Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions presents its new Sandvik DD212, a compact and intelligent single-boom electro-hydraulic drill rig for tunnelling and mining development in narrow vein drifts. This machine is an upgrade of the earlier model, the DD210 development drill rig.

“The new DD212 is a compact drill solution enabling mines to open smaller tunnel sections and benefitting from increased levels of productivity with more meters advanced,” said Sandvik. The manufacturer revealed that based on factory and field tests, the DD212 delivers up to 20% reduction in boom positioning time per face, about 15% improvement in drill penetration rate, whilst its 3% improved pull out ratio can result in up to 10 cm greater advance per face when compared to similar equipment.

According to Sandvik, the DD212 reached 93% mechanical availability during its mine site test period, accumulating 300 hours percussion within a 2.5-month operation. The machine provides great performance with net penetration rate, drill quality and rock tools improvements with zero drill rods jammed during the test period.

The DD212 is equipped with new features, including the THC562 drilling control system with torque control and reaming hole selection. It enables the rig to provide increased drilling performance, while reducing the wear on both the rock drill and rock tools.

Another new feature is the SB20i intelligent boom for accurate hole electronic positioning, which allows the precise and fast navigation of drill feed and tool, with automatic parallelism and instrumentation for hole angle measurements. The boom offers large face drill coverage from 6 to 25 sq m, thanks to the 1-m boom extension and the two rotation actuators (narrow-vein type).

The Sandvik DD212 also has an extended 12 ft (3.7 m) TF feed rod, which optimises advance/round, whilst its RDX5 rock drill provides fast drilling cycle time and low operating costs. The rig’s versatile CFX telescopic feed can retract from 12 ft to 6 ft (3.7 m to 1.8 m) and enhances multipurpose operations in small tunnel sizes, from 2.5 m x 2.5 m to 3.5 m x 3.5 m.

“The DD212 delivers accurate face drilling, cross cutting and bolting and enables mines to open smaller tunnel sections, reducing overbreak, dilution and drilling costs,” summarised Sandvik.

“The DD212 brings operational safety and versatility for tackling different applications, precise electronic positioning, ergonomic operator interface, data monitoring, all leading to superior pull-out ratio and reduced tool consumption, ensuring that the new DD212 delivers the best fit in narrow vein drilling.”