Drill rigs, hammers and breakers essential in quarry production process

Drill rigs, hammers and breakers are all found at modern quarries where they are essential to help produce aggregates. Patrick Smith reports

Drill rigs, hammers and breakers are among the portfolio of equipment found at any modern quarry, and they are essential in the production process. For example, drilling and blasting is a vital primary stage of gaining rock in quarries, and how it is performed can affect later processes. Precision here can determine fragmentation and rock pile shape, and reduce oversize material.

While breakers are often used to further reduce the size of stone, they are also increasingly used on large excavators for primary winning in quarries, especially when blasting is not viable.

“The very essence of exploration drilling is to find out more about the ground below us or above us,” says 8798 Epiroc, and to this end it has launched Exploration Manage, its new drilling and operational analysing tool.

Recording of measure while drilling (MWD) data has been around for a while, but with upgraded software on a Diamec Smart underground core drilling rig, Exploration Manager can present operational data that is recorded automatically during the drill cycle, says the company.

In addition, the tool simplifies the workflow by letting the operator log what activity state the drill rig is in, directly on the rig’s control panel.

Exploration Manager combines all this data and presents it with comprehensive pie charts and graphs on a regular PC, allowing the site manager to analyse and find areas of improvement.

The system will be available for the Diamec Smart range of underground exploration drill rigs, which are equipped with the RCS 4 control system. It can be used to visualise only MWD data on the Diamec APC rigs with the RCS 3 control system.

“Digital transformation and adaptability is becoming a vital part in modern strategies. Exploration drilling cannot be different. Added customer values on Diamec Smart together with Exploration Manager, will help our customers in this industry to move on in this journey,” says Ebrahim Nikafroozi, global product manager at Epiroc.

Epiroc says that many of its rig-mounted heavy hydraulic breakers now feature the patented Intelligent Protection System (IPS) that seamlessly combines its AutoControl and StartSelect functions, popular features on Epiroc hydraulic breakers for some years.

AutoControl optimises breaker performance by automatically adjusting the piston stroke length, and the StartSelect system offers manual switching between two modes: the AutoStart mode enables easy positioning at the beginning of the breaking cycle, and in the AutoStop mode the breaker stops automatically to avoid blank firing at the end of the breaking cycle.

“IPS ensures that the hydraulic breaker always starts in the AutoStart mode. When the contact pressure between chisel and material increases and AutoControl switches from a short piston stroke to a long piston stroke, IPS switches automatically to the AutoStop mode,” says Epiroc.

“When the chisel breaks through the material the breaker automatically shuts off and prevents blank firing.”

Epiroc HB 2000, HB 2500, HB 3100, HB 3600 and HB 4700 are equipped with IPS, and during 2018 all other heavy hydraulic breakers in Epiroc´s range will incorporate the system. The company is also offering a rotary splitter option with the Explorac 100, a dedicated reverse circulation machine suitable for in-pit grade control and shallow exploration down to 250m.

In addition to the riffle splitter, two more splitter options are now available for the Explorac 100, a rotary or a cone splitter, with the rotary splitter said to provide excellent sample quality. It is equipped with three sample bag chutes, which means that duplicate samples can be collected simultaneously along with a third long-distance bag.

The percentage of the total drilled distance collected in each bag can be adjusted individually, making it possible to get exactly the desired sample size, while a new splitter control box keeps operators a safe distance from dust and danger.

Globally-renowned Finnish hydraulic hammer brand 5101 Rammer is celebrating its 40th birthday in 2018 with a series of celebratory events. The Rammer brand, which is part of 460 Sandvik, has enjoyed growth, success and popularity as a result of its innovative stance. The brand has continued to enhance its position among the world’s leading hydraulic hammer names, adding a comprehensive range of demolition attachments to its equipment line-up.

Innovations from Rammer brought to the global hydraulic hammer market over the last four decades include constant blow energy; idle blow protection; attachment-mounted dust suppression; automatic lubrication, and remote hammer monitoring and management. Manufactured by Sandvik-owned boom manufacturer RamBooms, Rammer-branded pedestal-mounted breaker booms are also hugely popular with quarrying and mining customers.

As part of the 40th anniversary celebrations, Sandvik recently held an event in Lahti, Finland, to hand over the 3,000th Rammer-branded pedestal-mounted breaker boom to milestone buyer, Gold Fields.

The company will use the M-series M550 breaker boom with a BR2577 hammer at its huge South Deep gold mine operation in South Africa. Jaco Claassens, a representative of Rammer’s South-African dealer, Hydraulic Hammers, performed the landmark handover to Sibusiso Nkosi, of Gold Fields, South Deep mine.

“We already have four Rammer M-series breaker boom systems running in our mine, all operating with BR2577 hammers. This milestone boom is scheduled to be commissioned by the end of 2018”, says Nkosi.

The Rammer breaker boom M550 with hydraulic hammer BR2577 has been built to take heavy loads in quarry and mining applications. The breaker boom weighs 6.4tonnes and offers a maximum reach of 7.9m. Rammer has also introduced the latest version of its largest hydraulic hammer, the 9033, which replaces the Rammer 7013, and it is said to benefit from key changes and improvements, including 20% wider carrier weight range than the Rammer 7013, and a 22% higher input power.

“The Rammer 9033 completes the successful Rammer large hammers family by replacing the aged 7013 with a modern design that extends some of the specifications such as carrier range allowed and tool diameter,” says Rafa López, Rammer general manager.

Weighing 7,000kg, the 9033 is suitable for carriers in the 60-120tonnes operating weight range, and the impact rate on the long stroke setting rises from a maximum of 450 blows/minute (bpm) to 520, while maximum oil flow rises to 460litres/minute) against the 400litres/minute) on the Rammer 7013.

Rockmore International is introducing the newest addition to its T Series DTH hammer line, the ROK 550T, to the European market. It is a 12.7mm class hammer model which uses the industry standard QL5/QL50 bit shank, but with the blow tube/foot valve removed.

“With high performance drilling characteristics rated for drilling 140-152mm diameter holes, the ROK 550T is suitable for blast-hole applications in the mining and construction sectors and for deep hole drilling in the water-well and geothermal sectors,” says Rockmore.

As with all Rockmore DTH hammers, the new ROK 550T takes advantage of Rockmore’s patented SonicFlow technology, which optimises airflow by simplifying and streamlining the air paths to minimise back flow and turbulence, thus delivering more energy to the piston.

4719 Thyssenkrupp Infrastructure says that a new product in its machinery segment range is the TK-DM30 drilling rig, which is said to offer optimum performance in a wide range of ground conditions and is suitable for frequencies up to 130Hz.

In addition, the rig allows drilling at all angles from 0°-90°, from horizontal to vertical and underneath the excavator, and is specially designed for vibro drills, very large hammer drills and double-head drills to achieve high penetration rates in overburden drilling, lost-tip drilling, micropile and core drilling.