Sonic Drill, a world leader in sonic drilling technology, has engineered and released a sonic drill rig that can fit within a shipping container. Its inventor has also won an innovation award.

“We constantly heard from clients that they wanted a physically smaller machine with the same power that could be used in small spaces,” says Tom Savage, president of Sonic Drill Systems, the company that also manufacturers the larger elite Sonic Drill Corp rigs.

“The SDC-350 has the same award-winning technology and exacting engineering standards but applied to a crawler rig on tracks that can easily fit within a 20′ shipping container. This latest model also reduces the cost of shipping by two-thirds,” he adds.

With its agile smaller size, lighter footprint and lower price, the launch of the SDC-350 has created a buzz with buyers who previously thought a sonic drill rig was out of reach. 

The new model quickly drills through a variety of formations to more than 80 m, using water for flushing. It can handle drill tooling up to 203 mm in diameter and tilt up to 60^o degrees.  Powered by a CAT 6-cylindder diesel engine, the SDC-350 produces 129 kW @ 2200 RPM.  With its smaller size, the SDC-350 can be towed behind on a variety of platforms, remain street legal and, in most cases, be driven by someone with a lower class driver’s licence. One of its many applications is environmental core sampling.   The Sonic Drill Corporation is also planning the upcoming release of the SDC-390 – an even more powerful version of the SDC-350.  Although the SDC-390 will be heavier, it will also offer the most powerful sonic drill head on the planet.

Ray Roussy, a mechanical engineer from Surrey, British Columbia, took home a coveted C$10,000 Innovation Award from the Ernest C. Manning Awards Foundation for developing one of the fastest drilling systems in the world. Roussy’s sonic drilling technology is now in use on six continents and gaining worldwide recognition, especially as an environmentally-friendly alternative. Today, Roussy’s sonic drill is commonly used to quickly  provide continuous core samples for environmental investigations and explore possible mineral deposits.