Pike River Borehole Project

As part of the police investigation into the Pike River Mine incident, Outsource Engineering worked with Ignition Networks on the design and manufacture of a deployable camera system to inspect the Pike River mine.

Boreholes were drilled from the side of the mountain to access the mine. The boreholes were up to 175m long, Ø101mm in diameter and up to 10° from vertical. The environment presented significant challenges; design considerations included ground water leaking around the borehole, explosive gasses and heat dissipation from the lighting system.

A system to access this environment and meet the imaging requirements for the investigation wasn't available anywhere in the world. Ignition Networks and Outsource Engineering together prototyped and iterated through multiple solutions before the equipment used in the final imaging.

The deployable sled was operated from the surface. The winch system was built from scratch to meet the demands of the system. The minimum bend radius of the cable required a custom drum, and a slip ring to get data and power to the cable. The complete winch system was designed to be slung underneath a helicopter to the site and also by forklift to allow general shipping. 

A cage on top with a quick release opening was used for transporting support equipment, including generators, fuel and coffee machines. A handy desk clips onto the side for the operator. The whole cage can be removed with quick release pins if the winch needs to be accessed from the top for servicing.

Groundwater seeps into the mine tunnel from the roof around the borehole. To get the imaging camera out past this water, the camera is mounted on a servo driven 4 bar linkage. The camera swings sideways 300mm, and in case of a power failure can fall back to vertical to allow retraction. A large part of the design was to maximise the chances of recovery of the gear in case of equipment malfunction or power failure.

Above the camera is the light module. It provides a combination of ambient light and 
directional light. The light bar can be rotated by the operator at the surface.

The sled is separated into modules which can be added and removed as required for certain borehole constraints. An inspection camera is mounted on the end viewing straight down for checking the entrance of the borehole into the mine, before a high definition camera is mounted for gathering investigation images.

The entire mechanical system was completely bespoke. All mechanical parts of the winch and sled were designed by Outsource Engineering, and we manufactured about 95% of the solution.

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Morrinsville, New Zealand