for
measuring and indicating the direction of the
feed. The system calculates the deviation f r o m a
reference direction that the alignment of the feed
w o u l d give in full-depth drilled holes. The deviation
is presented in cm and a feed angle. A reference
direction and the full-hole depth (not the drill steel
length) must be specified in order for the system to
present correct values.
The feed direction is s h o w n graphically in the
f o r m of an archery target w i t h the bull's-eye as
the reference direction. If the feed direction differs
f r o m the reference direction, a line is s h o w n
w h i c h describes the resulting departure f r o m the
reference direction at the b o t t o m of the hole (full-
depth hole).
Deviation can be measured w i t h reference to the
drill rig, or w i t h reference to a laser (or other tunnel
reference line). If more than one FAM is installed
on a rig, they are linked together so that only one
b o o m has to be aligned on the laser beam.
The system is also available w i t h hole depth
F A M is available in t w o versions:
I. Shows feed direction and specified drill hole
length.
II. Shows feed direction, specified drill hole length,
hole depth reached and total drillmetres.
I n s t r u m e n t a t i o n (for each b o o m ) :
• One high resolution colour display w i t h
integrated control keys
• Two resolver sensors t o measure t h e horizontal
angle of each b o o m t r i p o d
• One gravitational sensor to measure the dip of
the feed
• One drill hole depth sensor (if option FAM II is
chosen)
• One resolver module for calculations and
communication
• High tensile strength c o m m u n i c a t i o n cabling to
link together all c o m p o n e n t s
• One service tool box for service and
maintenance.
Easy t o use i n s t r u m e n t t o :
• Increase drilling accuracy
• Limit overbreak w h i l e keeping tunnel profile
• Keep drill holes parallel
• Keep the rounds in the right direction

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The main menu is shown
when the system is started.
From here, the working
menu is accessed or the
other alternatives: sensor
angle menu, drilling menu,
display brightness menu,
fault finding menu or
password menu.
The working menu shows
feed direction and
specified drill hole length.
If the system has hole
depth measurement
(option), hole depth
reached and total drill-
metres is also shown here.
The sensor menu shows
the measured angles:
boom swing, feed swing
and feed inclination.
The fault-finding menu may
show the status of either
the sensors and resolver
module or the display.
Status may be either OK or
NOT OK (crossed-out OK).

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FACE DRILLING 105

ЯШСорсо HYDRAULIC BOOMS

BUT series
Hydraulic booms for tunnelling and mine drilling applications
The BUT series of hydraulic booms offer the
excellent stability and accuracy of movement that
are needed for precision drilling. This also gives fast
positioning, low drill steel costs and straight holes.
They also offer the flexibility needed to serve for
different kinds of drilling tasks.
In addition, BUT booms incorporate features
specially developed to improve ease and speed
in manoeuvring, to enable complete rounds to
be drilled faster. One such feature is the joystick
control for lift and swing movements, which
positions the boom smoothly and swiftly at a
stepless, adjustable speed.
Main features
• With the direct positioning system, the boom can be moved
straight to the next collaring location.
• Double tripod suspension gives accurate parallel holding in all
directions.
• 360 degrees feed roll-over gives full coverage of the tunnel face
without any blind spots and with no change in parallelity.
• Feed tilt cylinder rotates the feed into vertical position with the
rock drill facing the operator. This gives fast and simple roof
drilling and good supervision of the drilling sequence.
• Boom extensions make it possible to drill two rows of roof or
cross-cut holes from the same set-up.
• Main boom joints have axial bearings bushings, and boom joints
for the cylinders are fitted with adjustable expanding shafts all
maintaining the accuracy and operational precision of the boom.

BUT 35G is a heavy duty boom with powerful

rotation unit and top-mounted feed. Coverage
area 92 m2 (or 112 m2 with fixed boom
segment). It is designed for operation within
large-size drifts and underground openings.

BUT 32 is a heavy duty boom with a coverage

area of 41 m2. It is designed for operation within
large to medium-size drifts and underground
openings.

BUT 28 is a heavy duty boom with a coverage

area of 48 m2. It is designed for operation
within medium-size drifts and underground
openings.

Technical data
Boom type BUT4B" BUT 28 BUT 32 BUT3SG
Weight, boom only, kg 1100 1750 2075 2860
Feed extension, mm 1600 1250 1800 1800 BUT 4B is a heavy duty boom with double
Telescopic boom extension, mn 900 1250 1250 1600 rotation devices, which makes it possible to
Feed roll-over, degrees 360 360 360 360 position the centre-mounted feed vertically on
Coverage area, m 2 23 48 41 92** both sides of the feed. Coverage area of 23 m2.
Max. weight of feed and rock It is designed for use in small-area drifts.
drill to be mounted, kg 600 700 700 850

*) BUT4 is also equipped with feed rotation ±114° and feed dump cylinder
18' up, 60° down.
**V Coverage area for BUT 35 with 700 mm fixed boom segment is 112 m2.
Visit www.facedrilling.com for more information

106 FACE DRILLING

 HYDRAULIC DRILL SUPPORT ШазСорсс

Atlas Copco hydraulic drill steel support

BSH 11 OB
The BSH 110B hydraulic drill steel support is used for
extension drilling of longer rounds in combination
with BMH 2000 and 600 feeds.
The drill steel support is remote controlled and
used for manually joining and separating one or
more rods. It grips and holds the threaded joint
when the drill string is extended or retracted.

BSH110B

Boomer

Drill through

Main features
• Fully compatible with Atlas Copco BMH 2000 and BSH 11 OB Kit
6000 feeds
Basic kit includes controls mounting kit, bushing
• Remote controlled from operator platform halves and bushing
• Multifunction like gripping, guiding and fully Bushing halves Qty Dimensions Bushing Q у Dimensions
3128 2021 01 2 H28 D=40 3128 3025 46 D=37
opened 3128 2021 02 2 R32 D-45 3128 3025 47 D=33
• Interchangeable bushing halves and bushings 3128 2021 03
3128 2021 04
2
2
H32
H35
D=44
D=44
3128 3025 48
3128 3025 49
D=43
D-47
for different drill rod dimensions 3128 2021 05 2 T38 D=56 3128 3025 50 D-59
3128 2021 06 2 T45 D=63 3128 3025 51 D=64
3128 2021 07 2 H25 D=36 3128 3025 52 C29
3128 2021 08 2 R28 D=40 3128 3025 61 D=41
3128 3025 62 D-61
Visit www.facedrilling.com for more information

FACE DRILLING 107

ЛОшСорсе ROD ADDING SYSTEM

RAS 6000
Mechanized rod adding system
RAS 6000 is a mechanized rod adding system for
extension drilling of extra long holes in drifts and
tunnels, using Speedrod® extension rods.
The RAS system consists of a control unit, and two
mechanical grippers mounted on the feed beam.
The drilling cycle starts with one Speedrod in the
feed and another in the grippers. When the first
Speedrod is drilled into the rock, the next Speedrod
is added. Additional extension rods can be added.
The two-rod extension drilling almost doubles the
hole depth. The RAS system enables the drilling of
longer rounds, deeper holes for cement injection
around the tunnel profile and long bolt holes in
confined places. It also allows the rig to be used for
exploratory drilling ahead of the face.
• Enables drilling of longer rounds
• Low weight and small dimensions
• Can be used with Atlas Copco BMH 6000 feeds
• Can be used with Speedrod® dimensions R32, T38
• Manually controlled drilling

1. The first SPEEDROD is drilled into the rock.

2. The grippers lift the second rod

into place and drilling continues

3. When the hole is finished, the RAS system

uncouples and removes the rod

Visit www.facedrilling.com for more information

108 FACE DRILLING

 HYDRAULIC FEED AttoCopco

Hydraulic feeds BMH-series

BMH 2000 and 6000

The BMH 2000 series feeds are intended for The BMH feeds feature strong aluminium beams
medium-sized and small drill rigs, while the BMH with extremely high resistance against bending
6000 series are for medium-sized and heavy drill and torsional stresses. All surfaces exposed to
rigs. Hole depth has been maximized in relation wear are protected by stainless-steel guide sleeves
to overall length to enable the longest possible and all sliding parts are easily replaceable.
rounds to be drilled in confined spaces.
Feed range Intended for Drill steel length Feeding depth Total length Net weight*
rock drill mm mm mm kg
BMH 2325 - BMH 2349 COP 1238 2500 - 4920 2205 - 4625 4087 - 6507 285 - 365
BMH 6312- BMH 6320 COP 1238 3700 - 6100 3443 - 5843 5287 - 7777 424 - 540
BMH 2625 - BMH 2649 COP 1432 2500-4310 2180-4600 3697-6117 265 - 350
BMH 6 6 1 2 - B M H 6620 COP 1432 3700-6100 3345 - 5745 4910-7310 410 - 525
BMH 2825 - BMH 2849 COP 1838 2500 - 4920 2205 - 4625 4087 - 6507 290 - 370
BMH 6 8 1 2 - B M H 6821 COP 1838 3700 - 6400 3443 - 6140 5287 - 7977 430 - 580
Feed force BMH 2000 - 12,5/15,0 kN (at 80/100 bar); BMH 6000 - 20 kN (at 100 bar)
* = with hoses, without rock drill and drill steel.

BMHS 2000 BMHE 2000

BMHS 2000 and BMHE 2000

The BMHS and BMHE 2000 series feeds are short
units intended for use in very confined spaces.
With their side-mounted hose drum and short
cradle, they can use drill steels 300 mm longer
than standard feeds of the same overall length.
On BMHE 2000 the front drill-steel support is
mounted in a telescopic arrangement that can be
extended by up to 700 mm to enable even longer
drill steels - and drill steels of different lengths - to
be used as necessary. The maximum possible drill-
steel length differential is 700 mm.

Feed range Intended for Drill steel length Feeding d e p t h Total length Net w e i g h t *
rock drill mm mm mm kg

BMHS 2625 - BMHS 2643 COP 1432 2500 - 4310 2181 -3991 3354-5164 260-318

Feed force 12,5 kN, 2800 Ibf

* = with hoses, without rock drill and drill steel

Feed t y p e Intended for Drill steel length Feeding d e p t h Total length Net w e i g h t *
rock drill min/max min/max Retract/extract
mm mm mm kg
BMHE 2628 - 21 COP 1432 2100 - 2800 1746 - 2446 2964 - 3665 300
BMHE 2631 - 2 4 COP 1432 2400 - 3190 2046 - 2736 3264 - 3955 320
BMHE 2634-27 COP 1432 2700 - 3400 2346 - 3056 3564 - 4265 335
BMHE 2637-31 COP 1432 3090 - 3700 2736 - 3346 3954 - 4565 350
Feed force 12.5 kN, 2800 Ibf
* = with hoses, without rock drill and drill steel.

FACE DRILLING
AtiasCopco HYDRAULIC FEED

Hydraulic telescopic feeds BMHT-series

BMHT 2000 and 6000

The BMHT 2000 and 6000 series telescopic feeds are
ideal for use in confined spaces where they facilitate
multi-tasking, e.g. drifting, roof-hole and cross-cut
drilling, always permitting longest possible rounds
to be drilled. The front drill-steel support is mounted
on a telescopic feed beam that can be extended
(depending on feed size) by up to 1.2, 1.5 or 1.8 m
for BMHT 2000 and 1.8 or 2.4 m for BMHT 6000;
to enable two drill steel lengths - and drill steels
of different lengths - to be used.

Feed t y p e Intended for Drill steel length Feeding d e p t h Total length Net weight*
rock drill m in/max min/max Retract/extract
mm mm mm kg
BMHT 2331 - 19 COP 1238 1900 - 3090 1608 - 2798 3407 - 4607 405
BMHT 2337 - 22 COP 1238 2200 - 3700 1908 - 3408 3707 - 5217 420
BMHT 2337 - 25 COP 1238 2500 - 3700 2208 - 3408 4007 - 5217 425
BMHT 2343 - 25 COP 1238 2500-4310 2208-4018 4007 - 5827 435
BMHT 2631 - 19 COP 1432 1900 - 3090 1633-2823 3107 - 4297 392
BMHT 2637 - 22 COP 1432 2200 - 3700 1933 - 3433 3407 - 4907 407
BMHT 2643 - 25 COP 1432 2500-4310 2233 - 4043 3707 - 5517 430
BMHT 2831 - 19 COP 1838 1900 - 3090 1608-2798 3407 - 4607 410
BMHT 2837 - 22 COP 1838 2200 - 3700 1908 - 3408 3707 - 5217 425
BMHT 2837 - 2 5 COP 1838 2500 - 3700 2208 - 3408 4007-5217 430
BMHT 2843-25 COP 1838 2500-4310 2208-4018 4007 - 5827 440
Feed force 12.5 kN (at 80 bar)
* = with hoses, without rock drill and drill steel.

Feed t y p e Intended for Drill steel length Feeding d e p t h Total length Net weight*
rock drill min/max min/max Retract/extract kg
mm mm mm
BMHT 6314-08 COP 1238 2500-4310 2221 -4036 4090 - 5900 635
BMHT 6316- 10 COP 1238 3090 - 4920 2813 - 4638 4680 - 6500 655
BMHT 6318- 10 COP 1238 3090 - 5530 2813-5258 4680 - 7125 680
BMHT 6614-08 COP 1432 2500 - 4310 2130 - 3940 3725 - 5535 610
BMHT 6616- 10 COP 1432 3090 - 4920 2720 - 4545 4315-6140 640
BMHT 6620- 12 COP 1432 3700 - 6100 3330 - 5730 4925 - 7325 690
BMHT 6814-08 COP 1838 2500 - 4310 2221 - 4036 4090 - 5900 635
BMHT 6816- 10 COP 1838 3090 - 4920 2813 - 4638 4680 - 6500 680
BMHT 6818- 10 COP 1838 3090 - 5530 2813-5258 4680-7125 690
Feed force 20.0 kN
* = with hoses, without rock drill and drill steel.

Visit www.facedrilling.com for more information

110 FACE DRILLING

 DRIFTING EQUIPMENT ШшСорсо

Drifting Drill bit designs

Model-17 Model -27 Model -34 Model -37 Model -37-66

2+3 gauge buttons,
2 front buttons.
Model -17 is specially designed
for bolting. Available with
spherical or ballistic (-67)
buttons.
2+3 gauge buttons,
2 smaller front buttons.
With its large buttons,
model -27 is ideal for medium
hard to hard abrasive rock. It is
available with spherical or
ballistic (-67) buttons.
3+3 gauge buttons,
2 front buttons.
Model -34 offers very good
penetration. Ideal for most
rock formations including hard
rock. Available with spherical
or ballistic (-67) buttons.
2+2+2 gauge buttons,
3 front buttons.
With 9 buttons and superb
flushing, model -37 bits offer
very good penetration. Ideal
for most rock formations
including hard rock with heavy
frontal wear on the bit.
Available with spherical or
ballistic (-67) buttons.
2+2+2 gauge buttons,
3 front buttons.
With 9 full-ballistic buttons and
excellent flushing with extra
flushing grooves model -37-66
offers extremely good
penetration rate in soft rock.
The bit has been developed
mainly for soft rock but has
also been tested successfully
in medium hard rock.

Model -27-30 Model -37-30 Model -39 Model -56 Model -42 Cross-type bit

Guide bit. 2+2+2 gauge buttons, 2+2 gauge buttons, Reaming bit. 4 chisel inserts in cross
Square skirt. 3 smaller front buttons. 2 smaller front buttons. Dome-shaped front. formation.
Ideal where hole deviation is a problem. With its larger gauge Traditionally used in hard Model -42 is a new Traditional insert bit for
Longer service life, better penetration buttons, model -39 is ideal rock formations, model -56 alternative to traditional extremely abrasive rock
rate and longer grinding intervals for abrasive rock. Available delivers excellent reaming equipment. Use in formations. Ideal for soft
compared to a cross-type bit, which is with spherical buttons. penetration rate. Available a pre-drilled pilot hole. Tried formations that cause
normally used to avoid hole deviations. only with spherical buttons. and tested with excellent "snakeskin" problems for
Suitable for most rock formations results. carbide. Produces straight
including hard rock. Available with holes but has lower
spherical or ballistic (-67) buttons. penetration and shorter
service life than button bits.

Please observe that all button bits are manufactured over-sized

-Щххх -Qsjxxx 1.0-1.5 mm, meaning that for example a 45 mm bit is at least
Flat face button bit Drop centre button bit 46 mm as new and a 89 mm bit 90 mm. This is done because of
the fast initial wear on button bits. When it is of importance,
also consider that the hole is always 1-3 mm bigger than the bit
-XXXX- Щ -XXXX-Щ
dimension depending on rock formation.
Ballistic buttons Retrac skirt

FACE DRILLING 111

ЯОюСорсо DRIFTING EQUIPMENT

Drifting SR28mm(1%")

MAGNUM SR28
28 mm (11Л diameter thread 25 mm (1") diameter thread
thread system
33% more material means a substantial
increase in metal fatigue resistance
FOCUS button
bit technology

Conical shaped rope thread

facilitates rapid coupling and uncoupling More material at the bit head

Shank adapter Coupling Hex. drifter rod Button bit

5—Г

Drill bit designs

-5xxx-17 -5xxx-27 -5xxx-41

Buttons x Weight

Drill bit Diameter Part No. No. of button diameter Buttons angle" Flushing hole арргох
kg
mm inch SR35 thread buttons Gauge Centre Gauge Centre Side Centre
Spherical buttons
Button bit 33 1% 125-5033-17,39-20 7 5x7 2 x 7 35 1 1 0.4
33 1% 125-5033-41,39-20 7 5 x 8 2X7 40 15 1 1 0.4
35 18 125-5035-27,39-20 7 5 x 9 2 x 7 25 10 1 1 0.5
37 1% 125-5037-99,39-20 7 5 x 9 2 x 7 35 15 1 1 0.5
38 VA 125-5038-27,39-20 7 5 x 9 2X7 30 1 1 0.5
Ballistic buttons
33 1% 125-5033-41-67,39-20 7 5x8 2 x 7 40 15 1 1 0.3
35 n 125-5035-27-67,39-20 7 5 x 9 2X7 25 10 1 1 0.4

Length (L) Part No. Weight

Drifter rod mm foot/inch SR28/R32 approx kg

SR28mm(1") Hex 35 m m ( H " ) R32 m m (I1/,"} 1800 5'11" 225-0418-03-C, 02 8.9

2100 7' 225-0421-03-C, 02 10.4
2200 7'4" 225-0422-03-C,02 11.0
I л $ ii 3 1/ 2300 7'8" 225-0423-03-C, 02 11.4
2400 710' 225-0424-03-C02 12.2

Fully carburized. Rod section 39.3 mm H © h 2475 B'W 225-0425-03-91-C, 02 13.0

2600 BW 225-0426-03-C,02 12.9
2675 8'9V 225-0427-03-91-C, 02 13.3
2800 97Я" 225-0428-03-C, 02 14.3
3000 10' 225-0430-03-C, 02 15.0
3000 10' 225-0430-03-91-C,02 14.9
3090 10W 225-0431-03-C,02 15.8

112 FACE DRILLING

 DRIFTING EQUIPMENT ШазСорсо

Drifting R28mm(U")

Button bit

Guide button bit

Shank adapter Coupling Hex. drifter rod

! !"J-b1 СИ IZD Cross-type bit

Reaming equipment

с
Drill bit designs

-5xxx-27 -5xxx-27-30 -5xxx-37 5xxx-56 Cross-type bit

Buttons x Weight
til
Flushing hole
Drill bit Diameter Part No. No. of button diameter approx
mm inch Rope thread buttons Gauge Centre Side Centre kg
Spherical buttons
Button bit 37 1% 107-5037-27,39-20 7 5x9 2x7 30 0.5
38 VA 107-5038-27,39-20 7 5x9 2x7 30 0.6
38 VA 107-5038-56,39-20 6 4x9 2x8 30 2 0.6
41 VA 107-5041-27,39-20 7 5x9 2x8 35 0.7
41 VA 107-5041-27-30,39-20 7 5x9 2 x8 35 0.9
43 1% 107-5043-27,39-20 7 5x9 2x 9 35 2 0.7
43 1% 107-5043-27-30,39-20 7 5x9 2x9 35 0.9
45 VA 107-5045-37,39-20 9 6x9 3x8 35 0.8
Ballistic buttons
38 VA 107-5038-27-67,39-20 7 5x9 2x7 40 0.6
41 1* 107-5041-27-67,39-20 7 5x9 2x8 40 0.7
Insert
Cross-type bit Width Height
38 VA 107-7038-44,20-17 10.3 19.5 0.6
41 VA 107-7041-44,20-17 11.1 20.0 0.7
41 VA 107-7041-44-30,20-17 11.1 20.0 0.9
45 VA 107-7045-44,20-17 11.1 20.0 0.9

SECOROC Grind Matic:

How to spend less on Secoroc products

FACE DRILLING 113 |

ШшСорсс DRIFTING EQUIPMENT

Drifting R28mm(1%")

Length (L) Part No. Weight

Drifter rod foot/inch Rope thread approx kg
mm
R28 mm (1%" Hex 28 mm ( I V ) R32mm(lV 2400 710" 207-0424-03-C02 12.2
2750 9' 207-0428-03-91-C,02 14.4
II > t Я 3700
4000
\tm
13W
207-0437-03-C,02
207-0440-03-C02
18.9
20.5
4310 H'lJf 207-0443-03-C02 22.0
Fully carburized. Rod section 32 mm -^Oh 4920 16"! И" 207-0449-03-C.02 25.3

R28mm(1V) Hex 32 mm ( I V ) R38mm(1V) 2900 9W 207-0529-04-C.02 18.8

3090 WVA" 207-0531-04-C.02 20.0

и в 1 3700
4310
I2'ttf
14'1И"
207-0537-04-C.02
207-0543-04-C.02
24.0
27.9

Fully carburized. Rod section 35.8 mm ->Ю|<-

R28mm(1V) Hex 32 mm ( I V ) R32mm(1V) 3090 10'1И" 207-0531-03-C02 19.7

3700 \1%VA" 207-0537-03-C02 23.5

(l к i V\ D
Fully carburized. Rod section 35.8 mm ->ЦЛ«-

R28mm(1V) Hex 32 mm (1V) R32mm(1'/." 3090 10'1>f 207-0531-03-78-C02 20.0

3700 I2'«? 207-0537-03-78-C02 24.0
4000 13TX 207-0540-03-78-C02 25.9
CZJLZ^ 4310 14*1И" 207-0543-03-78-C02 27.9
With slimmed shank end for female shank adapters.

Fully carburized. Rod section 35.8 mm -<Ю|<-

R28mm(lV) Hex 28 mm (1%") R38mm(1V) 2475 8'IK" 207-0424-04-91-C,02 12.6

SZH И 4310 141И" 207-0443-04-C.02 22.0

Fully carburized. Rod section 32 mm -*|©l < ~

Thread diameter Diameter Length (L) Part No. Weight

Coupling mm inch mm inch mm inch Rope thread approx kg

i a
32 VA 44 VA 150 303-0044,00 1.0
38 VA 55 Tk 170 304-0055,00 1.7

For a free subscription to

Mining & Construction magazine visit
www.miningandconstruction.com

114 FACE DRILLING

 DRIFTING EQUIPMENT | ШавСорсо

Drifting R32mm(1V4")

-5xxx-27 -5xxx-34-67 -5xxx-37-67 -5xxx-37-30-67 -5xxx-37-66 -5xxx-56 -5076 -6064-45 Cross-type bit

Buttons x
Gauge Weight
Drill bit Diameter Part No. No. of button diameter buttons Flushing hole approx
mm inch R32 thread buttons Gauge Centre angle0 Side Centre kg
Spherical buttons
41 n 103-5041-27,39-20 7 5 X9 2x 8 35 1 1 0.8
Button bit 41 m 103-5041-56,39-20 6 4x9 2x9 35 2 1 0.6
43 i% 103-5043-27,39-20 7 5x 9 2x9 35 2 1 0.7
45 V/, 103-5045-27,39-20 7 5 x 11 2x 8 30 2 1 0.8
45 V/, 103-5045-37,39-20 9 6x9 3 x 8 35 1 3 0.8
45 V/, 103-5045-39,39-20 9 6 x 10 3x 8 30 1 3 0.8
48 YA 103-5048-27,39-20 7 5 X 11 2x9 35 2 1 1.0
48 VA 103-5048-37,39-20 9 6 X 10 3x8 40 1 3 0.9
51 2 103-5051-27,39-20 7 5 X 11 2 x 10 35 2 1 1.0
51 2 103-5051-37,39-20 9 6 x 10 3x9 40 1 3 1.0
51 2 103-6051,49-20 9 6 x 10 3x9 30 - 3 1.0
51 2 103-6051-45,49-20 9 6 x 10 3x9 30 - 3 1.2
57 ТА 103-5057-20,39-20 9 6 x 11 3x9 35 - 3 1.1
64 ТА 103-5064,49-20 12 8 x 10 4 x 10 40 - 2 1.5
64 ТА 103-5064-45,49-20 12 8X10 4 X 10 40 - 2 2.2
64 ТА 103-6064,49-20 10 6 x 11 3 x 10,1 x 10 35 - 3 1.5
64 ТА 103-6064-45,49-20 10 6 x 11 3 x 10,1 x 10 35 - 3 2.2
76 3 103-5076,49-20 12 8 x 11 4 x 11 40 - 2 1.8
76 3 103-6076-45,49-20 13 8 x 11 4 x 11,1 x 11 35 1 4 3.5

FACE DRILLING 115

/ШшОусс DRIFTING EQUIPMENT

Drifting R32 mm (M")

Buttons x
Gauge Weight
Drill bit,com Diameter Part No. No. of button diameter buttons Flushing hole approx
mm inch R32 thread buttons Gauge Centre angle" Side Centre kg
Ballistic burtons
Button bit 41 !« 103-5041-27-67,39-20 7 5 x 9 2x8 40 1 1 0.7
43 1% 103-5043-27-67,39-20 7 5x9 2x9 40 2 1 0.7
43 1% 103-5043-37-67,39-20 9 6X8 3x8 40 1 3 0.7
45 V/, 103-5045-27-67,39-20 7 5 x 11 2x8 30 2 1 0.8
45 VA 103-5045-34-67,39-20 8 6x9 2x9 40 2 2 0.8
45 VA 103-5045-37-67,39-20 9 6x9 3x8 40 1 3 0.8
45 VA 103-5045-37-30-67,39-20 9 6 x 9 3x8 40 1 3 1.1
48 VA 103-5048-37-67,39-20 9 6 x 10 3x8 40 1 3 0.9
48 VA 103-5048-37-30-67,39-20 8 6 x 10 2 x 8 25 1 3 1.2
51 2 103-5051-37-67,39-20 9 6 x 10 3x9 40 1 3 1.0
51 2 103-5051-37-45-67,49-20 9 6 x 10 3x9 40 1 3 1.1
51 2 103-5051-37-30-67,39-20 9 6 x 10 3 x 9 40 1 3 1.6
54 2% 103-5054-37-67,39-20 9 6x10 3x9 40 1 3 1.0
64 n 103-5064-67,49-20 12 8 x 10 4x10 40 - 2 1.5
Soft rock bits (full-ballistic buttons)

45 VA 103-5045-37-66,39-20 9 6x9 3 x 8 40 1 3 0.8

48 VA 103-5048-37-66,39-20 9 6x9 3x9 40 1 3 0.8

51 2 103-5051-37-66,39-20 9 6 x 10 3x9 40 1 3 0.8
Insert
Width Height
Cross-type bit 41 VA 103-7041-44,20-17 11.1 20.0 0.7
43 1% 103-7043-44, 20-17 11.1 20.0 0.8
45 VA 103-7045-44, 20-17 11.1 20.0 0.9
48 VA 103-7048-38,02-17 14.0 22.0 0.9
51 2 103-7051-38,02-17 14.0 22.0 1.2
51 2 103-7051-38-45,02-17 14.0 22.0 1.7
57 ТА 103-7057,02-17 10.3 19.5 1.3
64 2'A 103-7064,08-17 10.3 19.5 1.4
X type bit 76 3 103-8076,08-16 14.0 26.0 1.7

Length (L) Part No. Weight

Drifter rod rnm foot/inch Rope thread Tthread approx kg
2400 710" 203-0524-04-0,02 15.3
R32 m m (1'/.") Hex 32 mm (V/,") Н Я 3 8 m m (1 S")
3090 10'1Jf 203-0531-04-0,02 203-0531-35-0,02 19.8

Э ~r
:j 3400 11'flf 203-0534-35-0,02 22.0
Л < = 4000 13'IJf 203-0540-04-0,02 25.6
4310 14'IJf 203-0543-04-0,02 203-0543-35-0,02 27.5
4920 16'IJf 203-0549-04-0,02 203-0549-35-0,02 31.3
t ully c a r b u r i z e d . Rod s e c t i o n 35.8 m m - » Ю Ь
5530 18'W 203-0555-04-0,02 203-0555-35-0,02 34.8

R3 2 m m ( 1 % " ) Hex 32 mm ( Г Л R38 m m (1

n 3700 203-0537-04-95-0,00 23.6
4310 14'1Jf 203-0543-04-95-0,02 27.5

! kP= ::
3 1
Do u b l e t h r e a d , f u l l y c a r b jrized. Rod section 35.8 mm -jft[-

116 FACE DRILLING

 DRIFTING EQUIPMENT ШалСорсе

Drifting гШтггНН")

Length (L) Part No.

Drifter rod foot/inch Rope thread T thread
Weight
approx kg

R32 mm (V.") Hex 35 mm (IV) R/T38mm(1D 3090 ICIJf 203-0631-04-C. 203-0631 •35-C02 24.0
3700 12"1!f 203-0637-04-C, 203-0637 35-C.02 29.1

£=3 О 4000
4310
t3'«f
14ЧИ"
203-0640-04-C
203-0643-04-C 203-0643 35-C02
31.1
33.1
4920 161И" 203-0649-04-C 203-0649 35-C.02 37.8
Fully carburized. Rod section 39.3 mm H © r ~ 5530 18'IK" 203-0655-04-C 203-0655 •35-C.02 42.4
6100 20' 203-0661-04-C 203-0661 •35-C02 47.3

R32 mm (1%") Hex 35 mm (IV) T38 mm ( 1 Л 3700 XlVff 203-0637 35-MF-C.02 29.0
4310 14'1X" 203-0643 35-MF-C.02 34.1

£ 4920
5530
16'IM"
181VT
203-0649' 35-MF-C.02
203-0655 35-MF-C02
38.8
43.6
6400 21' 203-0664 35-MF-C.02 50.3

Speedrod, fully carburized. D = 57 mm. Rod section 39.3 mm

4310 14' 203-2843-04-C02 37.3

R32mm(iy.") Round 39 mm ( 1 ' V ) R/T38 mm ( 1 Л
4920 16'IX - 203-2849-35-C02 42.1

Fully carburized.

p г Thread diameter Diameter Length (L) Part No. Weight

uuupiiuy mm inch mm inch mm inch Rope thread T thread approx kg
38 VA 52 2& 170 6s/ 335-0052,00* 1.5
38 55 1% 170 6% 304-0055,00 335-0055,00 1.9

* Recommended for high frequt ncy drifters.

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~
Your club needs YOU! /

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FACE DRILLING 117 |

яхшсорсо DRIFTING EQUIPMENT

Drifting SR35 mm (1%")

MAGNUM SR
35 mm diameter thread 32 mm diameter thread
thread system

25% more material means a substantial

increase in metal fatigue resistance

FOCUS button
bit technology

Conical shaped rope thread More material at the bit head

facilitates rapid coupling and uncoupling

Hex. drifter rod Button bit

Shank adapter Coupling i-CZO 3 1 I

Round drifter rod Guide button bit

"Dome" reaming bit

Hex. Speedrod

: * ! !

Reaming equipment
Round Speedrod
~C5 0 ~
• 1-
Drill bit designs

®
-5xxx-27
1
1
ixxx-37-67
.-•'
-5x xx-37-30-67
vM^-k

-5XXX-39
M%

К
-5064
./

Buttons x Gauge Weight

Diameter button diameter Flushing hole
Drill bit Part No. No. of buttons approx
mm inch SR35 thread buttons Gauge Centre angle" Side Centre kg
Spherical buttons
Button bit 13 1% 128-5043-27,39-20 7 5x 9 2x9 35 2 1 0.7
45 VA 128-5045-37-30-67,39-20 9 6x9 3x 8 40 3 1.0
45 VA 128-5045-39,39-20 9 6 x 10 3x8 30 3 0.8
48 m 128-5048-39,39-20 9 6 x 11 3x8 35 3 0.9
Ballistic buttons
45 VA 128-5045-37-67,39-12 9 6X9 3x8 40 3 0.7
48 VA 128-5048-37-67,39-20 9 6 x 10 3x8 40 3 0.8
48 VA 128-5048-37-30-67,39-20 9 6 x 10 3x8 40 3 1.1
51 2 128-5051-37-67,39-20 9 6 x 10 3x9 40 3 0.9
51 2 128-5051-37-30-67,39-20 9 6 x 10 3x9 40 3 1.3
54 2% 128-5054-24-45-67,39-20* 11 8X9 3x9 35 2 1 1.8
54 ТА 128-5054-37-67,39-20 9 6x10 3x9 40 1 3 1.0
* Reversed flushing 64 U 128-5064-67,49-20 12 8 x 10 4x10 40 - 2 1.6

118 FACE DRILLING

 DRIFTING EQUIPMENT /ШшСорсе

Drifting SR35 mm (ГЛ

Length(L) Part No. Weight

Drifter rod mm foot/inch SR35/R38 thread 8гШД38 thread approx kg
2670 8'9" 228-0627-35-91-C,02 21.0
SR35 mm (W1 Hex 35 mm [W] R/T38 mm ( 1 Г
3090 НЛИ" 228-0631-04-C02 24.0
3150 10'4" 228-0632-35-91-C,02 24.5
3300 10'10" 228-0633-04-C02 25.6

I It t Ш 3700
4310
12'1tf
14'1Vf
228-0637-04-C02
228-0643-04-C02
228-0637-35-C02
228-0643-35-C02
29.1
33.1
4920 18'15f 228-0649-04-C.02 228-0649-35-C02 37.8

Fully carburized. Rod section 39.3 mm

ЧОг- 5530 18'W 228-0655-35-C02 42.4
6400 21' 228-0664-35-C.02 49.7
4310 14'lif 228-0643-35-MF-C.02 34.1
S R 3 5 m m (1 ',•") Hex 35 mm (П") T38 mm [VK
TZZZZZZb
=?—W? У/.У/Л'/Л i

L
Speedrod, fully carburized. D = 57 mm. Rod section 39.3 mm

5530 18'IX" 228-2855-35-C02 47.3

SR35 mm (H") Round 39 mm ( I V ) T38 mm (IIP)

[ J
Fully carburized.

5530 18'IK' 228-2855-35-MF-C.02 46.9

SR35 mm (1Г) Round 39 mm ( I V T38 mm ( 1 Л

CD CD
>>"

Speedrod, fully carburized. D = 57 mm

n i- Thread diameter Diameter Length (L) Part No. Weight

ouupiiiiij mm inch mm inch mm inch Rope thread T thread approx kg
38 VA 52 2% 170 ЬУ. 335-0052,00* 1.5
38 VA 55 170 ЬУ. 304-0055,00 335-0055,00 1.9

*•'.!№*

* Recommended for high freque ncy rock drills.

Keep up to date with the world of mechanized

rock excavation -
Visit Mining & Construction on-line at
www.min-con.com

FACE DRILLING 119

/btastopcc DRIFTING EQUIPMENT

Drifting R35 mm (IV)

Hex. drifter rod Button bit

г- a o g = F = * с
Shank adapter Coupling Round drifter rod Guide bit

И
"Dome" reaming bit
Hex. Speedrod

'
Reaming equipment
Round Speedrod

Drill bit designs

-5XXX-37-67 5xxx-37-66 -5xxx-27-30 -5xxx-39 -5064-67 -6051-45

Buttons x Gauge Weight

Drill bit Diameter Part No.
R35 thread
No. of button diameter buttons
angle"
Flushing hole approx
mm inch buttons Gauge Centre Side Centre kg
Spherical buttons

Button bit 48 m 109-5048-37,39-20 9 6 x 10 3x8 35 1 3 0.9

48 VA 109-5048-39,39-20 9 6 x 11 3 x 8 35 1 3 0.9
51 2 109-5051-37,39-20 9 6 x 10 3x9 40 1 3 1.0
51 2 109-5051-39,39-20 9 6 X 11 3 x 9 35 1 3 1.0
51 2 109-6051,39-20 9 6x10 3x9 30 - 3 0.9
51 2 109-6051-45,49-20 9 6 X 10 3x9 30 - 3 1.1
Ballistic buttons
48 VA 109-5048-37-67,39-20 9 6x10 3 x 8 40 1 3 0.9
48 VA 109-5048-37-30-67,39-20 9 6 x 10 3 x 8 40 1 3 1.3
51 2 109-5051-37-67,39-20 9 6 x 10 3x9 40 1 3 0.9
51 2 109-5051-37-30-67,39-20 9 6 x 10 3x9 40 1 3 1.4
Soft rock bits (full ballistic buttons)

48 VA 109-5048-37-66,39-20 9 6X9 3x9 40 1 3 0.8

51 2 109-5051-37-66,39-20 9 6 x 10 3x9 40 1 3 0.9

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120 FACE DRILLING

 DRIFTING EQUIPMENT ШшСорсс

Drifting R35 mm ( 1 Л

Length(L) Part No. Weight

Drifter rod mm foot/inch T thread approx kg
3700 12'W 209-0637-35-C.02 28.5
R35 mm ( I V ) Hex 35 mm (V/,") Т38тт(1Я
4920 WW 209-0649-35-C02 37.8

L z 5530
6100
WW
20'
209-0655-35-C02
209-0661-35-C.02
42.4
47.0

Fully carburized. Rod section 39.3 mm H O h

R35 mm ( I V ) Hex 35 mm (1V) T38mm(1V) 5530 WW 209-0655-35-MF-C02 44.0

6100 20' 209-0661-35-MF-C02 48.0

» » '

Speedrod, fully carburized. D = 57 mm. Rod section 39.3 mm -^Q^\-

T38mm(1V) 4310 14'W 209-2843-35-C02 37.0

R35 mm ( I V Round 39 mm ( I ' V )
4920 16'W 209-2849-35-C02 42.1
5530 18'W 209-2855-35-C02 48.0

CZE 6100 20' 209-2861-35-C02 53.5

Fully carburized.

T38mm(1V) 5530 WW 209-2855-35-MF-C02 46.9

R35 mm (IV) Round 39 mm ( W )
6100 20' 209-2861-35-MF-C.02 52.0

Speedrod, fully carburized. D = 57 mm.

Thread diameter Diameter Length (L)

Pr...r.linr. Part N o . Weight
uuuui IIHJ mm inch mm inch mm inch Tthread approx kg
38 VA 55 190 ТА 335-0055,00 1.9
38 VA 52 FA. 190 ТА 335-0052,00* 1.5

Recommended for high fre ^uency rock drills.

120 exciting pages

all about
Rock Reinforcement
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FACE DRILLING 121

masCbpcc DRIFTING EQUIPMENT

Drifting Reaming equipment Hex 22 mm (%"), R25 (1"), R28 (1%"),

R32 (ГЛ"), SR35 {1%"), R35 (1%")

fit
Buttons x
Drill bit, 6° taper Diameter Number button diameter Weight
mm inch Part No. of buttons Gauge Centre арргох kg

/0-r>Ol Reaming button bit for 64 ТА 175-5064,39-20 10 8 x 10 2 x 9 35 0.8

Of/f rr=
\ \ \ 22 mm U") pilot rod and 76 3 175-5076,39-20 10 8 x 11 2x11 35 1.2

]f~K 25 mm 11"), 28 mm ( Щ 89 ЗА 175-5089,39-20 12 8 x 11 4x11 35 1.7

N X / V ^ y ^ / 32 mm(1/0 pilot adapter.

P CO « n n „ » Length Weight
r n u i I U U , и tapci mm inch Part No. approx kg

800 2'W 575-3108,11-17 3.3

22 mm ( ! 0 hex. Shank length 108 mm mi
1200 3'11" 575-3112,11-17 4.4

1600 5'3" 575-3116,11-17 5.6

(5> 1 2000

2400
67"

710"
575-3120,11-17

575-3124,11-17
7.0

8.2

Pilot
Thread Diameter
Pilot adapter, 6° taper hole Part No. Weight
mm inch mm inch mm Rope Thread approx kg

For 64, 76 and 89 mm reaming button and cross-type bits. 25 1 26 VAi 36 502-2303,00-17 1.3

28 VA 26 VAi 36 507-2503,00-17 1.5

1
... — r t V A " " " " " "
32 VA 26 VA, 36 503-2603,00-17 1.5

Сu - — ?
*—
1
-aa^ Ks^kWww 1
SR35 VA 26 VA, 36 528-2603,00 1.5

Buttons x Gauge
Drill bit, 12° taper Diameter Number button diameter buttons Weight
mm inch Part No. of buttons Gauge Centre angle 0 approx kg

/Or~>Q^ Reaming button bit for 89 ЗА 187-5089-20,39-20 12 8 x 12.7 4 x 10.0 35 1.8

Q ^ ^ O Q 28 mm UK"), 102 4 187-5102,39-20 12 8 x 12.7 4 x 12.7 35 2.0

jJPl JnPj 32 mm ( 1 Л and 102 4 187-5102-20,39-20 12 8 x 11.0 4 x 12.7 35 2.1

VS> jA* 35 mm (130 pilot adapter. 127 5 187-5127,39-20 20 12 X 12.7 8 x 12.7 35 4.0

Thread Diameter Pilot

Pilot adapter, 12° taper hole Part No.

mm inch inch Rope Thread

For 89,102 and 127 mm reaming button bits. 28 VA 36 1% 38-48 507-7802,00-17

32 V/. 40 41-48 503-7802,00-17

57ZZZZZ22ZZZZi R35 VA 40 VA, 48-51 509-7802,00-17

SR35 VA 40 VA, 48-51 528-7802,00-17

7ZZZZZZZZZZ2
For 89,102 and 127 mm reaming button bits. 32 VA 41-48 503-7902,00

35 48-54 509-7902,00

122 FACE DRILLING

 DRIFTING EQUIPMENT fhlasCopco

Drifting Dome bits for reaming

R32(1%"),SR35 W), R35(1%")

•5076-42-24-67 -5089-42-24 -5102-42-24-67

Buttons x Gauge Weight

Thread Diameter No. of button diameter buttons Flushing hole approx
mm inch mm inch Part No. buttons Gauge Centre angle" Side Centre kg

Spherical buttons

R32 VA 76 3 103-5076-42-24,49-20 10 9 x 12.7 1 x 12.7 35 1 3 2.0

R32 IK 89 2A 103-5089-42-24,49-20 15 14 X 12.7 1 x 12.7 35 2 2 2.5

R32 VA 102 4 103-5102-42-24,49-20 17 16 X 12.7 1 x 12.7 35 2 2 3.2
R32 VA 127 5 103-5127-42-24,49-20 19 18 x 12.7 1 x 12.7 35 1 3 4.8
SR35 VA 89 3'A 128-5089-42-24,49-20 15 14 X 12.7 1 x 12.7 35 2 2 2.5
SR35 VA 102 4 128-5102-42-24,49-20 17 16 x 12.7 1 x 12.7 35 2 2 3.1
SR35 VA 127 5 128-5127-42-24,49-20 19 18 x 12.7 1 x 12.7 35 1 3 4.8
R35 VA 102 4 109-5102-42-24,49-20 17 16 x 12.7 1 x 12.7 35 2 2 3.1
Ballistic buttons

R32 VA 76 3 103-5076-42-24-67,49-20 10 9 X 12.7 1 x 12.7 35 1 3 2.0

R32 VA 89 3'A 103-5089-42-24-67,49-20 15 14 X 12.7 1 x 12.7 35 2 2 2.5
R32 VA 102 4 103-5102-42-24-67,49-20 17 16 X 12.7 1 x 12.7 35 2 2 3.2
R32 VA 127 5 103-5127-42-24-67,49-20 19 18 X 12.7 1 x 12.7 35 1 3 4.8
SR35 VA 76 3 128-5076-42-24-67,49-20 10 9 X 12.7 1 X 12.7 35 1 3 2.0
SR35 VA 89 3<A 128-5089-42-24-67,49-20 15 14 X 12.7 1 X 12.7 35 2 2 2.5
SR35 VA 102 4 128-5102-42-24-67,49-20 17 16 x 12.7 1 x 12.7 35 2 2 3.1
R35 НИ 102 4 109-5102-42-24-67,49-20 17 16 X 12.7 1 X 12.7 35 2 2 3.1

112 exciting pages

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FACE DRILLING 123

 AtlasCopco BOLTING RIG SPECIFICATION

Boltec MC and LC

So/fee MC

Fully mechanized rock bolting rigs with O t h e r versions

computer-based control system for high Boltec MD electric-hydraulic, direct controlled bolting rig.
Boltec LD electric-hydraulic, direct controlled bolting rig.
productivity and precision. For bolt lengths
Optional equipment
1.5 - 6 m. Effective in roof heights up to 11 m. Air-water mist flushing, external air
• Rig Control System (RCS) with interactive operator Water mist flushing with external water and air supply
Rock drill lubrication warning kit
control panel with full-colour display of the computer-
Automatic boom lubrication system, rear part of boom
based drilling system. Automatic functions in the Swellex installation kit
drilling process such as auto-collaring and antijam- Automatic cartridge handler
ming protection as well as improved regulation of Manual cartridge shooting system
the rock drill provide high performance and outstan- Split Set installation kit
ding drill steel economy. Integrated diagnostic and Bulk cement with hose grouting system
fault location system. Distributed hydraulic system ABC Basic - with angle indication
Cabin with fixed seat, FOPS approved 80 dB(A)
with fewer and shorter hoses for increased availability.
Additional operator's control panel
PC-card for transfer of data and for service engineers Exhaust water scrubber 150 I
to store optimal drill settings. Fire suppression system Ansul/Forrex
• MBU bolting unit with a unique design based on a Automatic fire suppression system, including suppression
single feed system utilizing a cradle indexer at the rear inside electric cabinet
end and a robust drill steel support plus indexer for 1000 V electric system, direct start only
grouting at the top end. Low-mounted magazine for 10 Extra transformer, 10 kVA
Service platform
bolts, designed for maximum flexibility during drilling
Rig washing kit, with water hose and reel
and bolting. Manual lubrication system
• COP 1532 rock drill, shortest in its class, with modern
hydraulic reflex dampening gives genuine high speed
drilling and excellent drill steel economy. Separately
variable frequency and impact power can be adapted
to certain drill steel/rock combinations.
• BUT 35HB heavy-duty boom for direct, fast and
accurate positioning between holes. Improved linkage
bearings in main boom joints and new axial bearings
in all boom joints reduce maintenance.
• Sturdy, articulated carrier with turbocharged water-
cooled, low emission diesel engine. High ground
clearance, four-wheel traction and articulated steering
for easy manoeuvring in narrow drifts and fast
tramming in steep ramps. Main specificat ions
• Optional ABC Basic, angle reading instrument. Boltec M C and LC Boltec M C Boltec LC
• Smart oil leakage shut-down system minimises Rock drill 1 x COP 1532 1 x COP 1532
hydraulic oil pollution. Bolting unit MBU MBU
• Standard rig includes FOPS approved telescopic Bolt lengths 1.5-3.5 m 1.5-6m
protective roof, fixed seat, hydraulic driven com- Roof heights up to 8 m up to 11 m
Boom 1 XBUT35HB 1 XBUT35HBE
pressor and water booster pump, cable reel, bolt
Drilling system RCS RCS
rack, air receiver and working lights. 13200 m m
Length, tramming 12500 m m
Width, exel bolt rack 2210 m m 2500 m m
Height, standard 3050 m m 3100 m m
Turning radius 6250/3800 m m 7200/4400 m m
Weight 22600 kg 22600 kg

| 124 FACE DRILLING

 ROCK REINFORCEMENT | /Ulmtopce

Swellex - The engineered rock

reinforcement system
The Swellex rock bolting system has gained
worldwide acceptance since its introduction some
twenty years ago. Today the Swellex system is in
use at mines and construction sites worldwide.
Operators who have used Swellex to solve their
toughest support problems have simultaneously
increased their profits! The features behind this
success are:
• Immediate full-column rock reinforcement
• High tolerance to variation in hole diameter
• Swellex bolts accommodate large ground
movements Tl Ч к
• The bolt is insensitive to blast vibration • Swellex can easily be installed manually or
• Swellex rockbolts are quickly installed and very mechanically
little training is required to perform the operation • Standard length up to 8 metres
• Extendable version for narrow places or extra- • Corrosion protection available
long rock reinforcement • Cost-effective in most rock types and conditions,
• Large range of application boosting productivity
• Atlas Copco rock reinforcement team back up • Controllable over time
• High anchorage capacity • Worldwide distribution network
• Instant full load-bearing capacity • Swellex installation procedure ensures that every
bolt is perfect

Swellex goes Manganese

With its non-stop research for improvement and
new product development, Atlas Copco is about
to redefine the concept of safety and productivity
in rock reinforcement, without conceding any
advantages of the Swellex concept.
The new Swellex Manganese (Mn) line is made
out of steel specially developed to provide extra
strength, rigidity and elongation capacity, in order
to provide a huge work capability.

Comparison of Typical Properties

Swellex Manganese Line

Hole diameter Ultimate Load (profile) Elongation Work Index
mm kN % kNx%

Standard Swellex 32-39 100 20 2000

Swellex Mn12 32-39 120 30 3600
Increase +20% +50% +80%
Midi Swellex 43-52 120 20 2400
Swellex Mn16 43-52 160 30 4800
Increase +33% f50% + 100%
Super Swellex 43-52 200 20 4000
Swellex Mn 24/E 43-52 240 30 7200
Increase +25% f50% +80%
Swellex Mn Face plates h29/h39 89 kN minimum breaking load ASTM F432 95 compliant
Typical Properties are based on statistical data on large population of seimples

Visit www.rockreinforcement.com for more information

FACE DRILLING 125

/ШтСорсо SELF DRILLING ANCHORS

MAI Systems® SDA®

Self Drilling Anchors for safer and faster tunnelling

Threaded hollow MAI anchor bar including bit, coupler, bearing plate and nut.

The Atlas Copco MAI Systems® SDA® consist of a Features and Advantages
fully threaded steel bar, a sacrificial drill bit, a • Fits Atlas Copco standard Boomers.
coupler to extend the anchor to the required • Particularly suitable for difficult ground conditions.
length, and a hexagonal nut and bearing plate. • A high rate of installation since drilling, placing
and grouting can be performed in one single
The MAI® threaded bar features a hollow bore for operation.
flushing or simultaneous drilling and grouting, and • Self drilling system eliminates the requirement
has a left-handed standard rope thread for for a cased borehole.
connection to standard drill tooling. Bars come in • Installation with simultaneous drilling and
several lengths, from 2-12 metres, with different grouting possible.
diameters and thread types. The sacrificial drill • Easy installation in all directions, also upwards.
bit is the most crucial part of the anchor system, • Suitable for working in limited space, height and
responsible for the high productivity of the in areas of difficult access.
installation. Ground conditions determine the • Simple post grouting system.
type of anchors and drill bits to be used.

The Atlas Copco MAI Systems®, Self Drilling

Anchor (SDA®) is a unique anchoring system and is
today's answer to the increasing demands of the
tunnelling industry for safer and faster production.
The system provides advantages for all areas of its
applications, where boreholes would require the
time consuming drilling with casing systems in
unconsolidated or cohesive soil.

Applications
• Radial bolting
• Forepoling
• Face stabilization
• Soil nailing
• Portal preparation
Full range of sacrificial MAI bits for most tunnelling and grouting purposes.

Technical data
Anchor rod R25N R32N R32S R38N R51L R51N T76N T76S
Outside diameter mm 25 32 32 38 51 51 76 76
Ultimate load capacity kN 200 280 360 500 550 800 1600 1900
Yield load capacity kN 150 230 280 400 450 630 1200 1500
Aver, tensile strength RM N/mm 2 805 720 740 700 690 840 880 790
Aver, yield strength Rp0,2 N/mm 2 660 560 570 540 580 670 660 630

Visit w w w . r o c k r e i n f o r c e m e n t . c o m for more information

126 FACE DRILLING


Grouting equipment
Equipment for sealing, strengthening and stabilizing of rock and soil
Recorders
LOGAC is a computer-based logging system
for sampling and storing data during grouting
operations. It is recording time, real time, flow,
volume and pressure when grouting or water
pressure tests are carried out. The data is being
stored on a PC memory card
The LOGAC system exists in two versions;
-the LOGAC S recorder for one grout line
-the LOGAC GL recorder for up to 8 grout
lines (each grout line is started and stopped
individually), for standard grouting operations as
well as for grouting with GIN and taking Lugeon
readings.
The LOGAC system is designed for field operation
and is characterised by its simplicity in operation.
Agitators
The CEMAG agitator with its sloping bottom and
inclined agitator shaft, creates the important counter
currents which keep the quality of the grout for a
long time.
CEMAG can be delivered in four different sizes of
containers: CEMAG 202, 402, 802 and 1602 for a
volume of 200, 400, 800 and 1600 litres respectively.
The CEMAG is powered by an electric, hydraulic or
air prime mover.
FACE DRILLING
GROUTING AtlasCopcc
Mixers
CEMIX is a high speed colloidal grout mixer for
mixing water/cement ratios down to 0.35.
The mixer produces a thoroughly uniform mix free
of lumps or aggregates and with every cement
particle individually separated and wet.
CEMIX can be delivered in three different sizes of
containers: CEMIX 103, 203 and 403 for a volume
of 100, 200 and 400 litres respectively.
The CEMIX is powered by an electric, hydraulic or
air prime mover.
щ-ч+ '%f*
UMP A C
Double-acting piston pumps
The PUMPAC pump system is based on the same
efficient double-acting pump principle used on the
well-known ZB range of grout pumps.
PUMPAC is easy and user-friendly thanks to its
modular parts and fast-change valve assembly
units. PUMPAC has easy maintenance, featuring
a self-cleaning fluid end and water flushing of
cement and hydraulic piston rods.
The pump can be delivered with three different
sizes of electric motors, 7.5, 15 and 22 kW and
two sizes of grout cylinders - 110 and 150 mm
diameter.
Pump capacity
Grout cylinder size
Ball valves Flow l/min Pressure bar
110 mm 0-135 0-100
150 mm 0-235 0-55
127
/ШшСорсо VEHICLE SPECIFICATION

ST 600LP
The ST 600LP "the Ratel™" is built for low-seam
applications. The Scooptram has several bucket volume
sizes ranging from 2.1 to 2.7 cubic metres to meet the
needs of the application. To provide the operator with a
good view in either direction, there is a video screen in
the operator-compartment where the operator can view
information from two video cameras. One camera is
focused forward while the other has a rear view.

Scooptram® LHDs
Atlas Copco Wagner manufactures a complete range of
loading and hauling equipment for underground mining
and for tunnelling, with a system for every application.
The Wagner line of diesel and electric LHDs ranges
from the 1.41 tramming capacity HST 1A to the 17.5-t
tramming capacity of the ST 1810, each of which has
dozens of options. Most vehicles are equipped with the
patented SAHR® "fail-to-safe" brake system, catalytic
purifier and exhaust silencer, and have an axle oscillation
between 14 and 20 degrees.

Several hundred electric-drive Wagner Scooptram®

LHDs have been delivered around the world. Currently
available are the EST 2D, EST 3.5 and EST 6C.

Technical data*
Scooptram model HST1A ST 2 D ST2G ST 3.5 ST 600LP

Tramming capacity (kg) 1 361 3 600 3 600 6 000 6 000

Mechanical breakout force (kg) 3 157 5 936 6 710 7 950 8 688
Hydraulic breakout force (kg) 3 824 9 060 9 060 9 960 9 300
Operating weight of vehicle** (kg) 5 700 11 540 12 736 17 510 17 330
Length (m) 5.272 6.712 7.080 8.458 8.624
Height, canopy/cabin (m) 1.937 2.086 2.160 2.247 1.560
Bucket height, max (m) 3.041 3.732 3.732 3.984 3.786
Width, v e h i c l e * * * (m) 1.256 1.615 1.615 1.827 1.896

Deutz Deutz Deutz Deutz Deutz

Standard diesel engine
F4L-912W F6L-912W BF4M1013EC F8L-413FW BF6M1013E

Optional diesel engine Deutz Deutz Deutz

F4L-912WB F6L-912WB F8L-413FWB

*AII data apply to standard equipped vehicles.

**Empty vehicle
***Less bucket
Visit www.atlascopcowagner.com for more information

128 FACE DRILLING

 VEHICLE SPECIFICATION |

ST WW
The popular ST 1010 has several bucket volume sizes
ranging from 3.1 t o 6.3 cubic metres to meet the needs
of the application. Standard features include a
rubber-isolated, automatic transverter for smooth and
efficient gear changes and trunnion caps (split cap
pin retention assembly) for speedy maintenance and
installation of components,

Technical d a t a *

S c o o p t r a m model ST 7 1 0 ST 1 0 1 0 ST8C ST 1 5 1 0 ST 1 8 1 0

Tramming capacity (kg) 6 500 10 000 14 500 15 000 17 500

Mechanical breakout force (kg) 10 347 13 381 20 245 20 517 29 372
Hydraulic breakout force (kg) 14 200 14 958 23 250 25 598 31 360
Operating weight of vehicle** (kg) 18 200 26 300 39 200 41 003 52 345
Length (m) 8.824 9.874 10.978 11.406 11.607
Height, canopy/cabin (m) 2.104 2.534 2.711 2.691 2.869
Bucket height, max (m) 4.374 5.060 5.206 6.000 6.583
Width, v e h i c l e * * * (m) 1.924 2.259 2.461 2.613 2.840

Deutz Detroit DDEC Detroit DDEC Detroit DDEC Detroit DDEC

Standard diesel engine
BF6M1013FCMVS Series 50 Series 60 Series 60 Series 60

Detroit Deutz
Optional diesel engine
Series 40 BF6M1013FCMVS

*AII data apply to standard equipped vehicles.

**Empty vehicle
***Less bucket
Visit www.atlascopcowagner.com for more information

FACE DRILLING 129

 I VEHICLE SPECIFICATION

MT2000
The MT 2000 has a dump box volume ranging from
6.7 to 12.5 cubic metres, semi-heaped, depending on ore
weight or material density. The MT 2000 is known for its
high power-to-weight ratio, and is specifically designed
for speed on grade. The mine truck is matched to
work efficiently and productively with the Wagner
Scooptram®ST 710 and ST 1010.

Technical data*

Mine Truck model MT 2000 MT 436B MT444 MT 5010

Payload capacity (kg) 20 000 32 650 40 000 50 000

Operating weight of vehicle** (kg) 19 274 30 570 35 516 40 000-42 000
Length (m) 8.940 10.181 10.367 11.221
Height, canopy/cabin (m) 2.424 2.679 2.972 2.800
Box height, max (m) 4.409 5.384 5.782 6.910
Width, v e h i c l e * * * (m) 2.209 3.064 3.144 3.200
Volume Semi-heaped (m3) 6.7-12.5 10.7-19.9 12.5-25.0 16.0-31.0
Volume SAE heaped (m3) 7.3-13.2 12.7-22.0 14.6-26.8 19.3-33.8

Detroit DDEC Detroit DDEC Detroit DDEC Cummins

Standard diesel engine
Series 50 Series 60 Series 60 QSK19-C650

*AII data apply to standard equipped vehicles.

**Empty vehicle
***l_ess box
Visit www.atlascopcowagner.com for more information

130 FACE DRILLING

 ROCK DRILL SPECIFICATIONS WusCop™

A reliable team of efficient pusher leg drills

Atlas Copco rock drills and rock drilling tools are an
unbeatable combination of high performance and
superior reliability. The pneumatic pusher leg drills
are characterized by low spare parts consumption
and minimum maintenance requirements. They
are robust but simply designed, with high impact
energy and low air consumption.
The uniform high quality of materials and
manufacturing processes contribute to the long
service life of the machines. Together with the
pusher legs the rock drills form an attractive
and cost effective drilling unit. The pneumatic
telescopic and double-telescopic pusher legs are
available in a number of versions. All are of a
simple, robust design for reliable operation and
minimum maintenance requirements.

BBC 16W (Puma) BBD 9 4 W (Panther)

All-round rock drill which
suits most drilling appli-
cations. It has a robust rifle
bar rotation mechanism,
long stroke and good
penetration rates in hard rock. The pusher leg
control is placed at the backhead of the rock drill.
Suitable pusher legs for BBC 16W are BMHT 51-3
and 51, ALF 71-1 and 71, and ALF 67/80.
High performance rock
drill for soft to hard rock. It
has ratchet wheel rotation
mechanism, short stroke
and high impact rate. It is
also efficient at low air pressure. The pusher leg
control is placed on the pusher leg itself. Suitable
pusher legs for BBD 94W are ALF 72D-1 and 72D,
and ALF 67/80D.

BBC 3 4 W (Leopard)
Highly efficient rock drill for
medium to hard rock. It has
a powerful rifle bar rotation
mechanism, long stroke
and high impact energy.
The large diameter piston makes it very efficient
even with low air pressure. The pusher leg control
is placed at the backhead of the rock drill. Suitable
pusher legs for BBC 34W are ALF 71-1 and 71, and
ALF 67/80.
BBD 9 4 W (Panther)
High performance rock
drill for soft to hard rock. It
has ratchet wheel rotation
mechanism, short stroke
and high impact rate. It
is also efficient at low air
pressure. The pusher leg control is placed on the
pusher leg itself. Suitable pusher legs for BBD 94W
are ALF 72D-1 and 72D, and ALF 67/80D.
Stopers
BBD 4 6 W S / W R (Falcon)
I All-steel rock drills suitable for
production drilling, raise driving and
bolting. They have a robust ratchet
wheel rotation mechanism, short
stroke and good penetration rates in
soft and medium hard rock. The large
diameter piston makes them very
efficient even with low air pressure,
The WR versi on has clockwise rotation and can be
used for nuts tightening when roof bolting.
Pusher legs
The pneumatic telescopic and double-telescopic
pusher legs are available in a number of
versions. All are of a simple, robust design for
reliable operation and minimum maintenance
requirements.

Description Hole A i r requirement at Impact Stroke Piston Weight Length

range 6 bar frequency length bore
mm l/s Hz mm mm kg mm
BBC 16W 27-40 60 39 55 70 26 710
BBC 34W 27-41 88 38 70 80 31 775
BBD 94W 27-40 97 55 45 90 27 670
RH 656W 27-40 48 34 60 65 22 630

Stopers
Air Rock drill Stroke Impact Rotation Feeding Length Length Feed Weight
Description consumption piston length rate rate length retracted extracted piston
a t 6 bar* bore at 6 bar* at 6 bar* bore
l/s (cfm) mm mm Hz rev/sec mm mm mm mm kg
BBD 46WS-6 75(159) 75 45 51 4.0 770 1435 2205 75 39
BBD 46WS-8 75(159) 75 45 51 4.0 970 1650 2620 75 40
BBD 46WR-6 75(159) 75 45 49 6.5 770 1435 2205 75 39
BBD 46WR-8 75(159) 75 45 49 6.5 970 1650 2620 75 40

FACE DRILLING 131

ЯОшСорсе COMPLEMENTARY EQUIPMENT

У AM Water separators
VAM water separators are based on the centrifugal
principle. They feature automatic discharge via a
float controlled bottom valve, and a coarse strainer
for solid particles.

Water separators, fitted with claw couplings

Description Hose Air f l o w Weight Ordering N o .
connection
mm in l/s cfm kg lb

VAM5A 25 1 120 254 10 22 8092 0110 82

^
Working pressure 10 bar (145 psi)

BLG and CLG Lubricators

BLG and CLG are highly efficient mineral oil No moving parts contributes to safe and trouble-
lubricators for pneumatic equipment. Their simple, free operation. The oil supply is easily adjusted
strong design makes the lubricators very resistant to even during operation,
rough handling.

Lubricators, fitted with claw couplin gs

Description Hose inner Air f l o w Oil v o l u m e Weight Ordering N o .
diameter
mm in l/s cfm 1 gal kg lb

CLG 30, for both

mineral and 25 1 15-140 32-300 1.3 0.3 3 6.6 8202 5102 39

it^g synthetic oil

BLG 30, for mineral

25 1 15-140 32-300 1.3 0.3 3 6.6 8202 5102 05
oil

Max working pressure 20 bar (290 psi)

Air oil, synthetic I ubricant with excellent lubrication, anti-corrosion an i anti-freezing properties
Description Oil v o l u m e Weight Ordering N o .

1 gal kg lb

0.2 I bottle 0.2 0.04 0.24 0.53 8099 0202 40

1 I bottle 1 0.22 1.1 2.4 8099 0202 36

• • 5 I container 5 1.1 5.8 13 8099 0202 02

E1 25 I container 25 5.5 28 62 8099 0202 20

200 I barrel 200 44 220 485 8099 0202 28

132 FACE DRILLING

 COMPLEMENTARY EQUIPMENT I ШшСорсс

Hoses
The Atlas Copco rubber hose is ideal for all • The Mantex flat hose is a lightweight hose,
applications and air lines in use on building and w e i g h i n g only 1/3 of a conventional rubber hose,
construction sites, in mines, shipyards etc.

Round rubber, hose rolls

Description Inner Outer Max w o r k i n g Length Weight Ordering N o .
diameter diameter pressure roll
mm in mm in bar psi m ft kg lb

Rubber hose, 30m 10 3/8 17 11/16 16 232 30 98 6.9 15.2 9030 2037 00

Rubber hose, 30m 12.5 1/2 22 5/8 16 232 30 98 12.3 27.1 9030 2038 00

Rubber hose, 30m 16 5/8 25 1 16 232 30 98 13.9 30.6 9030 2039 00

Rubber hose, 30m 20 3/4 30 13/16 16 232 30 98 19.3 42.5 9030 2040 00

Rubber hose, 20m 20 3/4 30 13/16 16 232 20 65 12.9 28.3 9030 2040 03

Rubber hose, 30m 25 1 36 15/16 16 232 30 98 24.0 52.9 9030 2041 00

Rubber hose, 20m 25 1 36 15/16 16 232 20 65 16.0 35.3 9030 2041 03

Round rubber hoses, pre-mounted hoses fitted with couplings and hose clamps
Description Inner Outer Max w o r k i n g Length Weight Ordering N o .
diameter diameter pressure roll
for products mm in mm in bar psi m ft kg lb
Universal 12.5 1/2 22 5/8 16 232 15 49 5.9 13 9030 2045 00

20 3/4 30 13/16
}ILJ
A'W rfl
Wi
Universal 16 232 15 49 7.6 16.8 9030 2049 00

Universal 25 1 36 15/16 16 232 15 49 12 26.5 9030 2050 00

Mantex flat hoses, hose rolls

Description Inner Thickness Max working Length Weight Ordering N o .
diameter pressure roll
mm in mm in bar psi m ft kg lb
Lightweight hose, 60m 20 3/4 2.3 3/32 20 290 60 195 13 29 9030 2014 00

Lightweight hose, 100m 20 3/4 2.3 3/32 20 290 100 325 22 48 9030 2014 01

3
Lightweight hose, 200m 20 /4 2.3 3/32 20 290 200 650 44 96 9030 2014 02

Lightweight hose, 60m 25 1 2.5 3/32 20 290 60 195 16 35 9030 2006 00

Lightweight hose, 100m 25 1 2.5 3/32 20 290 100 325 26 57 9030 2006 01

Lightweight hose, 200m 25 1 2.5 3/32 20 290 200 650 52 114 9030 2006 02

Lightweight hose, 60m 40 11/2 2.5 3/32 14 203 60 195 27 60 9030 2007 00

Lightweight hose, 60m 50 2 2.8 7/64 14 203 60 195 36 79 9030 2008 00

Lightweight hose, 40m 76 3 3.0 1/8 10 145 40 130 36 79 9030 2009 00

Max working pressure below is calculated with safety factor 5. Burst pressure = 5 x Max working pressure

Mantex flat hoses, pre-mounted hoses with fitted couplings and hose clamps
Description Inner Thickness Max working Length Weight Ordering N o .
diameter pressure roll
mm in mm in bar psi m ft kg lb
Universal 20 3/4 2.3 3/32 20 290 20 65 4.5 10 9030 2015 00
.ми ГЖ

.ни [Ж Universal 25 1 2.5 3/32 20 290 20 65 6 13 9030 2011 00

FACE DRILLING 133

ЛОшСорсо I COMPLEMENTARY EQUIPMENT

Claw couplings
You will not find a better claw coupling anywhere • Hard treatment resistant
with such a low pressure drop. And its strength and • Made of galvanised drop-forged, hardened steel
life span are unsurpassed. The Atlas Copco . дп couplings mate, regardless of nipple and
couplings are always easy to assemble and thread size
dismantle. They are also available with a lock nut
to provide effective, reliable sealing even under
extreme conditions.
Claw couplings
Connection Hose inner Bore Weight Ordering N o .
diameter
mm in mm in kg lb

Hose nipple 6.3 1/4 5.0 3/16 0.11 0.25 9000 0308 00
5
Hose nipple 10.0 3/8 8.0 /16 0.13 0.29 9000 0309 00

J^ Hose nipple

Hose nipple

Hose nipple

Hose nipple
12.5

16.0

20.0

25.0
Va

5/8

3/4

1
10.5

13.5

17.2

22.0
13/32

17/32

11/16

7/8
0.14

0.14

0.15

0.17
0.31

0.31

0.33

0.38
9000 0310 00

9000 0311 00

9000 0312 00

9000 0313 00

Hose nipple with lock nut 10.0 3/8 8.0 5/16 0.29 0.64 9000 0260 00

Ж* Hose nipple with lock nut

Hose nipple with lock nut

12.5

16.0
1/2

5/8
10.5

13.5
13/32

17/32
0.29

0.29
0.64

0.64
9000 0261 00

9000 0262 00

^•4^^ Hose nipple with lock nut 20.0 3/4 17.2 11/16 0.32 0.71 9000 0263 00

Hose nipple with lock nut 25.0 1 22.0 7/8 0.32 0.71 9000 0264 00

Claw couplings
Connection Connecting Bore Weight Ordering N o .
thread
mm in kg lb
External thread G3/8A 11.3 7/16 0.11 0.25 9000 0300 00

Д External thread GV2A 14.8 37/64 0.12 0.27 9000 0301 00

Ф* External thread

External thread

Internal thread
G3/4A

G1A

G3/8
19.0

25.5

15.0
3/4

19/32
0.13

0.13

0.12
0.29

0.29

0.27
9000 0302 00

9000 0303 00

9000 0304 00

Internal thread GV2 18.6 3/4 0.13 0.29 9000 0305 00

f Afa Internal thread G3/4 24.2 1 0.14 0.31 9000 0306 00

Internal thread G1 30.3 13/16 0.15 0.33 9000 0307 00

Cover 0.18 0.40 9000 0314 00

Packings and lock spring for claw couplings

Description Fit t o coupling Comment Ordering N o .
ordering N o .
9000....
Packing 0300 00 to Can be replaced by special 9000 0000 00

О
0314 00 packing 9000 0000 01
Packing 0260 00 to 9000 0015 00
0262 00
Packing 0263 00 and Can be replaced by special 9000 0268 00
0264 00 packing 9000 0319 00

а=э Lock spring Fits to all 9000 0300 00

to 9000 0314 00 couplings

Special packings can be used in max. temp +200'C (390'F) steam and -40'C to +250°C
3176 8640 00

(-40T to +482T) air. Excellent for neutral and alkaline liquids (pH above 5)

134 FACE DRILLING

 COMPLEMENTARY EQUIPMENT ЯОазСорсо

Hose couplings for rubber hose

Guide, hose couplings for round rubber hoses
Hose d i a m . Hose Hose Hose Hose Cup nut Cup nut Connecting
inner jointing clamp clamp nipple Wing Hexagonal nipples
mm in nipple External t h r e a d

'Ti||mj|j;

4, О §£
•>.

v» %
G5/8
10 3/8 9000 0215 00 0347 6105 00 9000 0321 00 9000 0331 00
G5/8
12.5 V2 9000 0216 00 9000 0194 00 9000 0322 00 9000 0331 00
G3/4
12.5 V2 9000 0323 01 9000 0337 00 9000 0332 00
G3/4 G3/4A - G3/4A
16 5/8 9000 0217 00 9000 0195 00 9000 0324 00 9000 0337 00 9000 0332 00 9000 0343 00
G7/8 G'/8A-G1A
20 3/4 9000 0218 00 9000 0196 00 9000 0325 00 9000 0338 00 9000 0333 00 9000 0345 00
GIVe G1VsA-G1A
25 1 9000 0219 01 9000 0197 00 9000 0326 00 9000 0339 00 9000 0334 00 9000 0346 00

Guide, hose couplings with particularly coarse thread for round rubber hoses
Hose d i a m . Hose Hose Packing « Cup nut Connecting Connecting
inner clamp nipple Wing nipples nipples
mm in External t h r e a d Internal t h r e a d

f* О
• • • - .

•feb % ^m
G1/2A G1/2
12.5 V2 9000 0194 00 9000 0370 00 9000 0025 00 2I 9000 0154 00 9000 0028 00 9000 0033 00
G3/4A G3/4
20 3/4 9000 0196 00 9000 0371 00 9000 0371 00 2I 9000 0154 00 9000 0029 00 9000 0034 00
G1A G1
2I
25 1 9000 0197 00 9000 0372 00 9000 0371 00 9000 0154 00 9000 0030 00 9000 0035 00

Guide, Mantex flat hoses

Hose d i a m . Hose Hose Claw Packing
inner jointing clamp coupling
mm in nipple

20 3/4
4
9000 0218 00 "
Ф
9000 0194 00
Л
9000 0312 00
О
9000 0000 00 3l
25 1 9000 0219 00 " 9000 0196 00 9000 0313 00 9000 0000 00 31

Guide, Mantex flat hoses

Hose d i a m . Hose Hose Hose Packing Cup nut Connecting Connecting
inner jointing clamp nipple Wing nipples nipples
mm in nipple External t h r e a d Internal t h r e a d

40 1V4
4 ф
9000 0220 00 2I 9000 0381 00
* *
9000 0373 00
О
9000 0026 00 3> 9000 0159 00
....
%
G1V2A
9000 0031 00
'yW*
G1V2
9000 0036 00
G2A G2
50 2 9000 0221 00 2I 9000 0198 01 9000 0374 00 9000 0026 00 3I 9000 0159 00 9000 0332 00 9000 0037 00
G2A
2I 3
76 3 9001 0045 00 9000 0189 00 9001 0025 80 3176 8294 00 ' 3176 8295 00 3176 8296 00
G3A
76 3 3215 7766 00
1) 2 hose clamps per nipple needed
2) 4 hose clamps per nipple needed
3) All claw couplings and hose nipples supplied with packings

FACE DRILLING 135

ШшСорсс COMPLEMENTARY EQUIPMENT
Mobile Service and Hose Workshops
For easy and convenient service of drillrigs and hydraulic hoses
When you invest in an Atlas Copco drillrig you
receive a quality product. Quality gives reliability,
availability and high productivity, which is essential
to make profit. But the quality of any machine has
to be maintained in order to give continuous high
performance and good operating economy.
And that can only be obtained through regular
preventive maintenance and the use of Genuine
Parts from Atlas Copco.
A service workshop located on site or close by is
the key solution to rapid maintenance and repair
routines. This is why Atlas Copco have designed
and equipped mobile workshops to serve different
servicing requirements.
Convenient service
The latest enhanced versions of the well regarded
Atlas Copco Mobile Workshop and Mobile Hose
Workshop contain all of the equipment needed for
maintenance and increased availability of rock drills
and drillrigs. They are housed in 20 ft ISO standard
steel containers, internally insulated and fitted with
non-slip aluminium floor plating. Each workshop
container is equipped with heating and has a
complete electric and compressed air line system
for immediate connection to external electrical and
pneumatic power sources.
Basic Mobile Workshop
The container can be delivered standard equipped
as a Basic Mobile Workshop without any tools
or machinery for those who wish to equip the
container themselves. In this version it has a
workbench, 2.5 m-long with vice and lockable
Each container has two main doors at the View inside fully equipped
front that open completely, and on one side Mobile Workshop
they have a window with steel shutter.
General information
The containers have a base socket provided for
forklift transportation. The external dimensions of
the containers are 6.0 x 2.5 x 2.6 m, and they weigh
around 3 t, depending on equipment. The mobile
workshops can be delivered for 230V/50 Hz and
380V/50 Hz, or other voltages on request.
Visit www.facedrilling.com for more information
136
pedestal; shelves; tool-board with tool hooks;
14 m-long hose roll-up for air pressure; 17 m-long,
230V electric cable roll-up; writing desk with
lockable pedestal; powder fire extinguisher; first
aid panel; ventilation system; and heating fan.
Mobile Workshop
The fully equipped version of the Mobile
Workshop comes complete with standard tool kit,
comprising all hand tools needed for carrying out
service and repair work; 30 t hydraulic press, with
mandrel set; 500 kg extensible hoist beam with
manual tackle; and a small-part cleaning booth,
with exhaust. The Mobile Workshop can then
be completed with a number of well thought-
out options of special tools, instruments and
machinery to optimize efficiency. Mobile
Workshops are suitable for installation of drill bit
grinding equipment, and the Secoroc Grind Matic
Manual В air-powered, handheld portable grinding
machine can be supplied.
Mobile Hose Workshop
A new approach to hose maintenance is the Mobile
Hose Workshop with the hose assembly centre,
a complete hose mounting workbench, designed
to fulfil all your needs for a safe and professional
assembly of hydraulic hoses with up to four
reinforcement layers. The centre is delivered with a
hose reel, cutting machine, peeling machine,
marking machine, hose cleaning equipment,
hose press, and all necessary accessories.
View inside fully equipped
Mobile Hose Workshop
FACE DRILLING
 Drilling consistently straight holes in underground
SECOROC applications has long been a problem. After all, there
are times when anything less than straight just won't do.
Magnum SR Straight: At Atlas Copco Sccoroc, we set ourselves the task of
providing a solution.

Here's what we did. We started with the successful

The road to straighter Magnum SR drifting system and its new thread that
added more material where it was really needed. Then
holes is neither long we included a long square skirt guide bit (diameters
45, 48 or 51 mm) for use on our Magnum SR35 round
nor winding rod - for those occasions when straight means just that.

The result? Any tendency to drift in the wrong direction

has been virtually eliminated, making Magnum SR
Straight the perfect tool for drilling contour and cut-holes.

For more straight talk, get in touch with your local

Secoroc representative. Or head straight to
www.atlascopco.com.

Atlas Copco Secoroc AB

Phone: +46 223 461 00 Fax: +46 223 461 01
/tHasCopco
www.atlascopco.com
 The Rocket Boomer L3 Series

Ж - f-i-';l^f
'**"* *0*£l

'*J
' • ,

A I
s
&£

The Rocket Boomer L3 series combines power with intelligence - the power of If you want more information,
please contact your local
Atlas Copco rock drilling equipment and the latest in advanced computer tech-
Atlas Copco representative or
nology. Select the level of intelligence that best suits your needs. Atlas Copco Rock Drills AB,
You choose between three different boom console configurations. The Rocket SE-701 91 Orebro, Sweden.
Boomer WL3 С with a maximum width of 17.8 m for highway tunnels and Fax: +46 19 670 7393.
E-mail: rde@atlascopco.com
underground caverns, the Rocket Boomer XL3 С with the high reaching Eagle
console for railway tunnels with heights up to 12.8 m, and the Rocket Boomer
L3 С for standard tunnels of up to 106 m2.
/ШшСорсо
Interested? Visit our web site: www.boomer-rig.com

Printed matter no. 9851 6276 01a

 ГУРосНИИИТиАП Ассоциация МВТК

Федеральный информационный фонд отечественных и

иностранных каталогов на промышленную продукцию

Каталог был представлен на выставке

«Строительство городов - 2007»

Каталог включен в базу данных

«Федерального информационного фонда
отечественных и иностранных каталогов на
промышленную продукцию»
Россия, 105679, Москва, Измайловское шоссе, 44,
Тел./факс (095)366-5200, 366-7008, 365-5445. e-mail:; fkatalog@maiI.ru,
www.flpk.ru

Электронная копия издания изготовлена с целью её включения в базы

данных Федерального информационного фонда отечественных и
иностранных каталогов на промышленную продукцию, которые
формируются в соответствии с Постановлением Правительства РФ от 24
июля 1997 г. № 950 и Постановлением Правительства РФ от 31 декабря 1999
г. № 2172-р и зарегистрированы Комитетом по политике информатизации
при Президенте РФ под №№ 39-50.

2008 год