The drill, named after the late drilling engineer Bruce Koci, is an electromechanical, single-barrel, coring drill designed to operate in ice containing rock and silt. The system includes cutters with replaceable carbide inserts for drilling in rocky/silty ice. A non-coring rock bit and auger is used for penetrating large rocks and gravel. The drill bit is rotated via a rigid drill string by a surface-mounted electric motor mounted to a tower. Drill penetration is controlled by a feed system on the drill tower to account for varying ice/rock conditions. The drill produces 76-mm (3-inch) diameter cores 0.45 meter long. It was tested and used to collect scientific samples in Beacon Valley in the 2006-2007 Antarctic field season and again, after repair and modification, in the 2008-2009 and 2009- 2010 field seasons
Drill System
- Tower
- Core barrel
- Stainless steel with welded stainless steel flights
- Centering pads at top of barrel
- Drill rods
- Winch
- Self-tailing capstan winch with motor
- 0.5 hp brushed DC motor
- Base-mounted
- Hand-crank option
- Used as belay point or lowering drill-string
- Control box
- Rock bags (x3)
- Generators
Deployment and Set-Up
- Entire drill system can be slung from Bell 212 Twin Huey helicopter (1 load)
- Deployed weight = 1780 lbs
- Shipping Weight = 2040 lbs
- In-Field Transport
- All cases < 200 lbs
- Man-portable ~0.5 km in rough terrain
- Assembly/Disassembly
- Set-up ~3 hours (not including site preparation)
- Take-down ~2 hours
- Operators
- 3 minimum
- 5-6 optimum (including core handlers)
Past Deployment
- 2006-07 season in Beacon Valley, East Antarctica
- Original drill system
- Multiple holes 1-5 m deep drilled
- Deepest hole was 10 m
- 2008-09 season in Mullins Valley and Beacon Valley, East Antarctica
- 2nd generation drill system
- 5 holes drilled to 1, 4, 16, 23 and 28 m
- 2009-10 season in Beacon Valley, East Antarctica
- Improved 2nd generation drill system
- 6 holes drilled to 2, 6, 7, 14, 18 and 34 m
Current Capabilities
- Consistently drill and recover 76-mm (3-inch) diameter cores 45 cm long in:
- Clean ice
- Ice containing rocks < ~160 ° of kerf
- Sand frozen in ice
- Shallow consolidated sand deposits with trace ice
- Good core quality
- Depth capacity
- ~50 m in clean or slightly rocky ice (sand, rocks < 3cm)
- ~35 m in moderately rocky ice
- < 10 m in ice containing substantial debris
- Thick sand deposits ( > 0.5 m) with trace ice
- Large and/or frequent rocks ( > 10 cm, > 2 large rocks per meter)
- Large rocks (up to 100% hole area) and shallow gravel deposits can be drilled with non-coring rock auger and bit
- Depth limited to < 35 m
- Thickness limited by heat generation
