DRILL & BLAST
CONTRACTOR BREAKS NEW GROUND WITH “INTELLIGENT” RIG The latest rendition of an all-encompassing crawler rig is kicking goals for a drilling contractor at a Boral quarry. Tim Robertson reports.
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axfield Drilling has been working closely with Boral in Tasmania for the past 30 years, but it was only in January last year that the companies partnered for their first project on the mainland. “We have a great relationship with Boral,” said Dean Maxfield, the general manager at Maxfield Drilling. “We’re very proud that they’ve shown the confidence in us to give us work in Victoria – a new state – so we’ve set up a workshop and office in Victoria and hopefully it’ll grow from there.” Established in 1984, Maxfield Drilling is primarily a blast hole drilling contractor for quarries, open-cut mines and large-scale civil construction projects. It also conducts grade control drilling services and is currently working on about 46 sites across Western Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Tasmania. The company has always placed an emphasis on keeping abreast of the latest technological developments, to ensure it remains at the forefront of the industry. This shared vision has led to a close partnership between Maxfield Drilling and Sandvik Mining and Rock Technology. The relationship has gone from strength to strength since 2004, when Maxfield Drilling purchased its first piece of Sandvik equipment – a Pantera 1100 crawler rig. Since then it has bought more than 25 machines and its fleet now includes 20 Sandvik drills. Now, in a first for Australia, Maxfield Drilling has been operating Sandvik’s Ranger DX900i surface drill rig at Boral’s Lysterfield Quarry, in the southern foothills of Mount Dandenong in Melbourne’s south-east. “We’d been talking to Sandvik for some years about getting a machine that was versatile in reach and movability, as well as being capable of achieving high production
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Quarry February 2019
The Ranger DX900i drill rig is equipped with a revolving upper structure that offers a 290-degree drilling reach and 55m2 coverage.
rates. When the DX900i was released, we thought it was a machine that could hopefully achieve both these tasks,” Maxfield said.
ROTATING COVERAGE At the rig’s Australian launch in April 2018, Sandvik personnel said the DX900i had potentially the widest drilling coverage available in its class, with its revolving upper structure offering a 290-degree drilling reach and 55m² coverage. Despite the rig’s ability to rotate, it maintains maximum stability through a counterweight structure opposite the boom. Its low centre of gravity and high tramming power also allow it to remain mobile. “In a conventional rig, your reach from one spot to where you tram is only the boom movement and the areas of a few square metres maximum,” IIkka Lahdelma, Sandvik’s global director of product management for surface drilling and exploration, told Quarry. “So basically, in this kind of drilling pattern, you are able to reach two holes, if you are tramming to a row of holes. “Because the [DX900i] has a 290-degree turning upper structure, we are able to reach four-hole rows from the one set-up.”
TECHNICAL DATA SANDVIK RANGER DX900I Recommended hole diameter
89-140mm* (3”-5.5”)
Drill rod/tube diameter
51mm or 60mm (2” or 2.3”)
Hydraulic rock drill
RD927L, RD927L-C (27kW)
Drilling coverage
55m2
Engine type/output
Volvo Penta TAD852VE (Tier 3) – 210kW@1800 rpm Volvo Penta TAD872VE (Tier 4) – 210kW@1800 rpm
Flushing air capacity
9.5m³/min, 335 cfm up to 10 bar
Operator cabin
iCab
Certificate
ROPS and FOPS
Transport length
12.4m
Transport width
2.45m
Transport height
3.3m (4.4m with safety cage, 4.4m with noise silencer)
Weight
19.6 tonnes (19,600kg)
* If larger than 127mm holes drilled, consult factory.
