Our Equipment

Knebel HY-97-T-BR

Registered 2008

Truck-mounted rig on a 6 x6 Renault Kerax 400 truck. Environmentally friendly emissions.Electro/hydraulic top head drive Rig 900 cfm / 350 psi compressor towed separately. A truly multi-functional Drill Rig.

     

Drilling equipment is designed for drilling to a depth of more than 300m with reverse, air, mud circulation or DTH hammer drilling. The rig is driven by its own 500 BHP prime mover. It is fully equipped with the Knebel Break-O-Matic system. The drill mast is a portal construction allowing the operator full access to the flat and the vertical drilling line. The drilling tools are located on the flat of the Rig and a handling winch is mounted on a hydraulically operated jib boom with capacity to swing 360o continuously around and above the mast and lift up 90o from the guide mast directly over the pipe rack. The drive head can be swivelled backwards and forwards. With the crane, we are able to quickly and efficiently pick up a new drill rod and carry on drilling. The drive head does not screw into the drill rod but grabs the top of the rod with tungsten carbide teeth in a powerful clamp.The Knebel rig is hydraulic and all the operations of the rig can be controlled by an electronic control table that is connected to the machine by a long cable. This 'fly-by-wire' arrangements means that the driller is not tied to a footplate operating mechanical levers, but can move to a safe and appropriate position around or on top of the rig. This means that the driller can move around the rig to get the best view of the work and isn't tied to one limited perspective. The long trailer allows us to store 500 feet of drill rods on the rig.

Another important special feature of the Rig are the hydraulic casing clamps beneath the drill table. These clamps can accommodate casing from 5 inch to 18" inch diameter. The special inserts in the clamps have tungsten carbide teeth that can hold casing firmly. But in addition the clamps can be moved up and down on powerful hydraulic rams. These clamps can therefore be used to drive casing down at the same time as drilling is taking place. This is very useful when drilling through, for example coarse gravel and boulder beds forming a transition zone at the base of the overburden. The clamps can also be used to pull back steel casing to expose an inner screen section to the aquifer, ie if Client decides to develop a shallow gravel aquifer source, or to completely remove casing once it has served its purpose, eg following successful trial drilling and in advance of reaming trial well to production well.

The casing clamps allow the driller and the hydrogeologist to precisely position or adjust or remove casing. The casing clamps give us a measure of control that is not available on most rigs in the country. These casing clamps have proven to be such a valuable innovation that we have retro-fitted Danish clamps with our specification to our other American truck-mounted Reichdrill Rig T-650-W. All drilling operations are electrically operated from a cable remote control panel. The electrical system provides full control during making and breaking the threads joints on the drill string. The rig is equipped with an emergency shut down system which shuts down the entire power supply.

Drill Rig No. 2; Knebel, HY 76-BRS

Briody Well Drilling LTD., Water Well Drilling Specialists with over 40 years experience, has recently invested in a 2015 Knebel, HY 76-BRS Drill Rig designed to complement the Company's larger Knebel Drill Rig; HY 97-BRS.

The HY 76-BRS drill rig has several innovative features that make it ideal for use in Ireland's unique drilling landscape. With fast drill head rotation speed coupled with torque forces of 17kN and multi drilling systems capability, this drill rig is more than capable of handling challenging drilling formation from massive limestones to weathered unstable collapsing formation.

The drill rig is mounted on a tri axle, all wheel drive, rigid truck; Mercedes Actros 500hp truck. The Rig was designed to offer a short wheel base(circa 2mtrs shorter than a conventional Drill Rig) and reduce the weight load to minimize access requirements and foot print requirements on sites. The compressor is trailer mounted and towed to site by the Drill Rig Truck. So the Rig is not burdened with the weight of the Compressor and offers options in a confined site to set the compressor up away from the Rig and run an airline from the compressor to the Rig.The Mercedes truck runs on the latest generation of Euro 6 engines, meeting and surpassing all noise and emission standards for work vehicles in Europe.

The Knebel rig is designed around an Electro-Hydraulic system allowing the operator to control all aspects of the rig from a takeaway control panel....the Operator will operate the Rig up to 4 to 6 mtrs away from the Rig. This offers a safer work environment and a more commanding view of drilling works in progress . The rod lifting arm paired with the tilting rod deck is a vast improvement over the cumbersome carousel and trough system and equates to faster connections when drilling down or "tripping" out of a borehole.

The rig is also equipped with a 180°, swan neck crane mounted on the top of the drill mast which offers increased versatility in confined sites, reduces lifting requirements for the Operative and in general contributes to a safer working site.

Multiple drilling methods are possible with this rig,( direct circulation, down hole hammer and symmetrix drilling systems). It has a dedicated symmetrix drilling feature including built in dust deflector rams mounted on the drill head that makes safe and speedy work of the laborious and dangerous task of working at height placing the top diverter over the symmetrix casing.

This new addition to our Drilling suite enables Briody Well Drilling Ltd to offer a most comprehensive, modern and reliable Drill Rig (large or mid-size) to suit the anticipated drilling formation at your well location, to achieve the desired well finished specification and to minimize disruption to your site.

Cement Grouting of Production Well

Another factor in our competence to carry out this project is our skill and experience in cement grouting. We realised in the 1980's that shallow and potentially pollutedgroundwater and surface water could make its way into a well down the gap or annulus around the upper casing. We realised that the lack of a seal filling this annulus meant that most of the boreholes in the country were, in effect, open to pollution. Most clients did not think that sealing the casing into the ground was important and therefore it was not until 1992 that we started to gain experience in cement grouting. Since then we have had our own grout plant for injecting neat cement grout or bentonite cement under pressure through tremie pipes to the base of the annular space around the casing. Pressure grouting the annulus from the bottom upwards means that as the cement grout flows up the annulus, it flows into all the irregularities, fractures and cavities in the rock and overburden linked to the annulus. We do not cease injecting the grout until neat grout has flowed out of the annulus at the surface. The casing is therefore completely sealed into the overburden and bedrock, and only water from the producing section below the casing and grout seal can enter the borehole.See picture folder attached.

We think that we were the first firm of drillers in the country to offer this technique for the proper completion of production wells, and we believe that we are probably the most experienced. We have carried out many difficult and complex cement grouting tasks successfully. Our grouting plant enables us to pump high specific gravity and viscous grout mixes, such as those containing calcium chloride accelerators. We generally grout by tremie pipe injection at a prescribed depth below bedrock at annulus to the uPVC/stainless steel casing casing and return grout to surface in one continuous operation. A cement basket OR formation stabiliser would be necessary to support the column of grout. Our commitment to proper construction and cement grout sealing of production boreholes is evident in our long term membership and active participation in the sub committee that produced the joint EPA-IGI Guidelines for the construction of Water Wells. These guidelines recommend the design and proper completion of water supply boreholes that we have been following for over 20 years.

Additional ancillary equipment to offer the wide range of drilling works undertaken by the Company include;

• 4x4 New Holland Digger 
• Surface Pump (6" High Flow Q Pump) 
• 273 Symmetrix Drilling system,drilling OD @300mm 
• Chem grout- mini grouter 
• Marooka all terrain rubber tracked flat trailer service vehicle with mounted Hiab loader 
• Air Package comprising an Atlas Copco 1050cfm/350psi .In addition we plumb a second trailer mounted Air Compressor Sullair comprerssor with Caterpillar engine 950cfm/350psi when drilling conditions necessitate a combined air package.