Improved drill bits and units from Sandvik 10 Nov 2016

Sandvik Mining and Rock Technology has introduced its latest portfolio of innovative mining equipment and services, ranging from a new drill bit to mine automation. Its new products will help customers improve safety and productivity, as well as placing emphasis on cost, flexibility, and availability of service and parts.

Sandvik’s DD422iE battery powered drill rig

The new automated 3D scanning equipment reduces overbreak and underbreak in the drill+blast excavation cycle, making the process more efficient, saving time during the drilling cycle, maximizing the full potential of the excavation process and improving safety.

The new Sandvik DD422iE jumbo is powered by an electric battery instead of a diesel engine. This eliminates emissions during tramming and has a patented electric driveline system that enables battery recharging during drilling. The system burns less fuel and generates less heat and noise than conventional drivelines. The development comes at a time when awareness of potential health impacts of diesel particulate matter (DPM) and other underground engine emissions is growing and requires high ventilation costs when diesel-powered equipment is used in underground excavation projects.

The new Sandvik top centre drill bits

Sandvik’s automated modular 400 range of ITH long hole drill rigs include diesel powered, self-propelled, crawler-mounted surface blasthole drills. Coupled with the patented Sandvik compressor management system drill units can improve fuel consumption by up to 25%.

Having developed and supplied productive rock tools for more than 100 years, Sandvik continues to reinvent drill bit design. The newly introduced top center drill bit incorporates the most significant upgrade to face drilling bits in decades. It has front buttons that are set at a slight angle relative to the symmetric axis of the bit, so the raised front creates a slightly recessed hole bottom pattern that alters the rock-breaking action in order to achieve improved performance. This, together with a new cemented carbide grade GC80, combines toughness with a softer centre that further extends service life and regrinding intervals.

During a successful show at the 2016 MINExpo event in Las Vegas, USA, Marie Brodin, Vice President of Sandvik Marketing and Communications, said that “in an industry where an hour of downtime can cost thousands, Sandvik parts and services can save customers millions, with around-the-clock service. We are driving innovation throughout our entire portfolio and offer products and services designed to benefit the customers’ bottom line in terms of increased safety and productivity.”

In 2014, the Sandvik Group had 47,000 employees, representation in 130 countries, and sales of 89 billion SEK (near $10 billion). Sandvik Mining and Rock Technology is a business area within the Sandvik Group and provides equipment and tools, service and technical solutions for the mining and civil underground excavation industries. In 2015, the Sandvik Mining and Rock Technology division employed 15,000 employees and had sales totalling 33 billion SEK ($3.7 billion).