Perseverance Drilling, Underground Pty Ltd has developed the Perbolter, a cable bolt installer. A spec sheet for this unit can be seen in Equipment. The unit combines a modified cablebolting system from a Sandvik Cablebolter with a Normet 1814B carrier. The result is a rubber tyred machine that can mechanically install fully grouted cable bolts up to 30m in length into pre-drilled holes.
The Perbolter is diesel powered, so does not require electrical power and is quick to set up. It is also fitted with a diesel particulate filter to reduce any effects of the engine emissions. It requires the normal mine services of air and water. So no specific site preparation is required. Being self-propelled, it also requires no assistance shifting between sites.
Whilst the unit is suitable for all cable installation programs, to make the most out of this machine it would be used in drives with large numbers of cable bolts to install. During the initial trial of this unit it was installing cables in rings along a drive. The rings included cables from 6m to 30m in length. In this situation, we achieved a maximum of 444m of twin strand cable installed in a shift and averaged 240m per shift over the campaign, which included commissioning the rig.
The Perbolter is capable of drilling in drives as small as 3m x 3.5m, however it also has a 8m boom extension allowing it to reach 9m in a vertical plain with the installing boom extended. So it can install in drives from the smallest to the largest. The fact that this unit only installs into pre drilled holes and does not drill holes itself, also aids installation operations in the smaller drives. The installation head has been designed to allow the full range of movements which allows us to be able to install in dumped rings as well as 90° rings. The Simba H157 can easily be used to drill the holes in the smaller drives whilst our other rigs can be used to drill holes in larger drives.
The Perbolter operating system utilizes a state of the art WIFI control system, thus allowing the operator to have full control over the operating system while allowing the operator to position themselves in the safest location. The counting system that has been designed into this unit enables the operator to know how much grout is pumped into a hole, the depth of the grout hose and the depth of the cable being installed. This counting system has the ability to subtract when the cable is retracted to clear an obstacle, then continue counting when the cable insertion recommences. The operator knows whether the cable has reached the back of the hole.
A full training and assessment system has been developed for this machine. The training manual goes through the process step by step, to the point that the manual alone could train an operator. It is a good reference source always available to the operators. Our operators however spend substantial time being trained and operating the unit with a trainer, before being signed off as competent.
Go to Gallery to see some photos of this unit in operation.
