The ROC D7 equipped with COP 1800 rock drills: One of four rigs delivered in January to the site in Korea.

Winning a major battle with ROC rigs

The Ssang Yong Cement Manufacturing Company's quarrying operations in Korea produce 21.5 million tons of limestone base per year.

Quarrying is at four sites - Donghae (the largest), Sinki, Yongwol and Samchok - and the company is committed to high productivity with the most advanced rock drilling equipment available.

Duck Cho of Atlas Copco Korea: "Over a 20 year period we have succeeded in acquiring a 50 per cent market share."

When hydraulic crawler rigs arrived on the scene to start replacing pneumatic machines in 1981, Atlas Copco persuaded Ssan Yong to test the first ROC 812H crawler rig in Korea. The company was more than satisfied with its performance - and over the next decade purchased a further 10 similar hydraulic units for the Donghae site.

The global crisis

Says Atlas Copco's Duck Cho, CMT Korea Business Manager: "We were also introducing the benefits of the new rigs to other cement companies in the country and, over the past 20 years, 46 Atlas Copco hydraulic crawlers have been delivered in Korea. That represents a 50 per cent market share."

The global financial crisis hit Korea in 1998 and many companies were restructured to overcome it. Cement factories were suffering from falling sales, decreased market demand and low profitability because of the increased exchange rate.

Ssang Yong fought back by concentrating on the export market and increased productivity, while the company's technicians demanded more efficiency with larger and higher capacity drill rigs and better transportation equipment.

Atlas Copco and other suppliers presented their state-of-the-art drill rigs and, after demonstrations and tests, Ssang Yong decided to replace older machines with three Atlas Copco ROC F9 CR crawler rigs - one of them the Coprod version - and one ROC D7 unit. Says Duck Cho: "We strongly recommended the ROC F9CR so that straight-hole drilling could solve deviation problems and the breakage of bits and rods in complicated geological formations. After marathon discussions, the customer agreed to buy the Coprod rig to achieve both better hole quality and productivity.

Proud moment: The drilling team at Ssang Yong Cement with their first Coprod drill rig, the Atlas Copco ROC F9 CR.

"All four machines arrived at the site last January. Two weeks of in-house and on site training was then provided by five engineers - two from Atlas Copco Korea and three engineers from Sweden."

Seeing is believing

Ssang Yong Cement's Young Min Kim, Site Manager at the Sinki/Donghae locations, says: "I was involved in technical evaluation of the first ROC 812H rig and went to Sweden to see it. We were very happy with its performance and high productivity.

"When I studied one of the new ROC F9 rigs, I found the capacity of the engine, the COP 1800 rock drill and the compressor much improved. We are also very satisfied with the Coprod system's ability to drill straight holes in complicated rock formations which have fissured, faulty and cavity zones. In fact, we can see right down the straight holes for more than 15 metres of the 20- metre bench, which is three times the distance we could see before. "We aim to go on improving our productivity with Atlas Copco as a business partner."