SURFACE DRILLING
A new Sandvik iSeries drill , building on the successful DR412i but targeted at the iron and copper markets , will soon be launched
automation within our iDrill onboard automation , and helps customers with the transformation to a fully autonomous drilling operation through our AutoMine ® Surface Drilling solutions . In 2022 , Sandvik developed the new AutoMine ® Surface Operator Station . The solution , which was demonstrated during Sandvik ’ s Innovation in Mining Customer Event in September 2022 , provides operations the ability to remotely control a blasthole drill and a boom drill from the same operator station . During the event , Sandvik experts remotely operated two surface drill rigs from a single AutoMine ® Surface Operator Station . One was a blasthole drill in Alachua , Florida , US . The other was a DI650i boom drill in Tampere , Finland . The distance between the two rigs was more than 8,000 km .”
Also in 2022 , Sandvik developed a drilling monitoring solution that it says will give customers the ability to track the efficiency of , and assist with the change management of , customers switching from onboard automation to remote-control room automation . “ This development begins onboard our iSeries drilling rigs , where we are able to track the usage and productivity gained while operating Sandvik automation solutions .”
In addition , in September 2022 , Sandvik and FLANDERS agreed to develop a Digital Interface between FLANDERS ’ ARDVARC ® Autonomous Drill System and Sandvik iSeries rotary blasthole drills . The development of this digital interface is a direct response to growing customer demand for agnostic automation systems in surface mining , the pair say . The digital interface will enable the operation of Sandvik rotary drills via the ARDVARC system with no modification to the drill rig , effectively a plug-and-play solution that allows for easy deployment of Sandvik drills to mine sites . This open-architecture approach simplifies the installation and commissioning process while ensuring the customer retains OEM warranty and aftermarket support .
Moving to crawler drills , at CONEXPO-CONAGG 2023 in March , Sandvik unveiled its latest top hammer drilling innovation , the Ranger DX910i , the new flagship model of the updated Ranger
DXi rig family , which it says delivers the largest coverage area , superior hole size range , advanced automation , a versatile range of rock drills and completely new , unique and efficient rock tools .
The Ranger DXi family is known for its superior drilling coverage area of 55 m 2 and other benefits like excellent mobility , comfortable cabin with straightforward , simple controls , fuel economy and advanced automation options . Covering a broad range of applications from mining to quarrying and construction , these rigs “ excel in production drilling , pre-split drilling , bolting , pipeline drilling , road construction , as well as foundation drilling in the booming wind power sector .”
Sandvik ’ s Ranger DXi family also represents the first surface drills compatible with the My Sandvik Productivity telematics solution , securing equipment efficiency with detailed health and utilisation data . Fleet performance can be monitored through easy-to-use dashboards , or by integrating with external systems through an API . Wireless transfer of drilling plans and hole data are included for precision drilling with Sandvik ’ s TIM3D navigation system . In addition , a new Open Drill Interface will allow third party navigation or fleet management systems to work seamlessly with Ranger DXi drills .
Sandvik ’ s battery concept drill rig
One of the innovative machines Sandvik showcased at last year ’ s Innovation in Mining customer event in Tampere , Finland , attended by IM , was its fully electric concept rig , based on the compact Commando DC300Ri top hammer drill rig .
Sandvik says the concept drill rig is essentially a versatile R & D platform for demonstrating the most advanced , but nevertheless proven and validated , sustainability technologies that are already in use or coming soon on underground drill rigs and loaders . The concept rig is rubber tyred , utilises lithium batteries and uses a plugin charger . It is also cabless and is operated via teleremote line of sight technology .
In quarrying adjacent to urban areas or on large construction sites you typically have plug in charging available . This particular rig also has a back-up diesel genset in case there is a temporary situation when plug in charging is not possible . It has rubber tyres as in the types of markets where it is operating you don ’ t need the extra traction from crawlers but it can still negotiate quite rough terrain . The rig has already been trialled by contractor Norrbottens Bergteknik and has recently moved on to another
customer for additional testing . The typical power levels on a rig of this size also allow a feasible full battery solution today . And it is worth remembering that the duty cycles of these sites are very different to mining so therefore there are much lower power demands .
IM sat down with Lauri Laihanen , Vice President , R & D and Product Management , Surface Drilling Division at Sandvik to better understand how this small rig can be seen as the very start of a transition to battery electric in surface mining drill rigs . He says : “ It will help us better understand how the battery electric technology works in surface drilling applications , as opposed to load and haul where of course we already have vast experience . The reason why we chose the small unit first is from a customer point of view that ’ s where the biggest initial pull is – from quarrying customers that operate near urban areas to large construction sites for example , road / railroad construction and foundation drilling .”
In that industry Laihanen says you are actually seeing some municipalities put out tenders including requirements that equipment needs to be electric with zero / minimal emissions and stringent noise level limits with often defined sustainability targets .
So what about moving into mining ? Going straight into crawler DTH rig sizes used in mining like Sandvik ’ s Leopard range , battery energy densities are not yet there to allow it to operate for a full shift because even the smallest DI450 model requires 250 kW of power and based on typical power consumption of these drills over a shift it isn ’ t feasible .
But on the smaller top hammer side it is starting to look more realistic at least for the majority of a shift if not the whole shift . Already Laihanen says that battery is feasible for the smaller Dino rigs such as the DC410R / DC410Ri and DC420Ri which only require 105 kW of power . That said , in mining there are unlikely to be operations where you can use top hammer drilling only – so top hammer may come first for all battery operation followed by DTH . He said it needs to develop any solutions together with our customers .
“ We are starting small with the electric concept rig . We will prove and build the concept on smaller rigs and get them to commercial levels of production – then we will start to work our way up the size classes . Sandvik has a stated goal of by 2030 having our whole range electric powered – so we need to start this journey and learning curve on drills now .”
This was stated during a surface drilling presentation at the event – Sandvik ’ s Vision 2030 envisages “ a complete range of electrified drilling solutions in all hole sizes and drilling applications by 2030 .” This would mean
16 International Mining | APRIL 2023