IM Editorial Director Paul Moore recently had a conversation with Terelion President David Harrington about its evolution from Varel Mining and Industrial and current and future product highlights  

The newly-named Terelion LLC was established after Varel International Energy Services (VIES) was divested to a private equity company responsible for Varel businesses related to the oil and gas industry. The mining part of the business, formerly Varel Mining and Industrial, continues to operate under the Terelion brand, which was chosen as the combination of the Latin "terebro" drill and lion symbolizing the strongest animal.

Terelion will focus on the mining market and other related markets such as HDD, wells and construction. The new company will continue to design, manufacture and provide high-quality drill bits and ancillary products to its customers around the world. Terelion's corporate office is located in Carrollton, Texas, USA. It remains a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sandvik AB.

Harrington told IM: "To provide some background information, Varel was founded by Dan Varel in 1947 and has been a family business until it was acquired by management in 1998, and then went through several ownership changes in 2014 before Sandvik acquired Varel International Energy Services. However, by 2018, oil and gas are no longer the core of its ambitions, so it was decided to split Varel into the oil and gas part and the mining part to prepare for the divestiture of the former. The creation of Varel Mining and Industrial has its own structure and accounting , Legal entities, etc. Prior to this, these entities were unified in VIES."

All of these corporate functions of Terelion remain in Carrolton, "but two companies named Varel may cause some market confusion. Therefore, the name of Varel will remain in the oil and gas business."

How about Varel/Terelion-what are its main advantages in rotary drilling? "We have always been a flexible start-up company-this stems from our 70 years of history. Our focus is still on the highest quality technology, products and services. In terms of products, under VIES, it is an open-pit mining rotary drill, sometimes Also known as roller cone bits. This situation continues, but as Varel Mining and now Terelion, we have launched the DTH production line in early 2020-our new Warrior hammer and bit series-which are already on the market Starting with 6-inch and 4-inch hammers and drills. These are very popular and have shown to be very competitive. We plan to further expand our product range in 2021, and we will soon launch 8-inch and 5-inch hammers and drills."

In terms of rotation, Harrington said that the core product is still RIDGEBACK™ open bearing rotary drill bits, followed by its sealed bearing series AVENGER™, which includes sealed journals (AV) and sealed roller products (AVL). Their target markets are slightly different. AVL products can extend drill bit life in various applications. AV is based on this combination of extended bearing life and high ROP cutting structure, which truly reduces the total drilling cost. The third major product is RPS, a rotary impact system that includes impact tools designed to run on rotary drilling rigs. A specially modified rotary drill is located under the impact tool. They work as a system to achieve high ROP while maintaining versatility in broken ground or wet conditions. In general, Terelion products cover the entire market, from small pre-split drill bits to the largest 15- and 16-inch drill bits, blasthole drill rigs for iron, copper and gold mining and high-tonnage applications such as coal overburdens. In addition to mining, Terelion also offers other products such as HDD drill bits, water wells, construction and patio pilot bits.

Harrington said that most of the rotary bearing market is still being met by open bearing drill bits, and Terelion will continue to develop and improve its technology in it. He said that it will continue to expand its high-tech AVENGER and RPS product lines-these products use patented technology to improve productivity and fleet utilization under certain geological conditions, under these geological conditions, you have extreme pulldown, or There are acid groundwater bearings that will corrode the open. For safety reasons, they are also the first choice for high-volume applications, so there is no need to manually change the drill bit frequently. Finally, autonomous drilling has brought many capabilities to monitor the performance of the drill bit in real time. This will make customers more aware of the productivity advantages of high-tech products-so AVENGER and RPS are very suitable for the emerging market of autonomous blasthole drilling rigs and are already used in these applications.

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