TEI Rock Drills hosted its 2012 Open House in Montrose, Colo., from Oct. 9-11 with about 45 attendees from Australia, South Korea, the Cayman Islands, Mexico, Canada and the United States.

The two-and-a-half day event is open to anyone wanting to learn more about the TEI facility and the company’s new technologies and techniques, as well as visit with their fellow contractors.  The event opened with a reception at the hotel, where attendees had the opportunity to meet each other and TEI employees.

The second and third days of the open house were filled with presentations in the mornings, and drilling and demonstrations after lunch. This year’s presentations included an overview of the different types of drilling rigs TEI has made during the last 15 years for the U.S. military. The presentation showed the evolution of remote controls on these machines, as well as the different uses for the military drill rigs. TEI engineer Glenn Patterson discussed burying nuclear weapons in Kazakhstan, probing for tunnels on the Gaza Strip and the U.S./Mexican border, patented bits used by our special forces for bunker busting and road building in Afghanistan.

Earth Contact Products (ECP) gave a presentation on the use of the MP260 drill with the ECP foundation bracket. The combination of the drill and the foundation-lifting bracket provide an alternative solution for foundation repairs. After the presentation, attendees witnessed a simulation of a building being lifted using these components.

Afternoons at the open house were spent watching, operating, testing and discussing all of the equipment available. Guests could operate a TEI excavator drill and the new DrillAll 50, which is a self-contained mini-jumbo that is completely remote controlled. The small coring rig MP250 was set up to take core samples, which many of the attendees said they had never seen before. And inside the warehouse, TEI’s resident drill doctor assembled a TE260 drifter so that people could see what goes on inside these powerful little units.

Following the demonstrations, attendees traveled to a local job site to see some real-time work. But the open house was not only about work. On Wednesday night, a Mexican fiesta was held at the hotel, and on Thursday, guests went to an old 1880s saloon for some prime rib and dancing.

“The TEI Open House is a great experience for all attendees that make the trek to Montrose, Colo.,” said Joe Patterson, vice president of TEI Rock Drills. “You will make many new acquaintances and get to say hello to some old friends. The combination of the classroom, field and social events is an excellent way to get people together and learn. TEI has always had a policy of putting our people first. This desire to make people the most important part of our business is what makes the annual TEI Open House the greatest event of our year.”