Patent ID: 11867006
Assignee: EPIROC DRILLING SOLUTIONS, LLC
Field: Civil engineering (Other fields)
Classification: CPC E | IPC E

Claim 17:
18. A method for changing drilling tools for a drilling rig, wherein the drilling rig comprises a drill tower supporting a drill pipe;
a drilling tool changer assembly moveable between a storage position and an exchange position;
the drilling tool changer assembly supporting a rotatable carousel assembly;
the rotatable carousel assembly having a plurality of bit adaptors for holding drilling tools; and
the rotatable carousel assembly being selectively rotatable to bring a selected drilling tool into coaxial alignment with the drill pipe when the drilling tool changer assembly supporting the rotatable carousel assembly is moved into the exchange position; the method for changing drilling tools comprising:
removing a drilling tool attached to the drill pipe; and
attaching the selected drilling tool held in the rotatable carousel assembly to the drill pipe;
wherein the method is selectively performed automatically or semi-automatically via input to a control system operatively coupled to the drilling rig; and
wherein when the method is performed semi-automatically, any of the method steps may be performed manually, and the input identifies to the control system which of the method steps to perform automatically.