At the beginning of the year DGMK project 733 "Development of alternative drive concepts for down-the-hole hammers in deep drilling" entered its third project phase. In the next three years the prototype for a hydraulic hammer drill is to be developed, manufactured, and tested. The development of the novel drill drive was already started during phase 2 of the project. The existing design is to be revised prior to production based on the experience with the electromagnetic hammer drill from last year.
The researchers around Prof. Dr.-Ing. Matthias Reich from the Institute for Drilling Engineering and Fluid Mining at the TU Bergakademie Freiberg expect that the prototype could be available for the first tests in spring 2020. Compared to the tests with the electromagnetic hammer drill carried out so far, the hydraulic hammer drill is also to be used in a borehole in hard rock.