A big and exciting announcement from us here at Land Science! We have greatly expanded our range of drilling capabilities by adding a new rotary drilling rig to our fleet of vehicles. This new Massenza Mi2 Drilling Rig will enable us to reach depths of up to 60m in almost all strata. The rig is not only capable of drilling in a rotary fashion – it can also carry out concrete coring and standard percussion style (window sampling) drilling. This will allow is to use a “dynamic-rotary-follow-on” system, where percussive drilling can be used to clear soft or loose soil deposits before switching to a rotary method for hard material – this ensures that all strata can be drilled and work can be carried out as is most appropriate for a given situation.

The rig also comes fully equipped with a calibrated Standard Penetration Test (SPT) hammer to allow for in-situ testing of soils, along with the necessary equipment to recover UT70 or UT100 “undisturbed” soil samples as instructed or appropriate. To aid with the rotary drilling, an integrated water pump allows for circulation of mud and foam at the base of the hole when to soften material and mitigate wear and tear on the actual drilling element.

There are many benefits to using this rotary system to a more typical cable percussive rig, some of the main benefits are as follows:

  • A small trailer is used to transport the rig, which allows ease of movement on roadways and other access routes.
  • The rig is tracked to allow for fine manoeuvring on site once it has been removed from the trailer.
  • The tracks themselves are only 780mm wide and are retractable, which can allow access down even narrow alleyways or paths.
  • Capable of climbing and then drilling on slopes up to an angle of 30o.
  • Rotary drilling allows for very high quality samples to be recovered, which are far more suited to laboratory testing.

Rig technical parameters, taken from https://www.massenzarigs.com/drilling-rig-mi2/:

Work Methods
– Rotation with direct circulation by water, mud, and foam
– Rotation with down the hole hammer
– Coring
– Percussion drilling
Power Pack
– Engine power 55.2 Hp (41.2 kW) TIER 4 FINAL
Fuel Tank
– Capacity 35 litres (9 gallons)
Mast
– Maximum stroke of rotary head 2.8m. Pull up and down 2650 daN (5938 ibf)
Rotary Head
– Maximum torque 6804 Nm (5018 ibfft)Maximum speed 688 Rpm
Winch
– Maximum line pull 1000 daN (2248 ibf)
Double
– Hydraulic Clamp Maximum passage Φ 180 mm (7”)

It is also possible to acquire the necessary instruments to conduct cable percussive drilling using this rig, which is something that we are actively looking in to. For further news on any new equipment for the rig, or at Land Science in general, watch this space!

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