As people’s demand for safety and efficiency in operations increases, it directly promotes the development of equipment and tool products. Enterprises in the field of rock drilling and anchoring engineering have been committed to creating safer and more efficient solutions. Therefore, their technology is increasingly developing in a more economical and more efficient direction.
Based on such a market prospect, rock drilling tools, as products supporting rock drilling machinery, are widely used in geotechnical engineering fields such as mining, hydropower, tunnels, culverts, subways, and municipal construction and have become essential tools in production and construction in the development of modern human material civilization, and its growth also directly affects the development of rock drilling engineering field.
There are many varieties and specifications of rock drilling tools, and they are used in different ways. From the article “Types of Rock Drilling Tools”, we can learn that according to the type of rock drilling machinery used in geotechnical drilling engineering, there are six types of rock drilling tools: top hammer rock drilling tools, DTH drilling tools, roller cone drilling tools, raise drilling tools, mechanical cutting drilling tools, and geological exploration drilling tools. However, rock drilling tools are subjected to high-peak and high-frequency impact loads during drilling. Therefore, rock drilling tools are one of the metal material tools with the harshest working conditions and the shortest service life.
If you want to prolong the service life of rock drilling tools reasonably, the stability and reliability of product quality, the selection of suitable rock drilling tools, and other factors are very important, but the fundamental thing is to choose high-quality rock drilling tools, which is inseparable from high-quality manufacturers. To produce high-quality rock drilling tools, first of all, in the selection of raw materials, manufacturers need to select high-quality steel and cemented carbide, and other materials and then need to use advanced production technology and production equipment. Of course, Experienced works in the drilling industry are also very important. This process is generally called the production process, which starts from a series of production technology organization work before the product is put into production until the qualified products are produced in the whole process. What is the specific production process of rock drilling tools?
Preparation before production
Standardized review of drawings of rock drilling tools
The geometric structure, parameter design, material, manufacturing process technology, tooling equipment, and other aspects of rock drilling tools reflect the technical level of the enterprise. Therefore, before producing rock drilling tools, enterprises need to formulate advanced product enterprise standards and quality inspection standards, and to improve the general performance of rock drilling tools, these standards should be produced by international standards as much as possible.
Preparation of main technical documents for rock drilling tools
Before organizing production, it is necessary to prepare product drawings, product enterprise standards, product quality inspection standards, product production process regulations, mold needles, tooling fixtures, and testing and measuring tools specified in the production process. Production can only be organized when the technical documents are complete.
The Production Process of Rock Drilling Tools
Raw materials
The quality performance evaluation of rock drilling tools generally needs to consider wear resistance, corrosion resistance, and fatigue resistance. Therefore, the basic requirements of steel for rock drilling tools are high strength, high toughness, wear resistance, corrosion resistance, and high impact fatigue performance. The raw materials of rock drilling tools we choose generally include steel, cemented carbide for rock drilling, solder, etc.
Hot-working
Hot-working is a processing method that simultaneously produces plastic deformation and recrystallization of metal materials under conditions higher than the recrystallization temperature. Hot-working usually includes casting, forging, welding, heat treatment, and other processes.
Cold working
In metal technology, cold working refers to the process of plastic deformation of metal below the recrystallization temperature, such as cold rolling, cold drawing, cold forging, stamping, cold extrusion, etc. The cold working deformation resistance is large, So it can improve the hardness and strength of the products while forming.
Heat treatment
Heat treatment refers to a metal thermal processing process to obtain the expected structure and properties through heating, heat preservation, and cooling while the material is in a solid-state.
Anticorrosion
Anticorrosion is to take various means to protect metal objects that are easy to corrode and to extend their service life. Usually, chemical anticorrosion, physical anticorrosion, electrochemical anticorrosion, and other methods are used.
Strengthening and other processes
The scientific rigor of the production process of rock drilling tools directly determines its quality. From what we mentioned above about the wide variety of rock drilling tools, it can be seen that rock drill bits and rods are the most common products in daily operations, so let’s expand and share the production process of rock drill bits and drill rods.
The production process of rock drilling bit: raw steel blanking – forging forming – machining – heat treatment – machining – cemented carbide insert.
The production process of rock drilling bit: raw steel blanking – forging forming – machining – heat treatment – machining – cemented carbide insert.
At present, there are two main types of drill rod materials, one is the drill rod material without carburizing treatment, only heat treatment, such as 55SiMnMo, etc.; One is the need for carburizing treatment, the selected material is generally carburizing carbon steel, typical of 27SiMnNi2CrMo(FF710), (18~23)CrNi3Mo, etc. Another is for heave drill rods: hollow bar stock – blanking – machining – carburizing – heat treatment.
Therefore, to meet the market demand, there are some companies specializing in the production of drill bits and drill tools, such as Sandvik, AtlasCopco, etc.
Quality inspection and factory delivery
In the final stage of the production process for rock drilling tools, manufacturers perform stringent quality testing and factory inspections to ensure product reliability and performance. Quality inspection primarily includes appearance checks, dimensional measurements, hardness tests, wear resistance tests, and other assessments to ensure the product meets relevant standards and requirements.
Factory inspection is a comprehensive evaluation of the product to ensure its performance and reliability in actual use. Only rock drilling tools that have passed stringent quality inspection and factory inspection can be sold and put into actual use.
Package
To facilitate transportation and sales, manufacturers will package and label the products as the final step. Common packaging forms include carton packaging, wooden box packaging, pallet packaging, etc.
Environmental protection and sustainable development
With the continuous improvement of environmental awareness, rock drilling tool manufacturers are paying more and more attention to environmental protection and sustainable development. During the production process, manufacturers will adopt low-energy consumption and low-emission production processes and equipment to reduce energy consumption and waste emissions. At the same time, manufacturers will also actively promote green products and environmental protection concepts to provide customers with more environmentally friendly and efficient products and services.
Development of rock drilling tool industry
After years of development, the rock drilling tool industry has made great achievements, but the other brands in the market are still far greater than the dominant brands, which has caused these brands to have the same service life as the international ones in terms of the service life of rock drilling tools. There is still a gap between the dominant brands. However, with the growth of people’s demand for rock drilling tools, most companies will inevitably conduct research and innovation on different demand points to continue to meet the market. In addition to the research in the production process of rock drilling tools, rock drilling tool manufacturers need to continuously and timely pay attention to market changes, pay attention to changes in geotechnical construction technology, blasting technology, and rock drilling machinery. The construction plan provides users with competitive and differentiated products. In this process, enterprises must have innovative thinking. Only in this way can they stand out in the fierce market competition.
Conclusion
The production process of rock drilling tools is complex and meticulous, requiring stringent quality and performance control at each stage. Adopting advanced production processes can produce high-quality and high-performance rock drilling tools, which can provide high-quality tools to support mining, tunneling, and geological exploration industries.
In the future, with ongoing technological advancements and market development, rock drilling tool manufacturers will remain dedicated to enhancing product quality and performance, thereby promoting the industry’s sustainable development. Simultaneously, we look forward to the adoption of more innovative technologies and advanced processes to shape a brighter future for the rock drilling tool industry.
