COVER STORY AutoDrill 2 was designed for use in Atlas Copco’s Pit Viper drills Automated drilling It just got BETTER Having successfully deployed hundreds of automated Pit Viper blast hole drilling rigs into the mining sector over almost a decade, Atlas Copco Drilling Solutions has taken its original AutoDrill system technology ‘up a notch’ and introduced AutoDrill 2 – a next generation auto drilling system designed to contribute, enhance drilling and boost production efficiency, writes LAURA CORNISH. E ven though the sub- Saharan African mining industry has been relatively slow in embracing technology and automated blast hole drilling techniques, those that are successfully deploying technology have benefited from improved productivity and high level performance from their drilling fleets. “This has an enormous and positive impact on the entire mining process,” points out Heino Hammann, regional business line manager for Atlas Copco Drilling Solutions, South Africa. “The results are better planning and higher quality blasts, resulting in upstream and downstream value.” 34 MINING REVIEW AFRICA | Prior to the launch of AutoDrill 2, Atlas Copco Drilling Solutions’ automated system technologies encompassed optional HPGPS capabilities (pre-planned holes location to improve hole accuracy and reduce setup time), AutoLevel (reduce setup time level at each hole with a touch of a button) and AutoDrill 1 (auto drilling capability to complete the “ hole with a touch of a button). These are all retrofit-able to Atlas Copco’s in-house developed Rig Control System (RCS). The results from the machines can also be best monitored through Surface Manager. Surface Manager is designed to display important Pit Viper (an Atlas Copco flagship drill) data in an easy In simple terms, AutoDrill 2 can be seen and compared to adaptive cruise control of the drilling world to employ benefits of artificial intelligence,” Heino Hammann FEBRUARY 2017