Originally a pile driving company, Hub Foundation Company of Harvard, Mass., first added wide-diameter bore drilling to its operations 23 years ago.
Most of the region’s ground conditions generally call for augers. Greg Maxwell, grandson of company founder Frank Maxwell, said Hub has always persevered through each hard rock socket, but they have continually sought easier, faster ways to drill out hard rock. The continuous tweaking of core barrels and rock augers to get as much production as possible had seemed to run its course and a new technology was needed. Maxwell said they had been studying the cluster drill offerings from a few manufacturers in particular for about five years, but the occasional hard rock job did not justify the significant investment required for a good cluster drill.