As many offshore oil rigs reach the end of their life, the need for portable machine tools to assist with decommissioning is set to increase. One example of a difficult challenge faced by decommissioning engineers is the need to sever and lift caissons or casings - often in very difficult and extreme working conditions. Finding the right equipment to carry out these operations efficiently and safely isn’t easy – which is why the Mirage design team have designed three types of casing pin drills for different situations. Let’s take a look at these three machines.

This video is brought to you by kind permission by Sandvik Coromant. As a leading manufacturer of carbide inserts, they're well placed to offer sound advice and insight into machining best practice. 

Understanding chip formation when using indexable drill inserts can increase drilling effectiveness when carrying our on-site project work, or repeatable operations in a manufacturing environment.

In this 'In-focus' article we take a look at the HT range of portable drilling machines.

If you mention portable drills to someone on the street, they’ll most likely think of the electric hand held type used for DIY, or the pneumatic kind used in workshops and factories. But these shouldn’t be confused with the Mirage HT range of portable drills.

Products in the Mirage HT range are designed for the toughest of on-site metal drilling jobs in industries such as the oil & gas and power generation sectors.

The technology used in portable drilling machines is relatively straightforward. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take time to choose one carefully. If you understand how they’re built and what each component does, you’ll be in good shape to choose an appropriate machine that will give you many years of trouble free use across a diverse range of projects.

With this in mind, we’ve created an infographic guide to the Mirage HT50 drill, which is a heavy duty, high torque portable drilling machine used for general on-site metal drilling projects. Take a look at our infographic to discover how it works.

For a quick snapshot take a look the image below, or download in PDF format. Click here to download the diagram in PDF format.

The VHT series of machines has been designed for wellhead machining applications, such as when gate valves are seized. When this happens, one solution is to fit a new valve on top of the defective one and to machine a hole through the seized slab gate, allowing the product to flow through.