Underground Drill Vise Arrangement for Efficient Rod Handling
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing underground drilling machines face inefficiencies in making and breaking threaded connections between drill rods due to torque loads, leading to wear and durability issues, particularly when using open-top vise systems that prevent lateral loading and require complex clamping mechanisms.
Innovation Solution
The integration of a self-centering vise system with passive rod guides that align drill rods without moving parts, combined with a linear rod handling device and a lubricant dispenser, allows for efficient joint formation and separation without the need for additional clamping devices, reducing wear and improving operational efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If open-top vise systems are used to prevent rotation of drill rods during joint making and breaking, then the drilling operation can proceed, but the open-top configuration prevents lateral loading of rods and requires complex clamping mechanisms
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of using an open-top vise that requires complex lateral clamping mechanisms, the patent inverts the approach by using side-opening vises that allow rods to be laterally loaded and clamped. This inversion of the opening direction eliminates the need for complex clamping mechanisms while maintaining rod rotation prevention capability during joint making and breaking operations
2Productivity
If threaded connections between drill rods are made and broken under torque loads, then the drill string can be assembled and disassembled, but the threaded couplings become tight and difficult to break
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a lubricant dispenser as an intermediary device that applies lubrication to the threaded couplings between drill rods. This lubrication reduces friction and thread engagement resistance, making it significantly easier to break threaded connections after drilling operations, thereby improving joint separation efficiency without requiring excessive force
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the physical-chemical parameters of the threaded interface by applying lubricant, which reduces the coefficient of friction and thread engagement resistance. This parameter change transforms the difficult-to-break tight threaded coupling into an easily separable connection, directly addressing the operational difficulty
3Ease of operation
If drill rods are laterally loaded into the vise system, then the rod handling is simplified, but the open-top vise configuration prevents this lateral loading
Solution Approach 1:
The patent inverts the traditional open-top vise configuration by implementing side-opening vises. This inversion allows drill rods to be laterally loaded into the vise system in a straightforward manner, simplifying the rod handling operation while eliminating the structural constraints of the open-top design
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2A~2B
Figure 2A
AI summary
The present disclosure relates to a method of un-threading an up-hole drill rod (32b) from a down-hole drill rod (32a) and moving the up-hole drill rod (32b) to a rod storage structure (76) with a rod handling device (114) of an underground drilling machine. The method comprises positioning a joint between a first vise and a second vise (132, 134), clamping the first (132) and second (134) vises such that the first vise (132) grips the down-hole drill rod (32a) and the second vise grips (134) the up-hole drill rod (32b), pivoting the second vise relative to the first vise to break the joint, un-clamping the second vise (134) from the up-hole drill rod, and rotating the up-hole drill rod using a rotational driver to fully un-thread the up-hole drill rod from the down-hole drill rod. The method further comprises moving the second vise axially to a second axial position and moving the rotational driver (80) axially along a track to move the un-threaded up-hole drill rod away from the down-hole drill rod (32a, 32b) and into alignment with a rod loading region of the rod storage structure (76), after the up-hole drill rod is aligned with the rod loading region of the rod storage structure, extending the rod handling device (114) to receive the up-hole drill rod (32b) in rod receivers (77), moving the second vise axially to the first axial position, and retracting the rod handling device (114) to move the up-hole drill rod to the rod storage structure.