INFORMATION - New High-Speed Drill Penetrates Rocks by Melting Them UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR GEOLOGICAL SURVEY WATER RESOURCES DIVISION WASHINGTON, D. C. 20242 June 30, 1965 Code 4050 0001 GROUND WATER BRANCH TECHNICAL MEMORANDUM NO. 4 To: District Chiefs and Staff Officials, WRD From: Acting Chief, Ground Water Branch Subject: INFORMATION - New High-Speed Drill Penetrates Rocks by Melting Them Several districts have expressed interest in a recent Department of Commerce news release pertaining to use of a red-hot drill bit to drill basaltic rocks. The release is reproduced here inasmuch as copies are not available. Note that a report on the drilling technique may be ordered from the U.S. Department of Commerce. A radically new high-speed drill that penetrates rocks by melting them has been constructed and successfully tested by researchers of Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory. The drill is especially designed to penetrate layers of hard basaltic rock, which create numerous difficulties for oil drillers, geologists, and others using conventional drilling methods. A report describing the drill has just been made available to the public by the U.S. Department of Commerce through the Clearinghouse for Federal Scientific and Technical Information. According to the Los Alamos developers, the new drill glides through hard basaltic rock like a hot knife goes through butter at the remarkable rate of 50 feet per day. This compares with the two to four feet per day often encountered with conventional drills in the harder rock formations. A host of potential applications exists for the drill in mining and excavating for oil and minerals, in quarrying, and in tunneling. Geologists in particular should welcome the device as an aid for geological research of the earth's rock formations. In the test drill, researchers used molybdenum as the red-hot drill bit to melt the rock. It is heated to about 1700 degrees Celsius, well above the melting point of steel and most basaltic rocks. The researchers applied the heat electrically at the rate of 15 volts and 150 amperes from a small commercial welding transformer. A tungsten plate heater at the base of the drill heats to incandescence and transmits the heat to the molybdenum drill bit. In contact with the molybdenum drill bit, basaltic rocks melt to lava, which is then ejected by being blown up the central core of the drilling apparatus by streams of gas. Molybdenum is ideal for the drill bit because it exhibits excellent strength and resistance to corrosion at the high temperatures needed for rock melting, but tungsten is also a candidate since it has even greater strength and corrosion resistance at such temperatures. To get the report, Order LA-3243N, ROCK MELTING AS A DRILLING TECHNIQUE, prepared by Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, Mar. 1965, 39 pages, price $2.00, from the Clearinghouse, U. S. Department of Commerce, Springfield, Va. 22151. (s) Gerald Meyer WRD DISTRIBUTION: A, B, S, FO-3, SL