Deep hole drilling is a specialist technique employed by industries including aerospace, construction, hydraulics and even the medical profession. The official definition of deep hole drilling is when the depth is around five times that of the diameter.
It’s not enough to use standard drilling equipment when deep holes are being created. Specialist equipment must be used to guarantee straightness and hole strength. The specialist drilling equipment importantly allows the hole to be created in one go. Less effective machinery would require the drill to be re-inserted several times before a clear hole is created.
Constant monitoring of deep hole drilling is required. The monitoring technology will measure the force being exerted by the drilling machinery, the vibrations being created and the emissions including chips and acoustic. One of the most important factors to monitor is the vibrations being created. If this level creeps too high the drill could snap causing real problems for the drilling company. As well as monitoring the level of vibrations, special coolant is also used to help break the chips for easier passage with less vibrations.
There are three main methods employed in deep drilling. Gun drilling is the most traditional and actually gets its name from its original use which was to create hole in gun barrels over a century ago. Very small holes are possible using this technology. BTA drilling excels at drilling extremely deep holes. Ejector drilling is similar to BTA but cannot drill quite as small holes as the BTA method can. It can however work on more uneven surfaces. The depth, size and number of holes being drilled is important in deciding which method to employ. For a large number of holes, BTA drilling is almost always better than gun drilling partly because the number of spindles is far lower.
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