MODERN WELL-BORING

Waikato Times, Volume 195, Issue 22513, 23 November 1944, Page 8

MODERN WELL-BORING

THE “ROLLS ROYCE” OF PLANTS MESSRS BROWN AND SONS’ ENTERPRISE A representative of the Waikato Times had the privilege of seeing what is rightly termed “the Rolls Royce of well-boring plants” in operation in the Waikato. The plant, manufactured by George E. Failing, of Oklahoma, United States of America, is owned by Messrs N. I. W. Brown and Sons, 01 Hamilton. The writer located the plant at work at the rear of the New Zealand Cooperative Dairy Company’s butter factory in Alexandra Street, where the owners of the plant are engaged in structure testing for the dairy I company. Mr Brown (senior) explained details of the plant, which is the most modern well-boring equipment in New Zealand today. The writer saw the men put in the drill rods; the derrick is raised and lowered by hydraulic cylinders; the rotary table which turns the rods is pushed out on the bore by hydraulic pressure, and is retracted by the same pressure. The drilling mechanism is driven off the truck motor driving a special power take-off. The rotary drilling mechanism has a three-speed gear- | box. and will turn the drill at speeds from 40 revolutions up to 500 revolutions per minute. It also has a Gardener Denver twin-cylinder 5000 gallons per hour pump which works up to a pressure of 1000 lbs per square inch, supplying the water used in flushing out the bore-holes. The equipment will drill any size of well from 2£ inches to 6 inches to a depth of 2000 feet. The hydraulic- ’ pressure feed lifts the drill from the ; bottom of the well, and also supplies up to three tons of weight in forcing the drill to drive through rock or any other hard formation at the highest possible rate of speed. The hardest known rock can be drilled in a fairly large-sized bore at the rate of about six inches per hour, varying to a greater cutting speed on smallersized bores. The drilling equipment is moimted on a three-ton truck, and weighs approximately five tons. The soft-formation drills are known as fish tails. The rock drills used are manufactured in the United States, and are employed on all big oil-well rigs for drilling the hardest known formations. They comprise a series of hard-cutting rollers turned at a high rate of speed, and thus they create a chipping action when used on rock and other hard formations. The pressman was shown some of the special rock drills, as used and built up with borium, which is the next hardest known substance to a diamond. According to the O.H.M.S. test of hardness diamonds rank as 10, while borium ranks as 8.5. The hardest rock known, which is granite, ranks as 7 in hardness; hence the reason for using borium for - re- j dressing the special rock-drills. The height of the mast is 28 feet, j and it is capable of carrying a load I of 36 tons. For working on deep ' bores there are a stand and rack on the mast which make for speed in changing or adding additional drill rods on a deep bore. Only 10 to 15 minutes are required in setting up the machine. To illustrate the speed in which a job can be done Mr Brown said that a job involving a 300-foot bore had been completed in six hours. The cost of the plant, without tools or fittings, if it could be landed in New Zealand today, would be i £6400. Messrs Brown and Sons are the largest firm of well-drilling conti actors in New Zealand, with over £IO,OOO worth of plant and equipment, and are thus capable of cater- ; ing for all classes of work.*