Patent ID: 6074153
Filing Date: 2000-06-13
Classification: E21B

Abstract:
In a horizontal drilling machine of the type having a drill string guide (70) and a boring head (34) movable towards and away from said guide along a drilling axis (31), a device for storing drill string sections (30) and for feeding and retrieving said drill string sections to and from a position coaxial with said drilling axis and between said guide (70) and said boring head (34), said device comprising a magazine (28) shaped and sized to store several drill string sections in loosely stacked and side by side position, having a front wall (29), a bottom wall (100) downwardly sloping towards said front and defining a discharge opening (105) therewith, a sorter device (58,60) and a positioner device (66,68) in said magazine to successively engage stored sections (72), stored in said magazine, to make said sections parallel to one another and to said front wall and to position said sections one at a time in said discharge opening in a pick-up position, the drill string section (30) in said pick-up position being parallel to and below said drilling axis, a shaft (46) carried by said magazine above said discharge opening and parallel to said drilling axis, a pair of arms (43) spacedly secured to said shaft (46) each forming a hand (44) member at its outer end for partly encircling a drill string section (30), a power actuated latch (53) carried by each hand member for releasably latching a drill string section (30) within said hand member and retaining said section parallel to said drilling axis and a power actuated device (74) for rotating said shaft through about 180 degrees, said shaft rotating said hand members through circular arcs between a lower position to partly encircle a drill string section (30) at said pickup position, an intermediate position holding the drill string section co-axial with said drilling axis (31) and an elevated waiting position, said magazine and said hand members when in said lower and elevated positions clearing said boring head when moving towards and away from said guide (20), said positioner device being reversible to take back a drill string section at said pick-up position and return the same into said magazine.