Epiroc’s Pit Viper blasthole drill was a sport changer in mining when it comes to flexibility, energy, effectivity and security. The rig has now been out there for 25 years and stays the market chief. Not solely that, however for the previous 10 years, they’ve additionally been operating autonomously – in that decade the depth accuracy of the drilled holes has elevated by a median of 85%, resulting in greater than 8 million wasted overdrill metres being prevented. The spatial accuracy of the drilled holes has elevated by a median of 60%. Greater than 90 million metres have been drilled autonomously and the typical utilisation of a Pit Viper rig in autonomous mode is 17% larger than in guide mode. They’ve additionally had a giant environmental impression as round 85 million litres of gas have been saved, and CO2 emissions have been diminished by round 225,000 t. Autonomous Pit Viper rigs have additionally enhanced security by working unmanned, and with the Automated Bit Changer (ABC), security is additional elevated. Because the launch of the ABC in 2022, greater than 7,000 tricone bits have been changed mechanically. To mark this main milestone, IM Editorial Director Paul Moore talked in-depth to Vice President Advertising, Epiroc Floor division, Dustin Penn, who has been concerned with the Pit Viper since its inception.
Dustin Penn, Vice President Advertising, Epiroc Floor division
Q Are you able to give some background to the Pit Viper mission within the context of the marketplace for blasthole drill rig market on the time?
Again within the Ingersoll Rand days, so pre-2004, we didn’t have a lot of a presence within the massive open pit mines. We had some massive vary drills on the market just like the DMH, DM-M3 and DM-M2 plus the DM45 and DM50 for smaller gap sizes, however a number of the market was utilizing massive electrical P&H and Bucyrus drills. Our purpose was to get into the Minnesota Iron Vary and Arizona copper mines within the US after which after all into world markets like Chile and Peru copper. We had an skilled group made up of product managers, design engineers and repair engineers – so we got down to design the blasthole drill that the market wished however didn’t know they wanted – and despatched the workforce out to fulfill with clients to search out out precisely what they wished to see. And it was clear these older massive electrical fashions had a number of ache factors – after all you continue to wanted stay energy in the event you wished to maneuver the machine from bench to bench but in addition you needed to carry down the tower – and that included managing the rack rods plus bringing the pinnacle all the way down to the underside of the tower earlier than reducing the tower – it took a full shift simply to decrease the tower plus you wanted a cable crew to maneuver all of the cables round throughout the transfer as properly. So we designed the largest, strongest diesel single cross blasthole drill out there with the largest air compressor on the out there – it was a twin, Ingersoll Rand compressor producing 3,800 CFM. We mixed that with a robust Cummins QSK45 engine and massive, highly effective pumps plus an excavator fashion sturdy, heavy undercarriage. All this meant that it might tram lengthy distances at an excavator kind pace which was a step change for the business.
Q Had been there additionally challenges and hindrances?
In fact there have been challenges, as all the pieces was new. A serious problem was that we needed to provide you with a brand new management system, and we partnered with Aquila on the time, which went on to be acquired by Caterpillar – however we labored with them to construct a pc management system linked to excessive precision GPS. Given the brand new rig’s mobility, we had to have the ability to present a gap navigation answer with laptop on board and distributed management system. It was actually a brand new age for big drills. By the point the then Atlas Copco acquired Ingersoll Rand’s Drilling Options enterprise in 2004 we had constructed six Pit Viper PV351s and had additionally come out with the brand new PV270/PV271 which we launched at MINExpo 2004.
Q What impression did Atlas Copco coming on board have once they purchased Ingersoll Rand Drilling Options?
It was very important – first off they already had the Rig Management System (RCS) for his or her underground and floor crawler drills – which was already operating on over 900 machines in order that laptop system introduced a number of functionality and confidence in efficiency as that they had already labored out any bugs and had confirmed RCS out there. So making use of their {hardware} and software program, and naturally expertise of methods to our software. To offer you an concept of the progress we made in solely a matter of years – the primary rig that we gave to Morenci in early 2000 took us virtually a 12 months handy over to manufacturing. The primary Pit Viper PV270 that we gave to Freeport Safford was handed over in two weeks. And naturally Ingersoll Rand had not been dedicated to the drilling enterprise when it comes to new funding for a while – Atlas Copco, which later turned Epiroc, constructed on what we had achieved and continued funding into the product, which allowed us to rapidly repair among the points that we had had. In a wider sense, Atlas Copco wished to be a pacesetter within the mining business and in some ways it was their alternative to develop within the floor mining sector – and so they went on as Epiroc to develop into the blasthole drill market chief. Clearly, they already had a number of the expertise within the underground sector and floor quarrying sector, however not as a lot publicity to the actually massive open pit mines, each from the put in base and the components and companies facet. They have been in a position to develop the massive drill market so rapidly not simply due to the drill itself but in addition resulting from the truth that we had a number of protection all through the world with straight owned corporations and buyer centres with a number of branches. However Atlas Copco and later Epiroc additionally made a distinction with all of the concepts that got here from their manufacturing unit and operations groups on methods we might improve the variety of rigs that we have been producing in Garland. Plus, they concerned us intently and requested us what wouldn’t it take to extend the throughput then put in place the funding in issues like expanded bays, so we might construct extra of those these drills. One other change was that within the early days we needed to hire turbines to energy the electrical drills for testing which was was very costly. Beneath Atlas Copco we introduced extra energy into the power to permit us to check the massive electrical PV351s. We additionally added a number of new concrete house and plenty of gantry cranes as crane capability had been a significant bottleneck. Then we constructed a brand new meeting move line for the PV270/PV271. In order gross sales volumes elevated, we have been in a position to sustain. Plus we have been in a position to maintain supplying our DML and DM45 fashions that had been our massive quantity fashions as much as that time.
The acquisition by Atlas Copco – later to develop into Epiroc – had a big impact on the Pit Viper’s evolution and market progress
Q And what was the market impression like – how rapidly did the Pit Viper begin to embed with clients? The place there any stand out markets or moments?
It was not rapid, as there may be at all times mining business conservatism, however as soon as we have been in a position to run comparisons on efficiency with conventional massive electrical rigs operating facet by facet with the brand new Pit Viper, the impression was big. There have been quite a few examples the place we might drill the sample, decrease the tower down and tram to the following sample and begin drilling once more on that subsequent sample earlier than the opposite drill would both full its sample or be capable of decrease the tower. In lots of circumstances, the cable crew might solely work throughout the day, so we might do transfer the drill throughout the night time shift and it’d be up able to work on the following sample the following morning. And dealing intently with clients throughout actual drilling operations we additionally skilled a number of ways in which might acquire productiveness out of the Pit Viper, as when conventional mine planning would fall down, its flexibility supplied the efficiency. Our massive sport altering second I might say was rising together with the WA Pilbara iron ore market – as the key miners there have been doing their massive expansions and altering from contract mining to proprietor operator, we have been there with the Pit Viper – I used to be in Australia at that time and we put up over 100 rigs in in a really brief time frame – we did 45 in a single 12 months, which is a staggering variety of massive drills in a single commodity and one nation.
Q How did the autonomy facet of issues evolve and what would you say are among the massive achievements there?
At the moment, everybody was trying to autonomy’s potential in mining throughout the board. With the Atlas Copco funding we have been additionally in a position to leverage the expertise in automation that that they had and that labored for us – we didn’t wish to begin from scratch, so we took what had been very profitable underground with RCS to the floor and tailored it. Quite a lot of the core purposes, software program and code have been in a position to be reused. We demonstrated an early model of the total autonomous suite after MINExpo in 2008. We ran a number of trials at buyer websites together with Boliden Aitik in Sweden and Barrick Goldstrike within the US. These have been operating utilizing semi autonomous line of sight with teleoperation from a van or container– and this shaped the idea of the expertise that later advanced to full autonomy. It put in place the required constructions and robustness of the tools which allowed us to improve the RCS the place it turned a really good rig. And since it was constructed up from the bottom platform, as time has gone on it has meant we will supply a number of retrofit upgrades to drills even with 50,000 hours, bringing elevated efficiency by our new software program. Generally it has required each {hardware} and software program updates, however the buyer can get extra worth or elevated worth out of their current merchandise. What now we have achieved with autonomy is exceptional – we now have a whole bunch of totally autonomous drills after solely 10 years, having began with just a few rigs at BHP Yandi being monitored from their IROC in Perth over 1,000 kilometres away; and from the success of that it expanded throughout their fleet. We took the learnings from that and actually tried to scale our autonomy-related assets and competence throughout the all over the world, utilizing boot camps the place we’d carry individuals in for 2 weeks at a time and immerse them in our expertise – not solely the automation packages themselves but in addition demonstrating the worth of the information and find out how to utilise that knowledge, similar to translating it into quantifiable impacts that automation is having on the operation. Pit Viper drill autonomy has now been round for lengthy sufficient that among the early fleets that we put in are actually beginning to flip over and clients are coming again to the to Pit Vipers as a result of they’ve been very profitable to this point plus at present they can now improve their current drill or spend money on a brand new drill with our newest options and enhancements. We lifted the bar from an ordinary drill to an automatic drill to a full sample autonomous drill. Right this moment full autonomy is widespread – now we have greater than 35 websites working all over the world, all with a number of machines.
Right this moment many shoppers are going straight to full drill autonomy with Pit Vipers
Q What concerning the electrical model of the new Pit Viper – was that troublesome to develop and the way did it examine to conventional electrical drills? What concerning the effectivity of the drilling itself?
It was comparatively easy due to the modularity of the Pit Viper design. We modified the diesel engine to an electrical motor and removed the radiator for the engine and swapped the gas tanks for water tanks to have extra water capability. And even once we put these drills facet by facet with competitor drills, they outperformed these drills simply because the diesel model had, helped additionally by the cable feed system that we had developed. And to your different query, it is very important level out that we made a number of enhancements within the drilling efficiency as properly to the Pit Viper. By that I imply a constant pull down with the right amount of weight on the bit to have the carbides penetrate the rock on the on the acceptable stage. Plus the correct rotation torque on the pinnacle to permit it to spin itself to the following clear rock location together with getting the air proper to get the entire cuttings out of the outlet. So we have been maximising drilling time versus tramming or levelling. However we have been additionally drilling higher, so all of these issues mixed allowed each the diesel and the electrical model to be extra productive than what was already on the market. We additionally launched a sensible adaptive drilling algorithm for our Autodrill, that maximises productiveness primarily based on the rock circumstances but in addition guarantee the best high quality cleansing to make sure that holes arise for blasting.
Q How has the autonomy market modified when it comes to deployment? Plus how has Epiroc managed to maintain its excessive market share in each the Pit Vipers themselves and within the autonomous drilling house?
Initially, many shoppers began their journey with two or three drills, typically initially in teleremote. Quite a lot of working parameters wanted to be modified together with the mindset, similar to find out how to cordon and clear benches, and the way individuals can work together with autonomous machines. However the processes are actually so properly understood that many shoppers at present go straight to full autonomy on a number of models. And this basic change in understanding what autonomy entails has additionally helped improve the adoption price. In reply to your market share retention query, I feel an necessary level is that we’ve been in step with having a roadmap from the start that now we have caught to – and a vital a part of that was future proofing RCS alongside the way in which with new options and enhancements. This implies taking a really ahead wanting perspective when it comes to software program and a {hardware} perspective and making small increments or baseline adjustments that may have a long run impression. So its about agility mixed with flexibility, in addition to working intently with our clients on what they need and what they wish to see. Creating interfaces that permit the drills to be interoperable has additionally been necessary, together with understanding that the rig is on the entrance line when it comes to figuring out adjustments in rock circumstances after which transferring that knowledge and data to be used in areas like blasting and sampling. So the Pit Viper is a vital software within the interconnected mine. Whereas some opponents have adopted related options of their newest machines, we stay dedicated to working intently with our clients – a few of whom now we have partnered with for over 25 years – and proceed to spend money on new options to fulfill their evolving wants and maximise drill efficiency.
The introduction of the Automated Bit Changer was one other main step ahead
Q Taking a look at future powertrains, the place are issues going when it comes to battery or hybrid rigs – plus you’ve got already proven off cabless prototypes – do you see that having potential but?
As , cable-powered drills are already broadly used and have gotten extra widespread in metallic mines as they put in additional electrical infrastructure as clients look to cut back their Scope 1 emissions past simply the truck fleets. However on the similar time, a number of clients wanting electrical Pit Vipers aren’t essentially deploying them as a result of they need the identical productiveness ranges. The drill itself is simply as productive however operationally in massive drill patterns you continue to received’t get the identical numbers as diesel drills as a result of cable administration. Plus you aren’t at present going to get a a battery large enough to drill these massive diameter holes for an prolonged interval – for this reason battery use has to this point been targeted on lowering emissions whereas tramming on crawler rigs however retaining the diesel engine for drilling. So it’s nonetheless a balancing act. That mentioned hybrid energy options for Pit Vipers are actively being labored on – I can’t say greater than that. However a number of tasks which can be which can be on the roadmap are getting funding as a result of Epiroc is dedicated to sustainable mining – so it’s a massive focus for the corporate R&D spend. On the cab query, it’s form of a fall-back to nonetheless have a cab on the machine, however the majority of our clients with autonomous operations by no means or not often really put individuals within the within the cab. It was extra about if you wanted to swap out rods or change bits that you’ve got somebody within the cab on the joysticks. What it has achieved is take away the necessity for us to incorporate ROPS/FOPS cabs on autonomous drills which is a weight saving. As you say we did present a cabless Pit Viper at MINExpo – the PV-275 CA – again in 2016, so now virtually ten years in the past we have been forward of our time. So its one thing now we have accessible when clients wish to take that step. The introduction of the Automated Bit Changer on the Pit Viper creates a bigger alternative to take away the cabin as that may all now be achieved remotely from an workplace surroundings.
LinkOA for Drills integrates combined autonomous and non autonomous drill fleets, even of various manufacturers, right into a cohesive system
Q Is there extra integration now between the Pit Viper and different drill product strains and groups?
The 2 enterprise strains, which incorporates the Pit Vipers and SmartROC crawler drills just like the D65 are actually underneath one floor division and have been for a while. And sure, that has allowed us to share extra expertise and information in addition to develop a shared method to technique and product improvement. Prospects have additionally come to understand the advantages of each. We now have autonomous D65s working with Fortescue, for instance within the Pilbara. Within the US, at Luck Stone, we’re in a position to leverage all of the expertise that we’ve had with ten years of autonomous Pit Vipers to the D65 platform. It has develop into comparatively straightforward for operators or controllers of Pit Vipers to function the D65 thanks for our Widespread Automation Platform and a shared coaching method. And our progress going past drilling in automation – buying ASI Mining has introduced us the previous Mobius command and management platform, now referred to as LinkOA, which permits us to handle each autonomous haulage and autonomous drills by one interface. LinkOA for Drills integrates the drill fleet right into a cohesive system and can be designed to adapt to numerous mine setups, supporting compatibility with totally different autonomous tools – and that features different drill manufacturers. Its easy interface ensures ease of use for every day operations and long-term planning, whereas autonomous capabilities improve the precision and consistency of drilling duties.
