Bauer Maschinen GmbH has released the "Casedronic" intelligent casing advancement system for its BG 46 series rotary foundation drill rigs. In deep foundation drilling, cased boreholes are used to prevent soil collapse. However, when driving the steel casing through heterogeneous ground containing large boulders, the casing tip often deflects off a boulder, causing the casing to skew (tilt) or jam. Once jammed, extracting the casing can require forces that exceed the machine's pulling capacity, leading to costly project delays.
The Casedronic system integrates a "Laser Target Prism" mounted on top of the casing head, tracked by a total station on the rig. The engineering core is the "Torque-Vector Distribution Logic." The casing is driven into the ground by a hydraulic casing rotator (cradle) with four individually controlled hydraulic clamps.
If the laser monitoring system detects the casing tilting 0.5 degrees to the right (having hit a boulder on the left side), the ECU instantly alters the hydraulic pressure to the four clamps. It increases the downward drive force on the right-side clamps while slightly reducing it on the left. This creates a differential torque vector that physically bends and steers the heavy steel casing back to vertical. Furthermore, the system features "Pre-emptive Oscillation Control." If the casing rotator torque spikes suddenly (indicating the casing is binding against rock), the system automatically stops the rotational drive and switches to an "bidirectional oscillation" mode (rotating 15 degrees left and right) to free the casing tip before it fully jams. This intelligent torque and verticality management reduces casing installation time by 30% and eliminates the need for expensive casing extraction rescue operations.
