TERRAROC: Minimising Downtime to Maximise Profit and Productivity

Commencing in 2019 as an independent company, TerraRoc was born from the divestment by Swedish manufacturer of mining and infrastructure equipment Epiroc’s geotechnical drilling consumables division. “With a staff of highly skilled experts, we bring with us a range of industry experience from Atlas Copco and Epiroc,” the company shares, with the former another Swedish multinational, this one a world-leading provider of sustainable productivity solutions.

Becoming self-reliant and autonomous is never without its challenges, rife with opportunity and excitement as it may be, but in this particular instance the timing of TerraRoc’s gaining independence was, to say the least, plainly not the most straightforward, confirms Product Line Manager Daniel Björk. “While we had a lot of ongoing business, initially times were incredibly challenging,” he relates. “Things were looking fairly promising until lockdown dawned, and we lost a lot of countries from our prospective business.

“We were able to pull through without a single redundancy, or even placing anyone on furlough. We managed to stay afloat and are now back stronger than ever to targeting really ambitious budgets with very exciting times ahead.”

BEST-IN-CLASS BITS AND TOOLS

Three manufacturing facilities in Tampere, Finland, Grangemouth in Scotland and Roanoke, Virginia in the US, in addition to a supply chain that spans the globe, combine to allow TerraRoc to minimise clients’ downtime and react promptly to their needs around the world. “From specialising in casing advancement systems, down-the-hole hammers and core drilling, TerraRoc’s strong R&D, thorough planning and exacting quality control enable us to deliver a full range of drilling tools and consumables,” the company sums up.

“Our products and services are customised for each specific client’s needs and with some of the industry’s most robust R&D talent, TerraRoc is always on the lookout for new customer challenges.”

Constructed by Ingersoll-Rand in 1968 to produce air hoists and winches for its power tool division, and later serving as an engineering, marketing and distribution centre, when TerraRoc was founded as an independent company in 2019 the pioneering Roanoke facility continued to operate as an assembly, service, distribution and engineering centre of a litany of bits and tools for oil and gas drilling.

The middle child of TerraRoc’s trio of manufacturing sites in Grangemouth, UK was originally founded in 1986 as H&F Drilling Supplies, where the specialism lay in casing and piling applications and supplying all components in the drill string. In 2010 H&F Drilling Supplies was acquired by Atlas Copco, eventually becoming an integral part of the newly-founded TerraRoc in 2019.

“The facility has a particularly deep knowledge of core drilling tools and application setups for large drilling tools,” Björk comments of the centre which operates as the primary warehouse for Terracore drilling tools and large DTH drilling tools for the whole world, aside from North America. “In addition, due to its global responsibilities, the Grangemouth facility has the required competence in all the TerraRoc products across the board to support all sales teams.”

Welcomed into the TerraRoc armoury in 2019, situated in Tampere, Finland, its third and youngest site was originally founded as Rotex Oy in 1990 by three brothers Jorma, Vesa, and Kimmo Järvelä, with the company, following rapid growth, bought by Atlas Copco in 2004, becoming Oy Atlas Copco Rotex Ab. “Its specialty is still casing advancement systems,” outlines Björk. “Geotechnical equipment is delivered from Tampere to everywhere in world, particularly to the Nordic Countries but also to the likes of the Americas.” 

Casing advancement systems are the preferred method today for drilling in difficult ground conditions, minimising the hole collapsing risk and enabling contractors to perform their work more quickly and with higher quality. The system adds value whether the mission is to install foundation, support elements or simply case the hole in collapsing formation. “We have a long tradition of supplying geotechnical engineers with a wide range of equipment and services,” Björk says.

“Our product offer consists of rigs, grouting solutions, site investigation tools, DTH hammers and a full range of high performance casing advancement systems, all designed to minimise downtime and to maximise productivity and profitability. The casing advancement systems from TerraRoc offer a spectrum of solutions to meet any project demands in the most efficient way.”

MODEL D REVOLUTION

“With TerraRoc we enable clients to drill safely and with great precision in all ground conditions, with drills that last up to 25% longer than our competitors,” adds Björk.

These world-class manufacturing facilities embody a characteristic underpinning everything at TerraRoc; they have been repurposed, upgraded but ultimately still avail of every last drop of the experience and wisdom carefully built up during their heritage. “We are a new company of experienced professionals,” Björk states, and this melding of hard-won experience with the best in innovation has helped TerraRoc to the top of the industry in such a short space of time.

“We are on the brink of releasing products which are going to revolutionise mining, and one in particular that takes care of arguably its most problematic area,” Björk enthuses, referring to the quandaries that frequently occur in mines, quarries, and blast sites whereby drilled blast holes are susceptible to collapsing. In many cases, these holes cannot be used for blasting, resulting in such serious issues as leaving overly large blast stones which must be re-drilled and blasted again. 

“This is an area in which we have never been involved, and for which in fact there has never been a product available,” he continues, “and we see a massive opportunity for us to make a difference. It is a problem that most quarries experience at some juncture, some more than others, and now that we have done all our tests and business has started to boom we are looking to take on board more clients with what we are calling our Model D innovation.” 

Using casings in these most problematic areas would normally solve the issue; use of steel casings, however, is precluded as a high amount of steel is not permitted among the blast stones due to the crushers. TerraRoc’s latest development has solved this problem entirely, interjects Björk. “By using plastic casings in these highly fractured areas it is possible to support the holes and prevent them from collapsing providing a significant time-saving.

“Plastic casings do not harm the crushers and thus can be used without issues, while application can be achieved with almost any drill rig with some minor adjustments.”

Consistent with the overarching TerraRoc philosophy, it is geared toward minimising downtime and disruption in quarries, Björk finishes by clarifying. “The vast majority of challenges associated with quarries and open-pit mines can be attributed to drilling. The difference between a problem-free drill hole and one which is problematic can be massively impactful to operations and costs.

“The knock-on effects can then impact the entire process after completion of the drilling, in increasing the required number of operations, entailing delays and extended lead times as well as drill rig availability and total cost. Essentially, if the drilling goes smoothly, then several steps thereafter also follow suit. If there is a problem in the drilling, so many things can then come with that to hinder the whole project.”

The challenges faced are mirrored all over the world, Björk reveals, with TerraRoc Model D now set to help overcome even the most serious. “In the worst cases Model D will be able to help reduce these problems, and in the best case, eliminate them entirely, as they are so centralised to the top layer of the rock” he enthuses.

“We can thus help our clients to drill more efficiently, minimise time-consuming challenges, improve drill rig availability and keep to planned schedules and time frames, benefits which have been observed and enjoyed in every query that has employed Model D to date.”