Equipment Type Reference for Different Drilling Needs

Equipment Type Reference for Different Drilling Needs

The most direct and effective way to choose drilling equipment is to "match the equipment to the need," that is, to select the most suitable equipment type based on your core drilling objectives. Different needs correspond to different underground challenges, and also determine which machine can complete the task most efficiently and economically. Below is a reference of equipment types based on common needs.

Need 1: Drilling a shallow well (tens of meters deep) for household or agricultural irrigation.

Typical scenario:  Needing to extract water from soil, sand, or generally soft rock layers.

Corresponding equipment reference: Rotary drilling rigs are the preferred choice. These rigs cut through the soil with a rotating drill bit and flush the cuttings out of the hole with water or mud. They are fast, efficient, and relatively inexpensive in soft to medium-hard formations, making them the most widely used type of drilling rig for household and agricultural wells. If the water source is shallow and the soil is very soft, a lighter "small manual or powered rotary drill" may also be sufficient.

Need 2: Drilling deep wells (over a hundred meters) or needing to penetrate hard rock layers.

Typical scenario: Drilling wells in mountainous areas, bedrock regions, or for engineering projects requiring deep holes.

Corresponding equipment reference: Impact drilling rigs or high-power composite drilling rigs are needed. Impact drilling rigs rely on repeated impacts from a heavy hammer to break up the rock, which is very effective against hard rock, but less efficient in soft soil layers. Composite drilling rigs combine rotary and impact functions, making them more adaptable and able to handle complex formations with alternating soft and hard layers. They are a better choice for drilling deep holes and dealing with uncertain formations, but the equipment investment is also higher.

Need 3: Conducting engineering geological surveys, sampling, or drilling small-diameter observation wells.

Typical scenario: Investigating soil structure at construction sites, drilling observation holes for environmental monitoring.

Corresponding equipment reference: Engineering survey drilling rigs (also known as core drilling rigs or truck-mounted drilling rigs) are typically used. These rigs have high precision and can extract complete cylindrical soil samples or rock cores, facilitating the analysis of geological structures. They are usually mounted on trucks, making them easy to move and suitable for use in engineering projects with dispersed sites.

Need 4: Needing to perform shallow hole operations quickly and flexibly at multiple locations. Typical scenarios: geological hazard investigation, shallow mineral exploration, small-scale foundation construction.

Corresponding equipment reference: Portable drilling rigs or fully hydraulic power head drilling rigs can be considered. They are small in size, lightweight, and easy to assemble and disassemble, requiring minimal road and site requirements, making them ideal for operation in narrow, rugged, or inaccessible areas.

Summary and general recommendations:

When considering the above matching relationships, please be sure to take two points into account: firstly, understand the local geological conditions as much as possible, which is the prerequisite for choosing the right equipment; secondly, consider the actual conditions, such as budget, ease of transportation and installation, and availability of power supply. For most single-well water well projects for households, renting equipment or directly hiring a professional drilling team is often a more practical and less risky option than purchasing equipment yourself. They will bring equipment suitable for the local geological strata and be responsible for all technical work from drilling to well completion.