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This New Zealand Drillers presidents report was published in the latest edition (August /September) of the Australian Drilling Magazine and highlights the need for vigilance on the part of your members as per your expectations from your contracted Geotechnical Drilling provider.
Forty years ago when I entered the drilling industry as a geotechnical drillers offsider there was a sticker on the rig which read “CORES WILL TELL” simply meaning 100% recovery should be the purpose of the trade . This was an impossible task given the rig types in use back then. Bridge sites would take months to complete with extremely poor recovery, which was just the order of the day. Senior engineers today will understand the frustrations of that time and today I still wonder what crystal ball is used to log core loss.
The purpose of our trade is still the same today but the means of attaining it has got a whole lot easier, safer, and certainly faster than ever before using 2017/18 technology. These new drill rigs themselves are without a doubt sophisticated works of art in the hands of the fully trained operators. 30 meter deep bridge pile investigation holes through gravel, sands silts and cobbles with 100 % core recovery using 150 hertz sonic technology is now the norm in a day work.
With the high production rates on the new technology rigs means that as an employer I require far less staff to achieve the required results. Combining that with 100% core recovery means work time on site is cut to a quarter, making retention of drillers within the company at an all-time high.
Sonic Technology has allowed us the ability to have drilled 275,000 meters of drilling since 2012 and allows us to carry out SPT testing continuously if required.
Staff all have Manufactures Operators Competency Certification (MOCC) which assures you that the operators are certified on the rig they run and all our operators have between 12 to 22 years’ service with Pro drill on geotechnical drilling.
In addition to the 3 new Duo sonic rigs ( which can operate in either Rotary core or Sonic mode ), we also operate 3 new SLG rotary core rigs for tight access wire line coring projects, and 2 x 6622 geoprobe CPT rigs with SCPTu systems, and members of CETANZ.
Pro Drills overall operational performance is due to
1) Operating the latest technology drilling rigs and systems
2) Fully trained and certified operators
3) Drill Tracker operational software management system
The BOOM that is talked about in the article is real, and so is the lack of competent operators as also mentioned in the article, so what Pro Drill will offer you is a totally professional service, a no excuses policy and 100% commitment.
Russell Sherwin
Managing Director
Pro-Drill LTD