Company History

COMPANY HISTORY

Since the inception of Horizontal Directional Drilling in the 70’s there have been amazing advances in technology and equipment.  The equipment in the early 80’s was basic and not designed specifically for Horizontal Directional Drilling and not particularly reliable.

However, in the late 80’s things changed rapidly.  Major manufactures who had previously concentrated on the offshore drilling industry realised there was an untapped new market for Rigs, Drill pipe, down hole equipment and started to produce equipment only for Horizontal Directional Drilling.  This lead to bigger, better Rigs, Pull loads up to 400 ton, high torque capability, large diameter drill pipe and hole opening equipment, specially designed for the Horizontal Directional Drilling system.

This changed the face of Horizontal Directional Drilling, whereas in the early 90’s a small diameter 1,000m drilled crossing was a considerable achievement, it now palls into relative insignificance.

Drilled pipe diameters increased quickly; 48”, 54” and 60” have become the norm.

Rock was always a problem in the early days, but with the advent of well engineered and manufactured bits and rock equipment drilled rock strengths of 400 MPA are now achieved and whereas 1,000m was considered pushing technological limits now lengths in excess of 4,000m are being achieved.

Previously, Horizontal Directional Drilling was restricted to river/road crossings, now it is routinely used in Outfalls, Landfalls, Soil stabilization, shipwreck removal, renewable energy and many other areas totally unthought-of of 20 years ago.

Technology has produced more accurate steering methods and most recently the ability to drill with two Rigs and where each drill meets this is now referred to as the Intercept method and allows far greater lengths in poor ground conditions to be drilled successfully.