A down-the-hole drill, usually called DTH Drilling Rig, is basically a mini jackhammer screwed on the bottom of a drill string. The speedy hammer activity breaks hard stone into little flakes and dust and can be dismissed evident by the air exhaust in the DTH hammer.
[pdf] In a drilling rig, the drill line is a multi-thread, twisted wire rope that is threaded or reeved through in typically 6 to 12 parts between the traveling block and crown block to facilitate the lowering and lifting of the drill string into and out of the wellbore.
[pdf] Drill stems must be designed to transfer drilling torque for combined lengths that often exceed several miles down into the , and also must be able to resist pressure differentials between inside and outside (or vice versa), and have sufficient strength to suspend the total weight of deeper components. For deep wells this requires tempered steel tubes that are expensive, and owners spend considerable efforts to reuse them after finishing a well.
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