Necessity is the mother of invention.” This popular maxim has proven true in the drilling industry year after year. Advances in drilling technology have greatly contributed to safer, innovative, more user friendly equipment. This is not to say that merely using the latest, most costly equipment will achieve the best drill speeds. For example, even the finest augers can be rendered useless if the rig is not equipped with enough torque to turn them. And vice versa, even the most capable rig will have great difficulty drilling augers into hard rock.
The same goes for DTH hammer drilling, mud drilling, sonic drilling, water-hammer drilling and many other methods — each has its appropriate applications. Therefore, matching sub-surface conditions and your drilling application to your rig’s power specs and tooling remains the most important principle to achieving optimal penetration rates. Thanks to advances in drilling technology, many rigs utilize a variety of drilling systems, meaning that the most efficient method can always be employed.