The coiled-tubing surface boring plant. A coiled-tubing boring plant that stays on the surface, steers a fibre-guided head through ground that cannot be opened, and can leave its own tube behind as conduit.
Five figures that size the plant, and four reasons a buyer with ground in the way chooses it.
The reel, the drive, the power pack and a crew of two or three stay at the entry. Only coiled tubing and a steerable head go into the ground.
Attitude and steering ride a fibre inside the tube, and distance comes from the drive's own strokes. There is no radio and no GPS aboard in any format.
On the conduit mission the tubing that followed the head in stays behind as the delivered conduit, with no spoil return and no trench.
Three carrier formats bring the same reel, drive and entry guide to the entry line, and the plant is anchored the same way in each of them.
Grouped the way an integration engineer reads a boring plant: the plant, the tube, the push, the open span, the reaction, the reel and fibre, guidance, and what travels.
The plantThe tubeThe pushThe entry guide and the open spanReaction and anchoringReel, fibre and payloadGuidance and controlMass, transport and handling
| Parameter | Value | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | Coil reel, hydraulic straightener, clamp-and-push stroke drive, entry guide | design value; a self-contained coiled-tubing micro-bore plant on the surface |
| What enters the ground | The coiled tubing and the steerable head only | design value; the plant, its power and its crew stay on the surface |
| Bore method | Displacement and compaction; no spoil return | design method; the ground is moved radially to form the bore and nothing is cut loose and carried back |
| Bore diameter class | ~50–150 mm (2–6 in) | design class |
| Downhole head | Steerable compaction head with an HDD-type bit face, tricone or PDC to suit the formation | design value; the head is larger than the tube behind it, and the overcut gives the tube its annular clearance |
| Delivered product | Conduit: the coiled tubing left in the bore | design value, the conduit mission |
| Power pack | Diesel-hydraulic, or an electric-hydraulic option | design value |
| Crew | 2–3 operators, all on the surface | design value |
| Operating temperature | −40 °C to +40 °C | design range |
| Parameter | Value | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Coiled tubing, short and medium tube loads | 38.10 × 3.18 mm | design value, selected tube |
| Coiled tubing, long tube load | 50.80 × 3.96 mm | design value, selected tube; the one change of tube size in the plant |
| Coiled-tubing outside diameter class | ~38–60 mm (1.5–2.375 in) | design class |
| Tube bore | 31.7 mm · 42.9 mm | calculated, 38.10 mm and 50.80 mm tubes |
| Bending stiffness | 1.07 × 10⁴ N·m² · 3.22 × 10⁴ N·m² | calculated, 38.10 mm and 50.80 mm tubes |
| Plastic moment | 2,139 N·m · 4,790 N·m | calculated, 38.10 mm and 50.80 mm tubes |
| Parameter | Value | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Surface push, 38.10 mm tube | 35.0 kN | calculated; governed by the clamp, flat-die ring collapse on a 0.40 m grip at die friction 0.30 |
| Surface push, 50.80 mm tube | 40.7 kN | calculated; governed by the clamp in the same mode |
| Clamp squeeze limit | 117 kN · 136 kN | calculated, four-hinge ring collapse under a flat die, 38.10 mm and 50.80 mm tubes |
| Stroke cylinder capability | 157.1 kN | calculated, the cylinder's mechanical maximum; not the governing limit |
| Tube axial yield | 193.0 kN | calculated, the 38.1 mm tube in pure axial compression; not the governing limit |
| Governing push limit | The clamp, on every tube size considered | calculated across five coiled-tubing sizes |
| Drive cycle | Clamp, stroke, release, reset: a fixed increment per stroke | design value; a continuous tube has no connection to make between strokes |
| Parameter | Value | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Free-span limit, 38.10 mm tube | 1.74 m | calculated, Euler pinned-pinned at the adopted push |
| Free-span limit, 50.80 mm tube | 2.79 m | calculated, Euler pinned-pinned at the adopted push |
| Slenderness at the free span | 140 · 168 | calculated; long-column range, so Euler is the governing relation |
| Entry guide on a skid | Flush with the frame end and the ground | design value; the span stays short by construction |
| Entry guide on a trailer | Oversails the tailboard | design value; the span is set by ride height and deck overhang and is checked for the configuration |
| Parameter | Value | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Reaction anchors | Two, 25 kN each, carried in every format | design value, the onboard reaction package with its beam |
| Self-weight reaction at operating mass | 39 % to 144 % of the push | calculated across ground friction 0.20 to 0.55 and the three tube loads |
| Reaction margin with the anchors | 2.22× to 2.30× | calculated at ground friction 0.40 and operating mass, both anchors counted |
| Trailer levelling | Drop-leg jacks bridge the suspension for the bore | design value; jacked rigid, the trailer bears on the ground like a skid |
| Trailer coupler | Pintle ring | design value; gross trailer weight sits above consumer hitch classes |
| Parameter | Value | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Reel core radius | 0.83 m · 1.11 m | calculated for fifty round trips of tube life, 38.10 mm and 50.80 mm tubes |
| Tube strain crossing the drum | 2.29 % | calculated at the core layer, every tube load |
| Reel outside diameter on a 0.70 m drum | 1.97 m to 3.13 m | calculated across the tube loads |
| Reel for the long tube load on a trailer | 1.30 m drum, 5 layers, 2.72 m outside diameter | design value, adopted for the trailer |
| Reel structure | 14–15 % of dry mass | calculated, the mass ledger |
| Fibre unit | Fibre-in-metal-tube unit on centralizers, on the tube axis | design value; a fibre at the tube wall would see 1.910 % to 1.936 % strain on the drum |
| Optical loss, longest tube load | Under 1.2 dB including two connectors | calculated at 0.20 dB/km |
| Largest rigid payload through the tube | Ø12.7 mm · Ø18.3 mm slug | calculated beside the centralized fibre unit, 38.10 mm and 50.80 mm tubes |
| Parameter | Value | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Guidance tier | Tier 2: fibre-guided, human in the loop | design value |
| Downhole sensing | Attitude behind the head, carried to the operator on the fibre | design value |
| Odometry | Stroke count from the drive: distance along the bore | design value; no emission |
| Steering | Head-local orientation of an asymmetric face; the tube transmits no rotation | design value; pushing with orientation steers |
| Emissions | None: no radio and no GNSS in any tier | design value |
| On uncertain ground or a lost attitude read | The drive stops and holds | design value |
| Parameter | Value | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Package dry mass | 3,894 kg to 7,709 kg | calculated, the mass ledger, across the tube loads |
| Package operating mass | 7,044 kg to 10,859 kg | calculated: dry package plus 3.0 m³ of lube, 3,150 kg |
| Package less tube | 2,853 kg to 3,683 kg | calculated; the mass the frame is built around |
| Travel state | Dry; lube filled on site | design value, every format |
| Crane to lift the skid dry | 6.0 t to 11.8 t | calculated: dry mass and base frame × 1.5 dynamic factor; the reel end carries most of the weight |
| Air-deployable frame | 7,500 kg gross-mass cap | design value, the frame's fixed cap |
| Air-deployable attenuation | Mechanical crush stage; no pyrotechnics anywhere in the deployment chain | design rule |
CS-410 stays where the crew is and pushes one continuous tube, and one steerable head on the end of it, into ground that cannot be trenched or opened.
Coiled tubing in the ~38–60 mm class, wound on a drum sized for the tube's fatigue and paid out as the bore advances.
Takes the reel-set curvature out of the tube before the drive grips it. Every pass is charged against the tube's life.
A clamp grips the straightened tube, a stroke advances it a fixed increment, and the clamp releases and resets. The coil-tube drive is patent pending.
Sets the initial heading and carries the tube across the open span between the drive and the ground.
Everything that decides a bore sits on the surface within reach of a crew of two or three: the console, the drive and the power pack, which is diesel-hydraulic with an electric-hydraulic option. The tube does three jobs at once. It is the member that is pushed, the path the head follows, and the umbilical that carries lube, fibre and payload down its bore.
A tube left in the bore as conduit spends one deployment of fatigue life rather than a round trip.
The head displaces and compacts the soil radially to form the bore. Nothing is cut loose, so there is no spoil return, no cuttings to handle and no trench.
Most of the plant follows from that choice. With no cuttings to lift, the lube sent down the tube relieves the face and lubricates the tube in its own bore rather than carrying spoil back, and there is no spoil pile at the entry and no open cut across whatever the bore passes under.
The head comes back out through the bore it made, so its profile is retrievable by construction, with no back-facing shoulders to anchor it in the wall. Its bit face is HDD-type, tricone or PDC to suit the formation, and it is larger than the tube behind it: the overcut gives the tube its annular clearance and the lube its path.
The stroke cylinder delivers 157.1 kN and the tube yields in pure axial compression at 193.0 kN. The push the plant puts through its tube is set lower, by the squeeze a flat die can apply before it flattens the tube it holds.
A ring squeezed between two opposed line loads forms four plastic hinges, and the collapse load per metre of grip is the steel's yield stress times the wall thickness squared over the radius. Multiplied by the die friction, that is the push the clamp can transmit, and on every tube the plant draws from it is the lowest of the three limits.
| Coiled tubing | Squeeze limit, 0.40 m die | Grip at die friction 0.30 | Governs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 31.75 × 2.77 mm | 106 kN | 31.9 kN | The clamp |
| 38.10 × 3.18 mm, short and medium tube loads | 117 kN | 35.0 kN | The clamp |
| 44.45 × 3.40 mm | 114 kN | 34.3 kN | The clamp |
| 50.80 × 3.96 mm, long tube load | 136 kN | 40.7 kN | The clamp |
| 60.33 × 4.00 mm | 117 kN | 35.0 kN | The clamp |
Grip sits between 32 and 41 kN across the whole board, so a bigger tube buys stiffness, weight and reel size and no push. Die conformity is the clamp question that matters: a matched-radius die spreads the squeeze as pressure rather than a line load and lifts the bound, and past a conformity factor of about two the tube's own limit inside its helix takes over.
Inside the bore the wall supports the tube. Between the drive and the ground nothing does, and a thin-walled tube in compression over an unsupported span is a column.
| Unsupported span | Critical load, Euler pinned-pinned, 38.1 × 3.2 mm tube |
|---|---|
| 0.5 m | ~425 kN |
| 1.0 m | ~106 kN |
| 1.5 m | ~47 kN |
| 2.0 m | ~27 kN |
Critical load falls with the square of the span. Worked against the adopted push, the free-span limit is 1.74 m on the 38.10 mm tube and 2.79 m on the 50.80 mm tube, at slenderness ratios of 140 and 168, deep in the long-column range where Euler governs.
On a skid the entry guide sits flush with the frame end and the ground, so the span is short by construction. On a trailer it oversails the tailboard, the span is set by ride height and deck overhang, and it is checked for that configuration rather than inherited.
The ground pushes back on the plant, and the load goes out through whatever holds the frame down. Self-weight alone does not hold it reliably; the two onboard anchors do.
| Tube load | Surface push | Self-weight reaction at ground friction 0.40 | Share of the push |
|---|---|---|---|
| Short | 35.0 kN | 27.64 kN | 79.0 % |
| Medium | 35.0 kN | 30.55 kN | 87.3 % |
| Long | 40.7 kN | 42.61 kN | 104.7 % |
Friction on a real pad is not a constant. Across a band from a wet clay pad at 0.20 to frozen or gravelled ground at 0.55, self-weight covers 39 % to 144 % of the push. Two reaction anchors at 25 kN each travel with the plant in every format, and with both counted the margin is 2.22× to 2.30× at friction 0.40. Anchoring, between deploy and bore, is a structural step.
The anchors are also what make the formats equivalent at the entry guide. Jacked rigid on its drop legs, a trailer bears on the ground for the duration of the bore, and its wheels, suspension and pintle-ring coupler are not in the reaction path. A skid has none of them to begin with, which makes it the most tolerant format.
Core radius is set by the strain the tube takes every time it crosses the drum, and a fibre inside the tube takes the same bend. Where the fibre sits decides whether it survives its first spooling.
Bending strain across the drum is the tube's outside diameter over twice the core radius, and the core that delivers fifty round trips of tube life, at 1.147 % strain amplitude, is 0.83 m on the 38.10 mm tube and 1.11 m on the 50.80 mm tube. Length beyond that goes into layers, so the reel structure stays at 14–15 % of dry mass. The tube is the heavy part and the consumable, and on a trailer the long tube load is carried on a 1.30 m drum: five layers and a 2.72 m outside diameter.
A fibre strapped to, bonded into or resting against the wall takes that strain on every pass across the drum, and it fails.
Held on the tube axis, the fibre crosses the drum with no bending strain. Optical loss over the longest tube load is under 1.2 dB including two connectors.
Centring the fibre also sets the payload envelope. A rigid article has to pass beside the unit on the axis, so the largest slug is Ø12.7 mm in the 38.10 mm tube and Ø18.3 mm in the 50.80 mm tube: a slim sensor node travels down the tube, and anything with a body is carried by the head.
Package mass is built item by item against a load path, and the frame is built around the plant less its tube. The lube tank is filled after the plant is set down, in every format.
| Tube load | Package dry | Package operating | Package less tube | Reel outside diameter, 0.70 m drum |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Short | 3,894 kg | 7,044 kg | 2,853 kg | 1.97 m |
| Medium | 4,636 kg | 7,786 kg | 2,910 kg | 2.12 m |
| Long | 7,709 kg | 10,859 kg | 3,683 kg | 3.13 m |
Operating mass is the dry package plus 3.0 m³ of lube, 3,150 kg, the same at every tube load. The frame is built around 2,853 kg to 3,683 kg. The short and medium loads are the same machine on the same tube, differing in consumable and reel diameter; the real break is the change to the 50.80 mm tube, which brings a larger straightener, clamp and reel core with it.
A skid is lifted dry, with a crane of 6.0 t to 11.8 t across the tube loads, and the pick is not an even four-way split because the reel end carries most of the weight. The air-deployable frame wraps the same plant in a shell, a frame, a sacrificial crush stage and a canopy under a fixed 7,500 kg gross-mass cap, and no pyrotechnics are used anywhere in its deployment chain.
Underground the fleet's no-radio, no-GPS doctrine is also a physical fact: rock and soil absorb a radio signal outright. The loop runs on a fibre inside the tube, with a person at the console for the whole run.
Attitude sensing behind the head rides the fibre to the operator, and steering goes back down the same thread. Tier 2 of the fleet's guidance ladder.
The drive counts its own strokes, so distance along the bore comes out of the machine with no emission at all.
On uncertain ground or a lost attitude read the drive stops and holds. If a run ends early the string stays exactly where it stopped.
Nothing in the plant transmits and nothing guides on a link. The crew of two or three stays on the surface, and nobody goes into the hole.
The carrier formats change how the plant arrives. The reel, the drive, the entry guide, the anchors and the guidance are the same in all three.
No suspension, no tire sidewall and no coupler between the anchor bolts and the entry guide, and no road weight or height ceiling of its own. Lifted dry by crane and set on the entry line; the most tolerant format.
The drive is mounted to the deck rather than craned off it. Drop-leg jacks bridge the suspension for the bore, the coupler is a pintle ring, and the open span at the entry guide is checked for the trailer's geometry.
Under a fixed 7,500 kg gross-mass cap, delivered dry, with a mechanical crush stage and no pyrotechnics in the deployment chain. Anchored and filled on site before the first stroke.
The lines that hold on every CS-410, in every format and for every customer.
The page this sheet specifies, and the sheets beside it in the line.
The page this sheet specifies, with the pictures and the reasoning.
The tunnel crawler for passages that already exist.
A first conversation needs what lies between the two ends: the crossing, the cover, what the ground investigation says, and what has to be left in the bore.
Not an offer. Enquiries are screened, international transfer is subject to Canadian government permits taken per shipment, and all designs, systems and technologies shown are patent pending.
