Alternative Drill String Handling System for a Mobile Raise Boring Machine

Sammanfattning: The work presented is a master’s thesis at the track Machine Design at KTH Royal Institute ofTechnology. The project was commissioned by Epiroc AB through Svea Teknik AB. Epiroc’s Easer L is a highly versatile and flexible mobile raise boring machine used to drill opening holes and media holes. A drill string handling system is used to construct and deconstruct the drill string during a raise. Currently, the Easer utilizes a lifting arm to move the drill string components between a pipe rack and the derrick. A pipe loader, which is a second arm mounted on the derrick, is used to align the components with the drill string. This work aims to examinethe possibility to replace this system with a more compact and preferably automatable solution. The work had its main focus on a concept generation and evaluation process, where a wide range of possible means of handling the drill string handling system’s sub functions were methodically mapped in function means trees. Several concepts were synthesized using a morphological method and brain storming in a diverging process and their variants were explored and mapped. An iterative screening process utilizing a Pugh Matrix and GATEs converged the ideas until a final concept selection was performed. The resulting conceptual drill string handling system consist of a new crane and gripper solution and a new pipe loader, all modified to lift pipes horizontally instead of vertically. The pipe racks were modified to enable better interaction with the gripper module, even if racks are inclined. A sliding mechanism was integrated in the crane mounting bracket to eliminate the need for remounting the crane, reducing down times. The resulting conceptual drill string handling solves many of the challenges of the existing system and increases the flexibility, automation and productivity of the Easer L.