Crawler drills at work in Sardine quarries

In September Profetto, a construction and demolition company from Sicily-Modica in Italy, bought 2 new Furukawa hydraulic crawler drills to work in the quarries of Sardine. Since the drilling conditions vary, Profetto has bought two different models: a HCR 1000 and a HCR 1200. The HCR 1000 is working under extremely difficult conditions in a granite quarry near Palau and the HCR 1200 is working in a limestone quarry near Porto Torres. Profetto, already the proud owner of four Furukawa crawler drills is content with the durability and reliability of the machines and their value for money.

Sardine is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea (after Sicily) and a constitutional part of Italy. Several granite and limestone quarries operate on the island. In September Profetto, a construction and demolition company from Sicily-Modica in the south of Italy, bought 2 new Furukawa hydraulic crawler drills to work in the quarries of Sardine. Since the drilling conditions vary, Profetto has bought two different models: a HCR 1000 and a HCR 1200. The Furukawa HCR 1000-EDS TIER 3 machine is now working in a granite quarry near Palau in the north of the island. Granite is one of the oldest, hardest and strongest natural stones available. Granite starts out of molten mass of magma and then forms into the rock granite as this magma cools deep within the earth. Because these stones are very hard, exploitation can be difficult. Furukawa’s hydraulic crawler drill HCR 1000 was chosen for its combination of performance and economy. The crawler drill is especially equipped with a high–output compressor to provide fast drilling and to prevent (re)drilling of cutting. A newly developed flow-censing IDS-2 valve manages feed speed of the drifter during drilling. The operators cap is ergonomically designed, has a single joy-stick operation and an heavy –duty carriage for longer life and to reduce maintenance requirements.

In a limestone quarry near Porto Torres, the Furukawa HCR 1200-ED TIER 3 is at work. In contrast to the hardness of granite, the hardness of limestone varies greatly from stone to stone. Some limestone’s are very soft and other limestone’s are very dense and hard. One of the main reasons for Profetto to choose Furukawa’s HCR 1200 was the IDS self adjusting drill system to maximize drilling efficiency. By automatically controlling the flushing, impact force, feed force and rotation force, and dual damper pressure, the systems on these drill rigs continuously adapt to the changing rock conditions, increasing drilling performance and drill tools life while decreasing fuel consumption.

Profetto is happy with his machines: “..we already use four Furukawa crawler drills. Recently we had to remove rock to make place for hundreds of solar panels. This was a very difficult job that required high precision during the drilling. We decided to choose Furukawa because of their worldwide reputation regarding reliability and value for money”. Ripamonti, Italy’s Furukawa crawler drill distributor since 2000, introduced them to Furukawa Rock Drill products. Since 1934 Ripamonti is active in the field of quarries and mining equipment.