National Driller’s Top 5 Products of the Week 2016

Here at National Driller, we pick 52 lucky products of the week each year. Those products range from hand tools to massive drilling rigs, but they all have one thing in common: readers show them love in the form of clicks. Hundreds of clicks.

We count down the top five each December based on page views since the previous December. Miss one? Just want to see what everyone else is clicking on? Read on, and join us in congratulating the companies that made this year’s cut.

(Oh, and if you want to catch up on the 2015 edition, click here.)

5. Center Rock ROTO LOC

ROTO LOC is an under reamer system for casing advancement, developed by Center Rock Inc. With wings that lock in place and are easily retractable, ROTO LOC is able to drill straight, full-diameter holes through any formation, including pinnacle limestone and karst. Straight holes into the formations eliminate bent or broken casing. Positive locking wings can be used to hold or pull casing back. In addition, its rotary lockout feature ensures a full-size hole for greatly reducing casing friction. ROTO LOC saves drillers money because there are no expensive starter casing J-teeth or ring bits needed. For more information, visit Center Rock's website.

4. Watson ExcaDrill

The unique design of the Watson ExcaDrill permits site access advantages otherwise unattainable with conventional construction drilling equipment. Watson says ExcaDrill owners have commented on it being one of the most popular drills in their fleet for situational drilling conditions including low overhead clearance, mobility, drilling on gradient slope conditions, drilling on variable elevations, reaching over barriers or around obstacles. Features larger tool clearance and minimal ground disturbance. For more information, visit the Watson website.

3. Diedrich Drill D-50

The Diedrich Drill D-50 is an all-purpose drilling rig for environmental and geotechnical drillers to use for soil and rock explorations using augers, rotary tools or core drilling tools. The drill frame is a weldment, constructed of heavy wall rectangular steel tubing, with sufficient strength and rigidity for heavy duty use. It features 9,100 foot-pounds of spindle torque and the basic D-50 Magnum unit is powered by a 4-cylinder diesel or a 4-cylinder turbo charged diesel engine.  Electric starting and engine instruments are standard. Other engine options are available. For details, visit the Diedrich website.

2. Liebherr LRB 355

Liebherr’s piling and drilling rig LRB 355 has a robust undercarriage with the long tracks that guarantee a high level of stability. It is available with a maximum height of 33.5 meters. Thanks to the parallel kinematics, the piling and drilling rig has a large operating area. It is driven by a powerful, fuel efficient V12 diesel engine offering 600 kW. The rig can be transported with the leader, multi sledge and rope still attached to the machine. In order to minimize the transportation length, the leader can be folded. The LRB 355 has been especially designed for drilling with full displacement tool. The rig can, however, be used for a great number of different applications including drilling with Kelly equipment, double rotary head and continuous flight auger, soil mixing as well as piling jobs with vibrator and hydraulic hammer. For more information, visit the Liebherr website.

1. Laibe Corp. Mud Manager

The Mud Manager by Laibe Corp. is a compact solids control system engineered to operate off the hydraulics of the drilling rig unit all while maintaining a light, compact design that can fold up behind the drilling rig for transportation down the road. It includes a mud mixer, shaker assembly, hydraulic quick disconnects, transport wheels for moving from borehole to borehole and jobsite to jobsite, a 450-gallon mud recycling pit, dual manually adjusted leveling jacks and a de-sanding cone. Find out more on the Laibe Corp. website.