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First PowerROC T35 E in Mexico shows its power

February 10, 2015

Mining and quarrying contractor Zemer Constructora recently became the first company in Mexico to acquire the Atlas Copco PowerROC T35 E drill rig.

Significant difference

The safety factor

The new rig arrived on the site in 2013 and since then, according to Jaime Lopéz, Manager of Zemer Unidad Cerritos, it has made a significant difference to productivity. “The PowerROC T35 E enables us to extract this material very efficiently,” he says. “Drilling on the benches here, which are 16.5 meters high, the rig gives us a production of 25 to 32 meters per hour. That’s a very good performance for us.” A typical week at Cerritos consists of 7.4 hours of drilling per day and 11 shifts. The PowerROC T35, which uses Atlas Copco T45 rods, drills 89 mm holes, drills to a depth of 17 m according to a drilling pattern of 3.1 m x 4.3 m. Lopez notes that the rig takes an average of 32 minutes to complete one hole. It drills on average 25 m per hour for 16 hours per day which gives a total productivity of 400 m per day. In terms of wear, the lifelength of the drill rods has been calculated to be 1 390 m and 1 112 m for the shank adaptors, without regrinding.

Future expansion

Today, Zemer has two PowerROC T35 E rigs in its fleet which, until now, consisted of seven ECM 590 and ECM 350 pneumatic rigs, also supplied by Atlas Copco, and with its sights set on growth and expansion, the company says that Atlas Copco is making a big contribution. “We have been working hand in hand with the personnel from Atlas Copco for a number of years,” Lopez points out. “They have answered all our calls for support. They gave us training when the equipment was delivered. They contact us regularly to see how the equipment is doing, and they have been here to carry out the few service operations that are required on this machine.” Summing up, Lopez adds: “All of this enables us to comply with our customers’ requirements and gives us more confidence to continue working with Atlas Copco.”


Epiroc operated under the trademark “Atlas Copco” prior to January 1, 2018.

2015 Surface construction & quarrying PowerROC T35 E International Surface drill rigs Surface and Exploration Drilling division Customer story

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