Ditch Witch, part of the Toro Group, has released the JT60 All Terrain (AT) directional drill, integrating an "Auto-Steer" intelligent guidance package designed for long-distance horizontal directional drilling (HDD) crossings beneath rivers, highways, and urban infrastructure. In HDD operations, the bore path must follow a precisely engineered trajectory-typically a gentle curve down from the entry point, a straight horizontal run beneath the obstacle, and a gentle curve back up to the exit point. Traditional HDD relies on an operator monitoring a walkover locating system and manually adjusting the drill head's slanted face to steer the bore. Any steering error-over-correcting or delaying a correction-causes the bore to deviate from the designed path, potentially breaking into the surface prematurely, missing the target exit pit, or damaging nearby buried infrastructure.
The JT60 AT's Auto-Steer system integrates an "Electromagnetic Steering Tool" (a small, battery-powered instrument package inserted inside the drill string behind the drill bit) that continuously measures the bore's exact position, heading, and inclination at 10 hertz. The engineering breakthrough is the "Automatic Thrust and Face-Angle Control." The steering tool transmits the bore's position data up the drill string to the surface receiver, which then calculates the required drill-head face orientation (the slant angle) to keep the bore on the design path. Rather than the operator manually setting the face angle and estimating the thrust required, the system automatically commands the "Thrust Drive Rack-and-Pinion" to apply the precise push force for the current soil condition, and simultaneously rotates the drill string to the computed face angle.
When drilling through solid rock or cobble formations, the system engages a "Slow-Rotation High-Thrust" profile, where the drill string rotates at a low RPM while high thrust force is applied to allow the hard-faced drill bit to fracture the rock without stalling. In soft clay, the system switches to a "Fast-Rotation Moderate-Thrust" profile that maximizes penetration rate. This adaptive control maintains bore-path deviation within 1 percent of the design line over runs exceeding 500 meters, dramatically reducing the survey rework and "piggyback" correction runs that previously consumed time and drilling fluid in long HDD crossings.
