Two Types of Drilling Machines

Two Types of Drilling Machines

There are two basic types of machines used for air rotary drilling and air hammer drilling.

Essentially, these machines do the same thing:

1. Provide air for the drilling operation

2. Provide rotary power to turn the drill

All other equipment and accessories on the machine are used to assist in performing the two operations mentioned above. Air drills are usually mounted on trucks for ease of mobility, but can also be mounted on tracked vehicles for situations where the holes are very close together, such as drilling blast holes.

Figure 1 shows an example of a top drive air drill. These machines are available in both high pressure and low pressure models. The difference is the capacity of the compressor mounted on the machine.

Top drive machines get their name from the fact that rotary power is applied from the top of the drill pipe, giving it the rotary power it needs to drill. Most of these machines have a large engine driving a compressor that either uses air to provide the rotary power or a hydraulic pump driven by the same engine to provide hydraulic power to turn the rotary motor.