Sonic Drilling

Click the icon to play a short video about Sonic Drilling.

Fast Sampling & Installing -No flush - No mess -No waste disposal
Working Height 3.8m
Machine Length 5.5m
 Width 2.3m
  

Our sonic unit can be removed from its tracks to be used on different bases to suit you

Tor drilling have purchased a Compact Sonic drilling unit to enable us to continue to offer our clients all types of drilling methods available today, the Sonic sampling system will now plug a gap that existed within our services and will allow our clients to retrieve high quality samples of soft formations to greater depths than we have been able to achieve in the past.
Method

Sonic uses high frequency vibration (50-180 hz) which causes liquefaction of the material, up to 0.5 mm-1mm around the drill string allowing it to pass quickly through any soft formation to great depths and retrieve exceptional samples, which can be pumped out into plastic bagging or a sample tray for sampling.
Versatility

Tor drilling have researched the rigs available and decided on a compact sonic unit with its own power pack, this allows us to use our sonic capability anywhere you need it, whatever the ground conditions or access the unit can be supplied on a unit to suit your requirements.
(Tracks /Tyres/Loadall/Pontoon/Tractor) some pictures are shown below.
Materials

Sonic drilling is perfectly suited to those materials that cause difficulty to window samplers and rotary and is therefore a natural step to take when offering our clients a full range of drilling services, the unit can sample at a very high quality in sand/gravel/silt/peat/putty chalk/ and any formation that is soft or unstable.
Sampling

Using the unique aqua lock system the rig can sample continuously in 2m runs in unstable materials without the need for casing, it then returns to the next sample depth by displacing any collapsed soil, once the next sample depth is reached the aqua lock valve is released, allowing the water to travel up the rods, therefore allowing sample recovery as the barrel is driven in the next two metres, the valve is then closed causing a vacuum to retain the sample.
Uses

  • The unit can sample sands/gravels/alluvium/soft clays and chalk up to and over 30m
  • Environmental Sampling
  • Geotechnical investigations
  • Deep sampling in soft or glacial material sometimes up to 50m
  • Plume investigations tracking the extent of contamination on any site and mapping it for treatment
  • Target sampling looking at specific contamination layers
  • Monitor well installations using standard 50 mm or pre pack systems and multi level monitoring
  • Sysmic charge installations for mineral investigations
  • Sediment sampling working anywhere where sediment is found including on pontoons
  • De-watering installations for fast installation of multiple wells
Installations

Once sampling has been completed to the required depth, casing can be drilled in very quickly in GP63 GP88 or GP 100 to allow either 50 mm or prepacked 32 mm wells to be installed, a 15 m installation using pre-pack would take around 30 minutes (depending on the geology type).
Prepacked

Prepacked 32 mm well installation are simple and perfect for sonic, the well screen comes with gravel pack and benonite attached to the well pipe, these pipes are simply screwed together using 1m, 2 m or 3 m sections and lowered down the sonic casing to the base of hole, they are then soaked with water in the casing before any casing is retracted, this means that seals and gravel packs are exactly where they should be in the hole. The system can also be used with multi level monitoring points.

Photos

Click on a thumbnail image on the right side below to view an enlarged image