The application areas of down-the-hole drilling tools include geological exploration, open-pit mining, construction engineering excavation, water conservancy, and hydropower engineering, cement building materials mining and quarrying, transportation engineering construction, rock anchoring engineering, underground metal mining, and urban water supply, municipal, construction projects in transportation, environment, and other aspects. Compared with typical top-hammer rock drilling tools, down-the-hole drilling tools have a series of characteristics such as long drilling holes, large hole diameters, relatively high working efficiency, and wide application range. Therefore, as an equipment provider, down-the-hole drilling tool manufacturers play a crucial role.
Many down-the-hole drilling tool manufacturers are on the market, but the most famous are Atlas Copco and Sandvik, which mainly produce a variety of rock drilling tools. They have been committed to product research and development and are at the leading level in the industry.
Atlas Copco
Among the rock drilling tools produced by Atlas Copco, high-pressure down-the-hole drilling tools account for a large proportion. Therefore, the company has attached great importance to the research and development of down-the-hole drilling tools. It produces down-the-hole drilling tools in many models and types to meet the needs of different applications and working conditions. At the end of 2013, the company launched the COP66 down-the-hole drilling tool on the market. Compared with the company’s previous traditional down-the-hole tools, the COP66 has significant differences. Not only does it have a short length and is lightweight, but it also has no tail exhaust pipe, and the down-the-hole drill does not have a central flush hole. Therefore, the operation is simple, the efficiency is improved, and the service life is improved. Starting in 2017, Atlas Copco has four main business areas: compressor technology, vacuum technology, industrial technology, and power technology.
Sandvik
Sandvik, as a world-renowned manufacturer of rock drilling tools, has had a long-term relationship with Atlas Copco, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of rock drilling machinery. During the rapid development of rock drilling machinery and drilling tools from the 1950s to the 1980s, the drilling tools produced by Sandvik have been sold on the market in conjunction with the rock drilling machinery manufactured by Atlas. The cooperation between the two companies was discontinued in 1989 when Atlas acquired Secoroc, a Swedish company specializing in rock drilling tools, and form its own rock drilling tool manufacturing business. The following year, Sandvik acquired Tamrock in Tampere, Finland, to establish its own rock drilling and mining machinery manufacturing business, and the two former partners have since become competitors in the rock drilling machinery and drilling tool market today.
In rock drilling tool production, Sandvik holds specific advantages in the research, development, and manufacturing of top hammer drilling tools. On the other hand, Atlas Copco distinguishes itself with its characteristics in down-the-hole drilling tools and roller cone drilling tools. As the primary rock drilling tool manufacturers in the global market, Atlas Copco and Sandvik engage in continuous competition, consistently introducing new products to the market. The competition is especially fierce in the product areas of rock drilling tools for hydraulic rock drill jumbos and high-pressure down-the-hole drill jumbos, which are in high demand in the market.
Atlas Copco and Sandvik have been actively promoting the development of the construction industry with their professional, innovative, and high-quality products, which have won wide recognition and praise from customers. In the future, we still believe that they will continue to uphold the concept of professional innovation and service enhancement to provide even better products and services for global engineering construction.
