METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONCENTRATED ENERGY DRILLING, CORE DRILLING, AUTOMATED MINING AND TUNNELING

FIELD OF TECHNOLOGY

The disclosure relates generally to the field of drilling, core drilling, and mining.

BACKGROUND

There are many ways to drill or bore through material. Currently core drilling of rock, concrete, etc. is done via diamond core drills, which are hollow pipes, studded with diamonds that leave a “core” inside the pipe. Diamond core drilling is very expensive, slow, becomes much slower as depth increases and requires a great deal of power but it is still used extensively because it returns intact cores to the surface for geologists and assayers to interpret.

Another alternative is reverse circulation drilling which hammers small chips from the bottom of the hole, which are raised inside the drill pipe via airflow, which is pumped down outside the drill pipe. It is faster than diamond core drilling but does not produce intact cores.

A third alternative is Percussion Rotary Air Blast drilling. Like Reverse Circulation, the rock is pulverized and blown by airflow back to the surface. The chips are mixed on way to surface with both these methods so it is not precise in terms of depth correlation with diamond core drilling.

A fourth is the common twist/auger type drilling in ground and rock and in machine shops for metal, wood and other materials.

A fifth is rotary bit drilling as used in the oil and gas drilling industry, which is fairly fast, does not create cores but does return chips to the surface through drill mud, requires very high horsepower and slows greatly beyond depths of 10,000 feet. All of these alternatives and some other existing drilling technologies are generally very expensive, slow and require a lot of energy at deeper depths.

With the exception of diamond core drilling virtually all drilling, mining and tunneling methods destroy the entire rock, concrete, metal or other materials in the pathway they create, at great expense of energy and lack an intact core to study afterwards. Even though diamond core drilling only removes the perimeter of the hole it is very slow with a common rate of penetration of about 12 feet an hour and can cost over $70 per foot.

SUMMARY

An apparatus and method for creating a core sample. The apparatus includes a coring bit that removes material with concentrated energy not mechanical force and allows for the energy source to be disposed on the outside of the borehole, if so desired, for cutting of materials. Lasers being an example of how the energy source can be on the outside of desired core and the material and the concentrated energy beams can be transported long distances via a channel such as laser or optical fibers to the cutting face. The method for creating core samples includes cutting of materials with concentrated energy beams on the periphery of the borehole only, greatly reducing the material destruction required for the same sized hole and at the same time greatly reducing the energy required to bore. In one embodiment, a laser drill pipe can be zippered so that cores can be removed at the surface easily and storage space can be greatly reduced for the laser drill pipe by making the laser drill pipe roll flat outside of the borehole. With such a roll flat zippered drill pipe it is feasible to have 1,000 feet of drill pipe in a roll that can fit in the bed of a pickup truck.

The apparatus to bore small holes with a concentrated energy beam referred to here as an earth needle where there is no core created and the cuttings and vapors generated are removed and returned to the surface for compositional analysis if desired via a single wall or multiwall tube that uses differential higher pressure in a fluid whether a gas or liquid on outside and lower pressure inside or the opposite. In another embodiment, the apparatus and method are used for steering a borehole or for self-correcting straight drilling, both for core drilling or for an earth needle via differential power or directional guiding of the concentrated energy beam/beams at the cutting head. Other concentrated energy beam examples are plasma jets, water jets, water jets with lasers inside them, microwaves, etc.

The method and apparatus to protect the exit point of the concentrated energy beams such as a laser beam exiting a bare optical fiber or lens with an engulfing fluid flow so that debris, vapors, etc, do not damage of contaminate the exit surface. For example if a laser beam exit point gets smudged or chipped it can reflect back or heat to the point of melting if the laser beam is restricted from exiting by such damage causing more damage and possible failure of this drilling device. An engulfing fluid flow such as high pressure dry air or water is used by this invention to not allow blow-back to reach the exit surface. This works for a single point such as a single laser fiber surrounded with an engulfing fluid flow or for a circular pipe with beams exiting with an engulfing inner and outer fluid flow that prevents blow-back from reaching the exit surface. It also works for cutting sheets which could be square shaped or just a flat sheet. With fluid flow on both sides the cutting sheets exit surface can be protected.

The apparatus and method for concentrated energy beams to be in flexible cutting sheets that can be shaped to the desired shape and dimensions desired to cut material. One embodiment utilizes a single fiber that oscillates back and forth in a tube or cutting sheet to cover a much larger distance of the periphery to be cut than a stationary fiber. For one embodiment, continuous tube can be used for the drill pipe such as 1″ that can be rolled without permanently bending the tube. Beam multiplexing is utilized in one embodiment. In one embodiment, the bore can be glassified, with feedback on when it is complete, as lasers can detect temperature. For one embodiment three separate laser operations can be used to bore, glassify the borehole and cut off cores at the same time or sequentially.

The prevention of the exit surface contacting the cutting or working surface can be accomplished several ways with this invention. With laser beams if the exit surface for the beam is blocked or damaged catastrophic damage can result. One method and apparatus is standoff prongs which can be a high temperature material such as tungsten. The prongs can restrain the drill pipe from advancing until the surface it rests on is removed then via gravity or a feeding mechanism the drill pipe advances. One or more standoff prongs can be used. Another method is a sensing device that detects when the bore hole has advanced then incrementally advances the drill pipe or sheet so as to maintain optimal distance from beam exit surface to work surface.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE VIEW OF DRAWINGS

Example embodiments are described by way of illustrations and are not limited by the figures of the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is one example of a laser drill pipe 10, the cutting head protective lens 12 and the optical fibers 14 embedded in the drill pipe according to one or more embodiments.

FIG. 2 shows an array of 3 fibers 20 on the perimeter of zippered laser drill pipe 22 in the lens 24 of the laser drill pipe 22 and the cutting head lens with one mirror 26 to cut inward to cut off the core another mirror to cut outward 27 to glassify the borehole and a third 25 that is unmirrored and bores ahead.

FIG. 3 shows a movable oscillating fiber holder 30 with three fibers in cross section that oscillates back and forth in the end of the laser drill pipe 32 to cut the perimeter of the bore hole, so each operation of boring, glassifying the bore hole and cutting off the core can be done with one fiber each one which is unmirrored 34, one mirrored inward 35 and one mirrored outward 36.

FIG. 4 shows how without mirrors the beams can be redirected by bending the fiber and or optical bending with a lens 43 or bending with differential refractive index so that the laser beam exits straight ahead in 41, inward in 42, outward in 44. The protective lens is 46 and the laser drill pipe is 48.

FIG. 5 shows how an array of fibers on the outside of the laser drill pipe 50 which are marked by laser fiber 52 (black) that are dedicated to rock core cutoff when directed inward and will cut the core off with proper shaping of the beams. White marked optical fiber 51 when used will cut straight ahead and white marked laser fiber 54 will melt the borehole outward.

FIG. 6 shows one embodiment of a zipper 60 to join the roll-flat laser drill pipe 62 so it becomes a pipe that is relatively air and water tight.

FIGS. 7A and 7B show how above the surface the zippered laser drill pipe 70 can be unzipped or zipped. FIG. 7A is side view and FIG. 7B is front view. In FIG. 7A there are two o-rings 71 that seal the zippered drill pipe 70. In FIG. 7B a relative low pressure source is connected to help move rock cores 75 to the surface. At point 72 the zipper 73 is opened. A relatively straight and unzippered pipe 74 matches the opening shape of the laser drill pipe 70 so as to maintain relative low pressure and continue the rock core 75 movement out of drill hole. FIG. 9A shows that continuing movement of the rock core 75.

FIG. 8A shows a rock core 800 that is coming to the surface before it enters the lock system 810 with the gate 820 open to allow the drill core to enter the lock system 810. 815 is the pivot point for the lock system and 830 is the relative low pressure source with 835 being a valve to redirect the low pressure to the bottom pipe 840 or the upper pipe 845 to assist moving cores into the lock system 810 depending on rock core location. Subsequent

FIG. 8B shows the rock core after it has been moved into the lock and the gate 820 is closed to hold the core in the lock and prevent ambient air pressure from leaking into the drill hole.

FIG. 8C shows the lock being pivoted on pivot point 815 to release the rock core 810 in the same sequence as the rock formation while the next core is being moved up the laser drill pipe with suction or relative low pressure above and higher pressure below being maintained via the bottom pipe 840 and valve 835.

FIG. 9 shows one embodiment of a dual wall laser drill pipe 900 to get air pressure 910 down to the drill head in case the bore hole is porous and losing pressure on outside of pipe.

FIG. 10 shows an earth needle nozzle apparatus 100 that the earth needle outer drill pipe 105 can snap attach or detach to. The optical fiber 110 is glued or otherwise attached to the inside of the earth needle nozzle apparatus and with or without a lens the laser beam exits it with a engulfing fluid flow 115 that travels down the earth needle inner drill pipe 108 that surrounds the laser fiber thus preventing blow-back from drilling to damage or smudge the exit surface of the laser beam, A drill pipe which can be very small such at 5 mm outside diameter is feasible with this apparatus. It also shows standoff prongs 120 which maintain a constant beneficial distance from a laser beam exit surface 112 to drill hole work surface allowing the earth needle drill pipe to only advance after material is removed from underneath it. The standoff prongs 120 can withstand the heat when made of high melting point materials.

As the earth needle nozzle apparatus 100 bores through the rock 125 the rock it broken up into small rock fragments or dust which are blown back up the annulus 128 between the earth needle inner drill pipe 108 and the earth needle outer drill pipe 105. To prevent jamming an earth needle nozzle grating 130 only allows pieces small enough not to jam through referred to as rock dust 135. The pieces too large it fit through the earth needle nozzle grating 130 swirl around in the turbulent flow in front of the laser beam 1340 being hit again until small enough to fit through earth needle nozzle grating 130. Fluid is also pumped down the outside of the earth needle outer drill pipe 105 to assist moving the rock dust 135 up the annulus 128. This particular embodiment utilizes a venturi 150 to increase the velocity of the engulfing fluid flow 115 for additional protection of the laser exit surface 112.

FIG. 11 shows an end view of a triple tube laser drill pipe 1100 with the outer wall/tube being 1105, the center tube being 1110 with an oscillating laser holder 1115 with 3 fibers for straight ahead, cut-off and outward operations and the center tube 1110 and an inner tube 1120.

FIG. 12 shows a triple tube laser drill pipe [cutting head] 1100a in side view drilling. It shows a protective lens 1212 over the exit surface of optical fiber 1215 and it can work that way or without the lens. Engulfing fluid flow 1220 protects the laser exit surface with or without a lens. Standoff prongs 1230 maintain constant distance to working surface of rock 1240. The same tubes exist as in FIGS. 11, 1105a, 1110a and 1115a.

FIG. 13 shows the same apparatus of FIG. 12 but after cutoff is achieved. The rock core 1310 has been cut off by an inward redirection of the laser beam/s as explained in this disclosure. That rock core 1310 has started to lift up the inner tube 1315 of the laser drilling pipe 1320 due to differential fluid pressure, more pressure below it than above it. The center tube 1322 contains either stationary or moving optical fibers 1325. The laser beam/s 1340 are cutting the next rock core with the standoff prongs 1230a maintaining constant distance to the working surface. Outer tube 1330 and inner tube 1315 provide a dual channel around center tube 1322 for an engulfing fluid flow 1350. This shows no lens over the laser fiber exit surface, which is feasible due to engulfing fluid flow 1350.

FIG. 14a shows a bottom view of a laser cutting sheet 1410. This embodiment is using an oscillating laser fiber holder 1420 with 3 optical fibers connected. If used alone to cut a plane the width of laser cutting sheet 1410 only a straight ahead laser beam/s is required. FIG. 15 will show uses for more than straight ahead laser cutting sheets. On all 4 sides of the laser cutting sheet 1410 are fluid transmitting channels 1430, 1431, 1432, and 1433 which provide engulfing fluid flow 1440 to protect the laser exit surface.

FIG. 14b shows a side view of a laser cutting sheet 1410a cutting rock 1415. It is the same apparatus as in FIG. 14a. It can used fixed laser fibers but in this case is using an oscillating laser fiber holder 1420a with 3 laser fibers 1430 attached and a laser beam 1440 removing rock 1415 on the same plane as the laser cutting sheet 1410a.

FIG. 15a, FIG. 15b and FIG. 15c show Laser cutting sheets of different configurations, with FIG. 15a being a square cut, FIG. 15b being an oval cut and FIG. 15c being a triangular cut. All three maintain an engulfing fluid flow to protect the laser exit surface 1510 with an outer channel 1520 and inner one 1530 that protect the laser exit surface 1510.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The claims define the matter for protection. Disclosed in the specification is an apparatus, system, and method with several embodiments that overcome the limitations of the prior art. The disclosure accomplishes this through a system that destroys only a tiny portion of the rock, concrete or other material to be drilled or tunneled through via concentrated beam energy on the periphery, similar to how a cookie cutter works. The system greatly reduces the energy required, increases the speed, and requires no rotational friction that slows progress greatly at depth, returns drill cores or mined/tunneled material intact and can even be done remotely without personnel underground. It can operate underwater and in poisonous gas areas and under lethal pressures. It can be applied to core drilling, conventional drilling such as oil/gas drilling, mining, tunneling and other drilling/boring activities such as metal or ceramic drilling. Research indicates it will be faster that current methods and have a smaller equipment footprint than most methods.

The disclosure's concentrated beam can be a laser transmitted through fiber optics that moves along with the boring progress or a laser beam directly from the laser source that remains stationary until desired depth is attained, or other concentrated beam methods of delivery. Other concentrated energy beams can be water jets, water jets with laser beams within them, sonic waves, heat beams such as flame jets, plasma jets other electromagnetic wave types such as microwaves, etc.

The disclosure includes an apparatus to deliver the concentrated beam energy to cut holes that are round or virtually any shape. The disclosure includes but is not limited to the following description of several particular apparatus for core drilling through rock, concrete, etc or boring through various materials without coring. This description illustrates the principal of how this disclosure can be used.

This disclosure provides a method and apparatus to do core drilling via a thin walled pipe that has laser fiber optics in it attached to a laser source that can be nearby or hundreds or even thousands of feet above at the surface. The fiber optics can be encased in a thin protective external and internal lining of metal, plastic or other materials. When the laser cutting energy is applied to one end of the cutting pipe, the other end transmits it as cutting energy to the rock, boring through the rock similar to how a cookie cutter works, destroying just a thin cylinder at the outer diameter leaving an intact core. For example, the area destroyed could be a 1.05 inch outer diameter and a 0.80 inch inner diameter, leaving an intact 0.80 inch core at the center and a 1.05 inch borehole using a 1 inch outside diameter cutting pipe with a 0.90 inch inside diameter. FIG. 1 shows the basic concept of a laser drill pipe and laser drill head and lens.

Current research indicates that rates of penetration with lasers applied in a manner that causes spallation is much faster than convention diamond core drilling and even faster than massive convention rotary bit oil drilling rigs. Rates of over three inches per second have been achieved in laser rock spallation tests in 2004 by Argonne National Laboratory (LASER SPALLATION OF ROCKS FOR OIL WELL DRILLING Proceedings of the 23rd International Congress on Applications of Lasers and Electro-Optics 2004). Even comparatively low power 1,000 watt lasers have achieved over one inch per second rock penetration rates in tests. This disclosure is not limited to drilling or mining or tunneling in rocks it will work on concrete, dirt, alluvial gravel, wood, metal, plastic, and many other materials. The reason this application mostly refers to rock is that rock is one of the hardest things to drill and is generally the thing that is drilled/tunneled the longest distance.

In this particular example that illustrates the principals of this disclosure after a desired depth is achieved to remove the core the core can be cut off at the bottom via many methods including encased movable mirrors at the end that angle the laser beams inward, mirrors that can be switched on and off (made transparent) such as metal-hydride or other electro/optically switchable mirrors or having a second stationary set of optical fiber/s that will cut inward via mirrors, lenses or bring pointed that way as show in FIG. 4 in the lens where one is angled in for cutoff or even three sets of laser fibers, aka optical fibers, as shown in FIG. 2 (FIG. 2 3 mirrors 3 Operations Cutting Head) with one doing boring, another mirrored inward to cutoff the core and a third mirrored outward to glassify the drill bore when needed. FIG. 2a shows that one fiber's beam continues straight to bore ahead, FIG. 2b shows one fiber's beam is directed inward to cut off the core via a mirror, and FIG. 2C show one fiber's beam is reflected by a mirror outward (to the right) to glassify the bore hole. The laser fiber/s can also be mobile within the hollow laser-cutting pipe such as cycling one fiber back and forth in a 360-degree arc to advance the cut instead of having many stationary laser fibers within the hollow laser-cutting pipe as shown in FIG. 3 which shows 3 fibers in a holder which can do all three operations or bore, cutoff and glassify the borehole.

If the laser cutting beams are redirected 80 degrees inward they will meet at the center of the core a short distance in front of the hollow laser cutting pipe, cutting the rock core off as shown in FIG. 5. Then the core can be lifted to the surface inside the hollow laser cutting pipe (which can be left at depth) via several methods including a system of air flow and air pressure directed down the outside of the pipe which blows the rock dust generated during drilling up the inside of the pipe then when the core is cut off lifts the highly intact core to the surface inside the pipe which can be a continuous tube hundreds of feet in length and flexible so it can be coiled. In addition to air pressure pushing the rock cores back to the surface also it can be air suction in the center of the pipe or both air pressure pushing while air suction is pulling the core to the surface.

Lasers can penetrate through water and tests have shown having water or wet rocks at cutting surface in some cases even helps with cutting. In addition to air other liquids and gases can be used to remove dust and cores, such as water, oil drilling mud, inert gases and even heavy liquids that can float rocks.

The rock core if it is 0.85″ outer diameter and one foot long would only weigh a few pounds so moderate air pressure differential such as 15 psi would easily and quickly move the rock core to the surface. Then the procedure is repeated without the necessity of extracting the laser drill pipe. This method also allows for the cores to be bar-coded or otherwise marked as to orientation and depth by angling in the beam on the core selectively for marking the core not cutting it off before reaching the end of the core depth. As often occurs in rock assaying, one-half of the rock core is destroyed by slicing the core in half lengthwise and assaying one of the halves. In the present embodiment, the core sample is bar coded or otherwise marked on both sides of the so that if one half is destroyed the other side is still coded.

This disclosure provides many advantages to the current state of the art. The weight of the laser drill pipe alone is enough to drill downward, no heavy and elaborate equipment is required to pressure the drill head, no rotational torque is required which greatly slows a conventional diamond core drill when it scratches rock to advance and also the drill pipe friction along the drill hole with the rock bore hole. This disclosure can use a continuous tube instead of the common heavy steel ten foot threaded sections that have to be attached and unattached one by one each time a diamond core drill pipe is removed and inserted again which is common from bit wear. The cores will be more intact than what diamond core drills provide due to the lack of massive mechanic force applied to the rick. Conventional drill cores often crumble in weaker sections of rock. For sideways and upward drilling, only the weight of the pipe and bore friction is needed to be overcome to advance the pipe through the material. This is a tiny fraction of the force required for diamond core drills.

Research tests done by the U.S. Government indicates laser spallation can be much faster than the current drilling methods. These tests however were just short distances at the surface of the rock with stationary convention laser machines and the cut holes not cores, unlike this invention that cuts cores and is able to deliver the laser beams down hole to the cutting surface without the great air distance obstructed with rock chips and dust which happens with surface laser drilling.

This disclosure's ability to remove large amounts of material while destroying just a tiny amount of the material applies to many more areas than core drilling. The disclosure is adaptable to virtually any drilling, boring, milling, mining, blast hole drilling and tunneling application. A 24-foot wide hemisphere shaped highway tunnel can be bored with this same general system, requiring less than 5% and potentially less than 1% of the tunnel area rock to be fractured or destroyed. In such a tunneling operation very few and possibly no people are required to be underground during boring. The complexity of automated mining or tunneling using this disclosure is less than that of driver-less cars as it is in a controlled environment with fewer variables and potential problems.

Other advantages of this invention is that it can operate in environments for mining where people cannot, such as underwater, in poisonous and explosive gas areas, in areas too narrow for a human, in temperatures too high for humans (common problem in deep mines), and it requires no oxygen and it can self evacuate water in a more efficient manner than conventional mining via differential pressure (high pressure within the mine tunnel). On average hundreds of people die each year in mines around the world. The current disclosure can eliminate most mining risks to humans.

In regard to self-evacuating water while mining, the current state of the art for centuries is to remove water via pumps and bucket systems. The cost of removing water so miners can work can be the biggest cost of a mine and has shut down many of the biggest mines in America. This disclosure includes a method either to work underwater or to remove the water from the drill hole or mine shaft via high air pressure, thus not pumping the water out but overcoming the water pressure in the surrounding rocks. This would kill the miners in the deeper mines but because the disclosure includes the ability to do underground mining without miners, high air pressures can be used. This disclosure also includes the ability to eliminate explosive gases via pumping in inert gases such as CO2 or nitrogen, as the equipment requires no oxygen and unmanned operation is possible, whereas miners do require oxygen. This method provides the advantage of reducing or possibly eliminating mine fires when used. In addition the glassification ability of this invention can seal the rock surface reducing permeability so less water comes into the bore hole or tunnel.

A major advantage of the current disclosure is it does not require wide and heavy steel pipes for rotational torque without twisting off. In oil wells the steel drilling pipe diameter can exceed 12″. The current disclosure requires no torque force or pipe rotation so at depths that convention drilling requires a 12″ pipe diameter the disclosure could use a 1″ diameter drill pipe. This combines two advantages that reduce the energy required to drill deeply, only removing material in a thin outer periphery and with much smaller drill pipe diameter. This can result in possibly less than 1% of the rock destruction energy of most methods of drilling used today, greatly reducing the energy required and increasing the drill progress speed compared to the energy expended. Another inherent advantage is greatly reduced wear on the drill head and pipe, so the equipment will last longer and require less maintenance.

The hollow laser-cutting pipe can be zippered so it is a pipe in the drill hole but at the surface it can be unzippered and rolled flat or semi flat taking up a small area compared to straight pipe or coiled tube. FIG. 6 shows the zippered pipe joined together with a cross view and FIG. 7 shows the pipe being zippered or unzippered at the surface.

For mining operations the disclosure has the advantage of adapting the shape of the tunnel to fit the ore body, whether it be square, rectangular or virtually any shape as the concentrated beam energy can be delivered in a segmented periphery similar to the top of a roll top desk, and that segmented delivery system/apparatus can be added to or reduced in circumference so as to expand or contract the mine shaft size to adapt to the ore body in highly efficient manner. This same method and apparatus can be applied to the laser drill pipe so that not only continuous tube and zippered one piece roll flat can be used, but multiple pieces can be joined together to create the drill pipe in parallel and the field pipe can be modularly increased or decreased in diameter but adding and removing sections or segments.

The disclosure is highly scalable, it can be used to drill sub 1″ holes or replace current open pit mining and quarrying methods removing larger than 100-foot wide rock blocks. The disclosure has the ability to adapt to different materials on the fly and change the method of concentrated energy application, for example with lasers switching from pulsed beam to continuous beam or from spallation to melting to vaporization based on feedback from sensors as different materials are encountered. In cases where voids may be encountered between the pulses of a pulsed laser or a timeout on continuous beam or using a dedicated fiber for this a low power harmless measurement signal can be sent to determine distance and detect in an almost instant basis that a void has been found. Using this feedback mechanism the laser can be shut off. This is an important safety factor if this disclosure is used to do mine rescues or other applications where people may be encountered.

The disclosure makes it possible to automate many mining and drilling operations whereby a single operator at the surface or even in a different country can run an operation via computerized controls, sensors and video feedback.

Core Drilling Example:

The fundamental principal of the disclosure is the use of concentrated energy, not mechanical energy being applied to cut a periphery such as circle or rectangle using much less energy than destroying the entire area. Diamond core drilling of rock as used to explore for ore bodies or for geologic knowledge is generally the slowest form of drilling. The disclosure appears likely to reverse that so core drilling can be done with the speed of penetration faster than the current state of the art for non-core drilling. The Summary of the Disclosure has already described many of the steps of core drilling. This example will use as the form of concentrated energy laser beams directed through fiber optics, but is not limited to either.

A hollow tube with the preferred embodiment shape of a circle so as to better withstand air pressure from the outside is embedded with laser fiber/s, which are protected from rock friction inside or outside the laser drill pipe with a protective layer or being inside the pipes inner and outer surfaces. FIG. 1 shows this. In this example, the cutting end will have a transparent lens of hard material that is also high temperature resistant such as mineral glass. This lens will be in close to contact with the rock as it progresses and can shape the laser beams for maximum effectiveness for spallation or other methods of laser cutting and melting. When the laser cutting energy is applied to one end of the cutting pipe, the other end transmits it as cutting energy to the rock, boring through the rock similar to how a cookie cutter works, destroying just a thin cylinder at the outer diameter leaving an intact core. The energy loss if very small in laser fibers allowing the disclosure to drill through rock for miles. The fibers can be fed with multiple laser sources producing multiple beams, one per fiber, or one laser source can be multiplexed between multiple fibers at full power, or one laser source can be spread to multiple fibers with splitters or equivalent, or any combination of these methods and apparatus. For one example if a 2,000 watt laser source is split over 10 fibers evenly then all 10 can transmit 200 watts at the same time to the cutting surface. Or with multiplexing the same 2,000 watt laser source can quickly switch and apply 2,000 watts to each fiber for a brief moment before moving to the next fiber.

The lens can have a movable mirror system, or use metal-hydride switchable mirrors or have multiple fibers in the pipe that are angled inward or redirected through stationary mirrors or an optical lens to cut inward to cut off the core, or bore and or glassify the borehole which require different angles for the laser beams. Movable mirrors enable one method to make the laser drill head steerable or to allow self correcting straight drilling. FIG. 2 shows an example with three fibers, one to bore ahead one to cut off the core and one to glassify the bore if necessary. In this case of FIG. 2 the boring fiber goes straight forward with no mirror in the way, the fiber for cutting off the core in FIG. 2 is aimed at a mirror that directs in inward cut off the rock core and the fiber for glassifying the bore FIG. 2 is aimed at mirror which directs the beam outward to the drill bore for glassifying it. In this example, the cutting lens will optically be optimized for forward cutting and for cutting off the core and for glassifying the borehole as multiple beams pathways in one lens is possible. FIG. 2 shows three fibers for three operation and they would be repeated many times in the circumference of the cutting lens so as for the beams to overlap as shown in FIG. 5 for boring ahead, FIG. 13 for cutoff and FIG. 4 laser beam exits outward in 44 for borehole glassification. Many arrangements of mirrors and fibers can be used, this particular one allow a thinner drill pipe.

Lasers can be set to spall, melt (glassification) and vaporize rock and these modes can be switched in milliseconds or less. It is possible to do all three at the same time with multiple lasers. The reason to melt rock is if the borehole is weak rock or dirt that would otherwise jam the pipe it can be transformed into a stable glassified borehole. The current state of the art for optics can do this.

Feedback system to adapt laser method to rock types: Whereas rock can be bored fastest with spallation generally, other times vaporization is required such as when encountering gold pieces, which are resistant to spallation when they are large enough. This disclosure includes detecting such issues on the fly either by sensors detecting the type of material or by feedback that progress is slower in one portion of the cutting circle and other methods or intensity of the laser beam is applied such as continuous, pulsed, different types of pulsed and different power levels until the problem is overcome. The same is true of detecting when the borehole material is too weak to maintain a stable borehole and a melting method is applied outward to stabilize the bore. Lasers can detect distance and temperature and other things almost instantly and through either the same fiber/s or dedicated fiber/s provided that data to the surface for the feedback system to optimize the laser method and power where needed. Not only can the bore be stabilized in dirt or weak rock, the core itself can also have a glassified surface applied to help keep the cores stay intact.

Between cutoff points, the laser drill pipe will redirect the lasers to produce markings on the drill core. These shallow markings can be bar codes or other marking methods with pertinent information on that drill core such as borehole number, depth and the GPS coordinates of the drill rig.

The cores can be cut off by the methods mentioned already to redirect the laser beam energy inward at for example an 80 degree angle in this case so as to not cut the drill pipe.

Then the core can be lifted to the surface inside the hollow laser cutting pipe (which can be left at depth) via several methods including a system of air flow and air pressure directed down the outside of the pipe which blows the rock dust generated during drilling up the inside of the pipe which will assist the cutting speed by giving a clear optical path to the target rock from the laser core drill and to prevent the drill tube from being jammed with debris. This airflow also will lift the intact core to the surface inside the pipe, which can be hundreds of feet or even miles in length. The rock core if it is 0.85″ outer diameter and one foot long would only weigh a few pounds so moderate air pressure such as 10-20 psi would easily and quickly move the rock core to the surface. This can also be accomplished through applying a vacuum to the center of the pipe or doing both pressure underneath the severed rock core and apply a relative vacuum above it. The cutoff length could be short such as 3″ long so as able to traverse a coiled roll at the drill machine location that might be in a mineshaft without jamming in the curved part or much longer cores if a non-curved method is used for core extraction at the surface. Longer cores are also possible using a zippered laser drill pipe, which allows there to be no significant bending of the pipe. The zippered pipe can be opened up at the surface allowing easy access to remove long intact rock cores.

Another method and apparatus is to use a double walled drill pipe so as to maintain air pressure to the bottom of the hole if a porous formation is encountered where gasses or liquids may flow into the wall rock and lose pressure if just sent to the cutting surface via outside the pipe. With a double wall pipe as shown in FIG. 8 gas/fluid pressure cannot be lost until it reaches the bottom. Whereas FIG. 8 shows the double wall pipe delivering air to the inside of the pipe, it can also be applied to the outside to aid clearing the optical pathway of the beams and both inside and outside is possible at the same time with another air pathway. In addition a relative vacuum can be applied to the center of the pipe and be sufficient to move cores to the surface even if there is no additional air/fluid pressure from underneath the severed rock core

The hollow laser drill tube can be rigid if drill depth (tube length) is not great with a derrick like structure for vertical drilling or for horizontal drilling no derrick is necessary. Alternatively, it can have a gentle curve that allows cores to traverse the inside of the tube without binding, such as a 20′ radius that after reaching its peak height above the surface of 20′ the gently angles down expelling the rock cores. Alternatively, it can be a roll with for example a 20-foot radius that could have many hundreds of feet of continuous tubing on it.

Another method and apparatus of his disclosure is to have a laser core drilling tube that can be zippered so that above the surface where it no longer needs to resist outside pressure it is unzipped until inserted into the drill hole. This allows the rock cores to be expelled out or plucked out just above the surface as the drill tube is still going down. This also allows for the laser drilling tube to be stored when unzipped as a flat or near flat roll similar to a standard steel tape measure and allows repairs and inspection of the inside of the laser drill tube to be as easy as on the outside. The space saving of a zippered laser drill tube is very high, it is possible to reduce the storage space by over 90%. This will allow much smaller equipment to move the same length of laser drill tube compared to diamond coring drill pipe or to carry much more laser drill tube with the same equipment. The current state of the art of zippering technology is such that this method can be used with either a single walled or a multi walled laser drill tube. This zippered laser drill tube or other type of concentrated energy drilling tube method can be used is very small areas such as inside a normal sized mine shaft/tunnel which is quite useful as it shortens the distance to targets compared to drilling from the surface.

The unzipped tube can be continuous and have a length of thousands of feet or even miles, which is rolled/coiled for transport. A 200-foot length roll could be so light that one or two people could hand carry it.

For a zippered laser drill pipe at the surface a sufficient seal can maintain suction on the inside of the pipe by having a mirror shape of the opening of the zipper filled with a rubber or other material that becomes an enclosed pipe after the unzippering is complete. This allows the core to continue to rise with differential pressure until the rock core can be removed. One method and apparatus is to have the core rock rise into a lock system shown in FIG. 9A, FIG. 9B and FIG. 9C that maintains the low air pressure (suction) until the rock core in isolated in FIG. 9B then the gate #closes so the core cannot fall back the valve #redirects the suction to below the gate #so that suction above the next core in drill pipe is maintained at which point the pivoting gate #with the rock core can be pivoted to release the rock core as show in FIG. 9c.

In addition to the already described apparatus and methods for having multiple laser fibers that are stationary that do the drilling and other operations such as core cut off and glassifying the bore this disclosure also can perform all these operation with one or several laser fibers that move. Being that laser optical fibers are very light, thin and flexible, it takes very little force to move them. Therefore, at the cutting surface of the laser drill tube just behind the lens a hollow channel can be made that allows the laser fiber end to move back and forth in the perimeter of the cutting surface in a holder so just one or several fibers can perform all the operations as shown in FIG. 10. The current state of the art for electronic positioning can precisely time and index the movement of the laser fiber/s in this apparatus so as to deliver the energy beam evenly to the entire 360-degree radius of the laser drill tube. Having just one laser fiber or just a few greatly reduces the need for multiple lasers, laser multiplexing or other ways to feed many laser fibers in the laser drill tube. FIG. 10 shows the movable cutting surface laser fiber/holder and its pathway.

With a zippered laser drill pipe it can be transitioned near the laser cutting head into a non-zippered pipe with a hollow area. This allows for a single or a few laser fibers to be moved back and forth on the perimeter of the laser drill pipe-cutting surface.

This same apparatus and method of moving a single or multiple laser fibers to cover a much larger distance of the peripheral cutting perimeter can also be applied to laser cutting sheets.

A variation of the laser drill pipe can self correct to drill straight or be steerable. Lasers are extremely good at detecting distance and temperature. The same fiber that cuts the rock can be used to detect distance and temperature. Lasers can and often are pulsed, even down to picoseconds. Whereas this disclosure can use all the various modes of lasers so that it can spall, melt and vaporize material it can also use continuous beam and pulsed beam. In addition, even if continuous beam is used a brief time can be allowed without laser beam cutting so that distance and temperature can be detected. So when the laser drill pipe attempted to be advanced say 1/16″ after that operation it can detect the distance advanced for each part of the circumference of the hole, its temperature and optical reflectivity and color. This feedback allows for the apparatus at the surface to know that for example 98% of the circumference advanced 1/16″ but 3% only advanced 1/32″ of an inch and the temperature and other aspects of the resistant rock can be detected such as color and UV light florescence. With this data a second pass can be made just on the 3% high spots and not only cut them deeper to match the rest of the circumference with a uniform depth of cut but also use the other data such as temperature, color, etc. to know what is needed, such as encountering a gold particle that does not spall and needs to be vaporized with a different method of laser cutting such as continuous beam, higher power, etc. This ability in this disclosure then allows cutting very evenly ahead so the laser drill pipe does not deviate directionally and a much straighter drill hole can be cut. With diamond core drills they wander so much from encountering hard layers at an angle and other things that even over short distances such as 50 feet they can only guess within a range where the hole actually is, they do not drill straight. This embodiment cannot only drill straighter inherently it also can self-correct with this feedback apparatus and method just described. This ability makes it steerable so it can purposely curve the drill hole as is common in oil well drilling when needed. This is by drilling further ahead on one side of the drill hole and or also angling the laser beams slightly in the direction the driller wants the drill hole to curve to.

Small Hole Drilling without a Core:

1. Another variation on this theme of drilling very fast with concentrated energy beams is to drill a very small hole that does not produce a core but instead breaks the target material into small particles and gases that can be transported to the surface within the center of the a small tube via differential pressure of air or other fluid pressure being directed down the outside of the bore, or a relative vacuum in the center or both. That process can be reversed but the preferred embodiment is to have the flow in that direction. This variation of the disclosure will be referred to as an earth needle.

2. The earth needle could use a single laser fiber or more than one either on the inside or outside of the tube or within the tube that connects to a lens at the cutting surface that spalls or otherwise removes material. The lens can distribute the laser beam to bore straight. There can also be a steerable version where through mirrors of other methods already mentioned in this application the beam can be modified to drill a curved hole. The earth needle can also not use a lens and a laser beam can exit directly from a laser fiber which can be protected by an engulfing fluid flow as shown in figures.

3. The earth needle can be very small such as being a ⅛″ tube that drills a 3/16″ hole. Being that it can be so small it can easily be coiled in a small enough radius continuous tube so as to fit in a standard pickup truck without bending the tubing permanently. It can also be dual walled so that air pressure can be directed down between the two tubes or down the outside of the outer wall and inside the inner wall with the relative low pressure annulus being the path to return rock dust and vapors to the surface of drill hole.

4. The earth needle can also do nearly real time analysis of what is being drilled. There are devices such a XRF (X-ray Florescence) guns that can analyze nearly real time mineral samples and other material for their atomic composition. Therefore, this disclosure includes the ability for rock dust and gases being sent back to the surface to pass by a device such as a XRF analyzer to do near real time assays of the material down hole such as a mineral deposit. Normally it takes weeks to get core samples assayed and often they have to be shipped long distances to an assayer. This invention makes it possible to get results in minutes even from hundreds of feet down hole. This involves determining the transport time from the cutting surface to the analyzer which can be done based in velocity and experimenting with known deposits that have already been core drilled and assayed to index the apparatus and method to match the results so that future drill holes will properly be adjusted to get the most accurate distance and grade data.

5. As mentioned in this disclosure, the earth needle can use various modes and powers to penetrate with spallation, melting or vaporization and glassify the bore if necessary. The earth needle can do the various things the prior described coring version does except for creating an intact core. There are miniature cameras attached to optical fiber such as used in blood vessels. So a geologist can even inspect the rock formation via such a camera down the borehole even if hundreds of feet away with magnification and optical quality similar to a jeweler/geologist loop if desired.

One embodiment is a method and system to deliver a laser beam directly out of an optical fiber at power levels over 150 watts without a lens protecting said optical fiber termination surface with an engulfing fluid stream of gas or liquid to protect the termination surface from damage and or being optically smudged and this protective engulfing fluid stream can surround a single or bundle of optical fibers in center or it can engulf a pipe like apparatus of fixed or movable laser fiber/s terminating with or without a lens or protective barrier such as glass with an outer and inner flow of fluid to prevent physical damage or optical smudging of the laser exit surface from things such as blow-back.

A first embodiment is an apparatus that uses standoff prongs to prevent the laser or other concentrated energy beam exit surface/s from contacting the working surface of the material being drilled and this maintains a beneficial distance as when the bore hole advances then the prongs can move forward, other ways such as detection of distance with lasers beams being just one method and then the feeding mechanism advancing the drilling/boring device such as to keep the exit surface distance to working surface distance at a beneficial distance.

The first embodiment is modified in another embodiment one instance for a pressure lock mechanism to allow removal of cores while maintaining relative low pressure or a vacuum in the center of drill pipe to lift cores to the surface whereby the removal device is pressure isolated with a gate until the core is removed.

The first embodiment is modified in another embodiment to maintain vacuum of low pressure in the center of the pipe to extract cores at the surface that seals the gap formed when the zippered pipe is opened into a roll flat state so cores can move into a pipe under low relative pressure be removed.

The first embodiment is modified in yet another embodiment of using laser spallation to remove rock material on periphery of drill hole.

The first embodiment is modified in another embodiment to include switchable or fixed mirrors to redirect laser beams so they can cut inward to cut off cores so they can be transported to the drill hole surface or outward to glassify the bore hole wall for stability.

The first embodiment is modified in another embodiment to include a sheet with concentrated energy beams such as laser beams emanating from one side with or without a protective fluid flow surrounding the exit surface side, whereby it can be rigid or flexible or segmented similar to a roll top desk and it can be isolated as a sheet or in a box configuration or any shape so as to do perimeter cutting such as in quarrying and tunneling this apparatus can be used within materials such as in a mine tunnel or can be used to cut off material in open such as in a machine shop.

One embodiment to move a concentrated beam energy source at the drilling/boring end so as to cover a larger area than a fixed source, with the energy source example of an optical fiber being moved to cover more area than a fixed fiber can for material removal such as oscillating an optical fiber back and forth around the outside of a drill pipe.

In another embodiment, a method marks sample (rock) cores to identify them by using the laser or other concentrated beam energy cutoff mechanism to put shallow bar-codes or other markings on sides of cores so they can be identified for depth and other things later and preferably multiple marking are made so if part of core is destroyed what is left is identifiable.

In one embodiment a flowchart for FIG. 10 earth needle engulfing fluid flow is started; laser beam is started and bore into rock; only very small pieces of rock fit through the earth needle grating and flow back to surface for assaying and analysis; larger rock fragments swirl around below earth needle grating on earth needle nozzle; they get hit again and again with laser beam until they small enough to fit through grating; standoff prongs maintain steady proper distance to work surface for laser beam. Continuous operation until drill hole is complete.

In one embodiment a flowchart for FIG. 13 laser coring includes the following operations: engulfing fluid flow around laser exit surface first; then laser turned on; bore with straight ahead laser beams the outer periphery of hole; achieve desired core length; then redirect laser beams inward to cutoff rock core; after rock core cutoff it raises to surface via differential fluid pressure; repeat procedure for next core.

Alternatives:

The above advantages are exemplary, and these or other advantages may be achieved by the invention. Further, the skilled person will appreciate that not all advantages stated above are necessarily achieved by embodiments described herein.

In the foregoing specification, specific examples of embodiments have been disclosed. It will be evident, however, that various modifications and changes to said embodiments may be made therein without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.

Furthermore, those skilled in the art will recognize that boundaries between the above-described operations are merely illustrative. The multiple operations may be combined into a single operation, a single operation may be distributed in additional operations and operations may be executed at least partially overlapping in time. Moreover, alternative embodiments may include multiple instances of a particular operation, and the order of operations may be altered in various other embodiments.

In the claims, any reference signs placed between parentheses shall not be construed as limiting the claim. The word ‘comprising’ does not exclude the presence of other elements or steps then those listed in a claim. Furthermore, the terms “a” or “an,” as used herein, are defined as “one, or more than one.” Also, the use of introductory phrases such as “at least one” and “one or more” in the claims should not be construed to imply that the introduction of another claim element by the indefinite articles “a” or “an” limits any particular claim containing such introduced claim element to inventions containing only one such element, even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases “one or more” or “at least one” and indefinite articles such as “a” or “an.” The same holds true for the use of definite articles. Unless stated otherwise, terms such as “first” and “second” are arbitrarily used to distinguish between the elements such terms describe. Thus, these terms are not necessarily intended to indicate temporal or other prioritization of such elements. The mere fact that certain measures are recited in mutually different claims does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used to advantage.

As used throughout this application, the word “may” is used in a permissive sense (i.e., meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense (i.e., meaning must). Similarly, the words “include,” “including,” and “includes” mean “including, but not limited to” the listed item(s).

Various units, circuits, or other components may be described as “configured to” perform a task or tasks. In such contexts, “configured to” is a broad recitation of structure generally meaning “having circuitry that” performs the task or tasks during operation. As such, the unit/circuit/component can be configured to perform the task even when the unit/circuit/component is not currently on. In general, the circuitry that forms the structure corresponding to “configured to” may include hardware circuits. Similarly, various units/circuits/components may be described as performing a task or tasks, for convenience in the description. Such descriptions should be interpreted as including the phrase “configured to.” Reciting a unit/circuit/component that is configured to perform one or more tasks is expressly intended not to invoke 35 U.S.C. § 112, paragraph six, interpretation for that unit/circuit/component.

Unless specifically stated otherwise as apparent from the foregoing discussions, it is appreciated that throughout the present description of embodiments, discussions utilizing terms such as “generating,” “transmitting”, “operating,” “receiving,” “communicating,” “executing,” “replacing,”, “controlling” or the like, refer to the actions and processes of an integrated circuit, an ASIC, a memory device, a computer system, or similar electronic computing device. The memory device or similar electronic computing device manipulates and transforms data represented as physical (electronic) quantities within the devices' registers and memories into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the devices' memories or registers or other such information storage, transmission, or display devices.

Methods and operations described herein can be in different sequences than the exemplary ones described herein, e.g., in a different order. Thus, one or more additional new operations may be inserted within the existing operations or one or more operations may be abbreviated or eliminated, according to a given application.

The foregoing descriptions of specific embodiments of the present disclosure have been presented for purposes of illustration and description. They are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teaching without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the various embodiments. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to explain the principles of the invention and its practical application best and thereby to enable others skilled in the art to best utilize the invention and various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. It should be appreciated that embodiments, as described herein, can be utilized or implemented alone or in combination with one another. While the present disclosure has been described in particular embodiments, it should be appreciated that the present invention should not be construed as limited by such embodiments, but rather construed according to the claims appended hereto and their equivalents. The present invention is defined by the features of the appended claims.

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONCENTRATED ENERGY DRILLING, CORE DRILLING, AUTOMATED MINING AND TUNNELING

Information

Publication Number

Date Filed

Date Published

Inventors

CPC

International Classifications

Abstract

Description

Claims

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

Provisional Applications (1)