In March 2018, VersaDrill Canada, a specialist in manufacturing multipurpose diamond drills and innovative products for the mining industry, launched its latest creation: the inner tube puller. MBI Drilling Products is now a proud authorized distributor of this product which, it’s safe to say, is a major step forward for drillers and assistant drillers.
Core extraction
Drillers’ health and safety is becoming a growing concern. Not only are more businesses working on prevention, they’re also aiming to improve their processes to avoid accidents. Core extraction is one such process in need of improvement.
Before, workers needed to force the inner tube out of a borehole. In underground operations or tight spaces, workers may have also needed to work in awkward positions. An inner tube full of rocks weighs approximately 75 lbs over 3 m, meaning that a 6 m tube can weigh 150 lbs!
Naturally, this puts constant strain on workers’ backs, making it one of the leading causes of absenteeism. What’s more, most workplace accidents are caused by excessive effort. That’s why it’s important to find a solution to make workers’ duties easier.
How it works
The patented rollers, the primary component of the inner tube puller, have been thoroughly studied to maximize grip and avoid slippage and drill rod deformation. It’s crucial that the inner tubes don’t slide back into the hole. That’s why a diamond coating was developed. Each diamond tip gently grips the inner tube to create optimal traction with minimal axial force.
The radius of the rollers was specifically designed to avoid deforming the tube. Additionally, a special diamond layer eliminates excessive friction between the tube and the rollers.
How to use it
We know that speed and efficiency are at the heart of drillers’ daily work. That’s why this product needed to be designed not only to reduce back injuries, but also to increase the number of metres drilled per shift.
The installation process for the inner tube puller is very simple:
- Tilt the product onto the drill rod
- Activate the security latch
- Turn on the driller
That’s it! The tube is removed automatically, without requiring physical effort. Even better, the inner tube puller can be installed on all drill brands.
Watch VersaDrill Canada’s promotional video.
Better performance
You now know that this product helps you drill safer and smarter, but in concrete terms, how does the inner tube puller improve performance? It allows up to 15 m of tube to be pulled at once (supported by evidence), which is simply impossible with manual extraction.
This table shows the metres drilled in one year with an inner tube puller on a 15 m wire-line core barrel:
Finally, MBI Drilling Products is very proud to distribute this new product, which is invaluable to the mining industry. Not only will workers be excited to work with a product that reduces their chance of injury, they’ll also be more productive.
We will be with VersaDrill Canada at Xplor 2018 to introduce this product. Learn more in our latest blog post.
Sources:
https://www.observat.qc.ca/documents/bulletin/bulletin_janvier_2007.pdf?
http://www.cnesst.gouv.qc.ca/publications/600/Documents/dc_600_410_44.pdf
