Herrenknecht Maxi-Rig (2014)

Herrenknecht Maxi-Rig (2014)

Hadlee & Brunton have a custom-built 175T Maxi-rig from Herrenknecht which is one of the most advanced pieces of equipment for horizontal directional drilling in the world today. It is the only European Maxi-rig in New Zealand and can drill up to 1 km in length and up to 2 m in diameter (dependant on ground conditions and length). This rig is used for large bore pipe installations in the utilities sector throughout the country. The technology of this rig far exceeds anything else currently available in New Zealand.

The maxirig has 70,000Nm of torque and 440,000lbs of pullback and thrust!

Specifications:

• 70,000 Nm of torque
• 200T of pull back and thrust
• C13 CAT Engine
• Remote cab which is transported on the crawler unit
• Radio controlled crawler unit
• Cut down mast which takes a 6m rod so the rig has a small footprint for urban areas
• Additional 3m mast that can be added to take a 9m rod if required
• Can use 5”, 5 1/2 “ & 6 5/8” oil field drill rods dependent on how much mud flow is required at the drill face and rod torque is expected due to ground conditions and tooling size
• Touch screen computer system
• Pre-set parameters can be entered for each stage of the drilling prior to even turning up on site. This means the rig can be pre-set to prevent the product being over stressed
• All data is digitally stored indefinitely and can be sent electronically to the client or engineer. This includes pull back forces, rotational torque, fluid volumes and pressures basically anything that the project engineer requires the rig can produce electronic records of
• The rig can be remotely accessed and shots can be watched in real time from a computer anywhere in the world. Data also can be accessed from the rig remotely at any time
• The rig also has 6 remote cameras which include wireless cameras at pipe side and on the recycling units so the operator has full vision of the site at all times
• It has a five rod auto loader as opposed to manual single rod loading as with the majority of maxi rigs
• It has a self-greasing unit to grease the threads as opposed to having an additional labourer doing this for each rod as with normal maxi rigs

Unlike a lot of cheaper or Chinese rigs that claim various tonnages of thrust and pullback forces Herrenknecht had Hadlee and Brunton fly to Germany to witness the thrust and pullback tests in the factory to show that the rig is indeed capable of what they claim. The results from these tests proved that the rig well exceeded its 175T rating. This came as no surprise to the Germans as the Hadlee and Brunton rig is built on a 250T rig platform. Throughout the design and build phases representatives of Hadlee and Brunton made several trips to Schwanau in Germany to be part of the process. This resulted in a truly customised machine with the Germans embracing and incorporating suggestions and modifications to the rig throughout the build.