Radian Drilling Video
On November 15, 2021, we began drilling for Signal Energy Constructors on the Radian Solar Project near Brooksmith, Texas. We drilled our last hole on June 22, 2022. During that time we drilled 111,438 predrill piling holes for 2700 acres of solar panels and the associated machinery. We worked 157 days out of 219 calendar days. For 7 months, we averaged 710 holes per day for the entire project. The production schedule demanded this level of production in order to give Signal Energy enough time to get the project up and running ahead of severe penalties for non performance.
About a month in to the project, we were unable to purchase the required drill tools to meet the production schedule. Because of the Covid pandemic, wait times for the drill tools delivery stretched in to months. There were none available in the United States and it was going to take up to 5 months to get them freighted from manufacturers over seas.
We went to the drawing board and engineered drilling tools that would do the job and which could be fabricated on site as needed. We assembled a fabricating crew and built our own tooling onsite. As the job progressed, we made improvements to the engineering designs and our homemade drill tools came to yield higher production rates and less hole deviation than commercially produced tooling.
These innovative new tooling designs set us ahead the competition in that we can now drill holes faster and straighter than our competitors. This translates in to huge time savings for everyone associated with the project. Production is consistent and less dependent upon supply chain issues and the accuracy of the holes virtually eliminated the need for redrilling refusals.
They say necessity is the mother of invention. In this case it was. Dykon was contractually obligated to a specific production schedule and had no alternative but to build the tools that could not be sourced. We finished well ahead of the production schedule safely and efficiently.
For more information and pictures of this project, visit us on our website at:
https://dykonblasting.com/portfolio/r...