Longyear Company

Boart Longyear Pty Ltd

Ivor N Paech

Stephen Alfred Muller

The invention provides a drill rod handling device ( ) which is adapted for attachment to a drill rig assembly ( ) which includes a standard rotation unit ( ) and a rod holder ( ) mounted on top of a feed frame ( ) and which are used to feed drill rods ( ) in and out of the ground. The handling device ( ) comprises a carriage assembly ( ) which is guided for sliding movement along slide members ( ), a head assembly ( ) which is designed to receive and support a drill rod ( ) and to feed the drill rod longitudinally for screwing and unscrewing of the thread joint while simultaneously gripping same, a swing arm ( ) pivotally attached to the carriage assembly and extending laterally therefrom, swivel attachment means rotatably mounting the head assembly ( ) to the outer end of the swing arm ( ) for tilt movement about a transverse axis, a swing arm actuator ( ) for effecting rotation of the swing arm ( ) and the head assembly ( ) about a generally longitudinally axis, and a tilt actuator ( ) for effecting tilt of the head assembly ( ), the arrangement being such that a drill rod ( ) when loaded onto the head assembly ( ) at a side low position, can be bodily moved to a loading position on top of the feed frame and axially aligned with the drill string.

Drill rod handling device

An extendable boom assembly is mounted on a platform or a base for longitudinally pivotally moving a drill rod between a rod rack and a drill rig in a position in alignment with the drill string axis regardless of whether the drilling direction is vertical or is angularly positioned relative to the vertical direction. The boom assembly is mounted for pivotal movement with the track assembly and transverse movement relative thereto, the track assembly being mounted on a drill rig platform. The upper end of the boom assembly mounts a jaw assembly for releaseably gripping a drill rod, the jaw assembly being mounted for limited pivotal movement about a horizontal axis and is of a design not requiring the rods being in a particular spaced relationship relative to one another. The gripping assembly jaws and the limited pivotal movement results in the rod to be transferred being pivoted to a position parallel to the main boom arm central axis as the rod is being clampingly engaged and moved away from the rod stack. The controls are located at a location away from the path of movement of the clamped drill rod.

Rod handler apparatus

For breaking out a drill rod joint, a hydraulic chuck is mounted by a housing for clampingly engaging a drill rod and for rotation to break a rod joint, the chuck being rotated by a first gear that is bolted to a drive tube which mounts the chuck. A hydraulic motor drives a second gear within the housing for rotating the first gear. A rack is mounted for tangential movement by a rack mount which is movable radially inwardly to move the rack teeth for engaging the first gear teeth while a first spring mechanism constantly resiliently urges the rack mount to a retracted position so that the rack teeth are not engagable with the gear teeth even though the rack is tangentially moved by a first hydraulic ram that is operable for moving the rack to a tangential advance position. A second spring mechanism urges the rack radially outwardly, a second ram being operated to radially move the rack mount and thereby the rack to have the rack teeth engagable with the gear teeth. Hydraulic controls automatically operate the second ram to move the rack inwardly and thereafter the first ram tangentially to apply a rotary force to the gear teeth in the event the motor is not able to initially start the rotation of the second gear to start the breaking out of a rod joint.

Growing community of inventors

Christies Beach, Australia

Ivor N Paech