Directional Drilling

What we can achieve with Directional Drilling

We at SW Directional Drilling are one of the market leaders within the UK Directional Drilling industry. With this method pipelines of almost any material, with diameters of up to 1000mm and lengths to 1000m can be installed in one single operation. Directional Drilling prevents the need for costly and inefficient trenching methods which is are harmful to the environment and create massive amounts of waste materials. As with most trenching operations the impact on local surroundings can be massive and extremely unpleasing on the eye whilst also bringing very high installation costs. We aim to reduce those costs to you enabling your operations to become more feasible.

Typical examples of the types of task we can achieve for all utility and drainage pipelines

• Rock Directional Drilling for all utility types including gradient drainage
• Motorway/ Carriageway crossings installing single and multi ducts
• Railway crossings at depths to fit within our settlement calculations to fall within NR guidelines
• River Crossings preventing the need for costly pipe bridges
• Active runway/ taxiway crossings, preventing impossible trenching and flight cancellations
• Drilling under areas of protection ie parks, heritage areas, woodlands etc
• Pipeline installations under buildings to allow internal and external upgrades
• Deep drainage installations preventing massive excavations with falls as tight as 1:200
• HV cable duct installations to safe depths out the way of potential future excavations
• Chemical pipelines to accommodate all nature of chemicals, no matter how corrosive
• Ground source heating systems to greatly reduce massive heating costs
• Town Centre installations, the fastest method of installing pipelines in high traffic/ public areas
• Installations through any type of material, even materials as hard as Granite
• Sub sea installations to feed platforms and wind farms etc

Almost anything is achievable with this method even if you think it may not be possible, we can provide you with a solution to your problem.

Method

The beginning of the process starts with receiving hole and entrance pits. These pits will allow the drilling fluid to be collected and reclaimed to reduce costs and prevent waste. The first stage drills a pilot hole on the designed path, and the second stage enlarges the hole by passing a larger cutting tool known as the back reamer. The reamer's diameter depends on the size of the pipe. The driller increases the diameter according to the material being cut and creates for optimal production. The third stage places the product or casing pipe in the enlarged hole by way of the drill steel and is pulled behind the reamer to allow centering of the pipe in the newly reamed path.

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