Downhole Surveys have taken out this years’ Innovative Mining Solution Award for developing a drill aligner which cuts the time it takes to align a drill from hours to under five minutes.
After years of researching suitable gyro systems to align a drill rig, company director Mike Ayris stumbled upon an Italian-made Fibre Optic Gyro Compass (FOG) used to provide altitude and heading within the shipping industry and high speed military vessels where precise dynamic positioning is required.
Some modifications for the industry were required, such as inclusion of a lithium ion battery pack, drill rod clamp and display software which was all carried out at Downhole Surveys’ Midland workshop.
The result was a world-first instrument that aims to improve drilling productivity and precision.
The Azimuth Aligner sensor is placed on the drill rod at time of setup, aligning a drill rig in under five minutes compared to 1.5 hours using traditional methods.
It requires no calibration and replaces the need for a surveyor, GPS, compass, pegs or flagging tape.
The aligner provides setup precision to 0.2 ˚ azimuth and 0.01˚ inclination without the need for surveyors or geologists.
A continual output of both azimuth and dip are displayed on a rugged monitor, allowing the driller to precisely manoeuvre the drill rig with autonomy, to the correct planned azimuth and dip.
The company says the aligner replaces the previous alignment method of string line and plumb bob, and addresses the age old problem of how to align a drill rig without a surveyor, in a GPS denied underground environment.
Judges said the company had taken technology from a different industry and innovated the application into setting the azimuth of a drill rig.
“This technology is used in downhole logging tools but has not been used in this application before. It has the potential save time and improve safety,” they said.
The current Azimuth Aligner model is a portable device designed to be taken on and off the drill rig at time of setup and servicing up to five drill rigs at a time.
The company says future models will see the Azimuth Aligner retrofitted to drill rigs and will become a commonly used device, similar to a GPS being fitted to a vehicle.
Originally designed for underground GPS denied environments, the Azimuth Aligner is finding uses in remote exploration drill rig alignment where land surveyors are not available.
In the exploration sector the new technology is currently onsite at BHP Billiton’s Nickel West site, Newmont Jundee mine site, Poseidon Nickel Windarra mine site and Energy Resources Australia.
Several other sites have requested demonstrations, including Rio Tinto’s Argyle diamond mine, and Newmont Granites mine.
Three civil engineering projects have also requested demonstrations, including San Francisco Subway project, Hawks Dam, and the West Virginia rehabilitation program.
The company says Swedish drill rig manufacturer Sandvik have also viewed the new technology.
Recently the Azimuth Aligner was used on the US$1 billion Port of Miami Tunnel Project (POMT) to accurately and quickly align 100 horizontal freeze grout holes to form two emergency service passages connecting the two parallel tunnels.
The POMT involves constructing two 1.1km parallel tunnels connecting MacArthur Causeway on Watson Island and the busy Port of Miami on Dodge Island reaching 37m below sea level.
The Azimuth Aligner takes 15 minutes to determine a true north heading from power on, after which time azimuth and dip data is displayed live and continuous, allowing the driller to quickly and accurately align the drill rig, making minor adjustments as required. A surveyor is no longer required to align the drill rig and the alignment time is cut to just 5 minutes.
Ayris said the new technology has the potential to save companies money.
“The reduction in process time is a permanent change,” he said.
“It results in the ongoing cost reductions by way of improved productivity.”
Ayris said the simplicity of the process was also beneficial for the mining sector as it tackles a multitude of tasks to complete at any one time.
“The mining sector is full of complicated processes and often the time taken to complete a particular task is not taken into consideration in the overall process,” he said.
“By simply reviewing every step and making small changes, improved efficiency will result.”
The company estimates that with 7,500 drill rigs globally, the cost of drilling in the wrong direction is estimated at $126 million.
Ayris says also says with the charge of $350 an hour to run a drill rig, applying the 1.4 hour saving created by the new aligner represents a global industry saving of $300 million per annum.