Take a breather with Herrenknecht’s ventilation shaft boring machine

For fast underground construction of slot holes with small diameters within highway tunnels, Herrenknecht is highlighting its Boxhole Boring Machine. The BBM is for slot holes, or boreholes, such as ventilation shafts, either inclined or vertical, with diameters of up to 1.5m and lengths of up to 60m. The machines are designed for stable rock with compressive strengths of 180 Megapascal or more. Herrenknecht, based in Schwanau, southwest Germany, uses pipe jacking technology for its BBM. A drilling un
February 10, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
For fast underground construction of slot holes with small diameters within highway tunnels, 2592 Herrenknecht is highlighting its Boxhole Boring Machine.

The BBM is for slot holes, or boreholes, such as ventilation shafts, either inclined or vertical, with diameters of up to 1.5m and lengths of up to 60m. The machines are designed for stable rock with compressive strengths of 180 Megapascal or more.

Herrenknecht, based in Schwanau, southwest Germany, uses pipe jacking technology for its BBM. A drilling unit at the head of the pipe string is pressed forward from the launch point. Further jacking pipes are installed one after the other in the pipe string and pushed forward, thus lengthening the jacking route.

A cutterhead excavates the rock at the tunnel face, which then falls through the centre of the rig due to the force of gravity. Removed material exits through a muck chute running inside down the length of the jacking pipes. After each jacking stroke, the drilling process is stopped briefly to secure the pipe string and the drilling unit. Then the next jacking pipe can be installed at the bottom of the pip string in the jacking frame.
 
When the desired drilling length is reached, the drilling unit is retracted and jacking pipes are removed one by one until the complete pipe string is dismantled. The drilling unit is retracted back into the jacking frame and a crawler unit can easily move the unit to the next job.

All videos

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Driving ahead with tunnelling developments
    June 13, 2012
    New technologies are coming to market with regard to driving and supporting tunnels, with drilling and blasting and accompanying shotcreating technologies being widely used worldwide. Drilling and blasting can be a cost-effective method in the right conditions and in this segment Atlas Copco and Sandvik hold major market shares worldwide, although other firms such as Furukawa and Montabert also compete. Shotcreting equipment is widely used following after drilling and blasting, with CIFA broadening its rang
    Read More
  • Norway’s record breaking undersea road tunnel
    February 25, 2015
    The world's deepest road tunnel is currently in construction near Stavanger in Norway but is only the prelude to even larger projects - report and photographs by Adrian Greeman. Norway's convoluted coastline of fjords and high mountains is famously scenic but also a major problem for transport and connections. The country has long experience of constructing tunnels as a result. Now a series of tunnels underway, or in design, around the oil industry city of Stavanger will stretch its skills more than usual.
    Read More
  • Tampere road tunnel - a strategic link for central Finland
    April 4, 2016
    Progress has been good for an important underground road link in Finland reports Adrian Greeman. Assuming all goes well, the new Ranta, or Lakeside, tunnel in Tampere will open in full six months early; traffic could be running by the end of this year. Work on transforming the rundown city centre with new developments will get a major boost. It is a major achievement on a four-year-long project bringing significant benefits to one of Finland's largest cities. From the government's point of view the scheme w
    Read More
  • Major Necaxa-Tihuatlan Highway project for Mexico
    October 1, 2014
    A new highway in Mexico is connecting Necaxa with Tihuatlan and the project features challenging terrain - Mauro Nogarin reports In Mexico a landmark highway project is now close to completion, having set a number of records for Latin America.
    Read More

Highlighted Content