Posted: 6:38 pm EDT October 14, 2010Updated: 7:07 pm EDT October 14, 2010
WEST CHESTER, Pa. -- It was a global event. Thirty-three Chilean miners stuck underground for 2 months. All pulled out safely. But what you might not know is the giant apparatus boring into the earth, creating the rescue hole, helping to pull the miners out was made in West Chester, Pennsylvania. It's called the T-130XD drilling rig. It's a 50-ton, 70-foot high drilling rig. The machine has air compression, call it air flush drilling, said Ed Breiner, co-owner of Schramm in Easton. It's just like a running a screw into a wall. Breiner says the rig uses 500-pounds-per-square-inch of air pressure to cut into the ground. A giant drill bit would be attached to the end and air would come through as is bores through the earth. Breiner says typically drill holes are only used to bore a few hundred feet into the ground in a five inch opening but this time it dug more than 2,000 feet. It's a great thing to see U.S. technology and know how on a global scale do something so successful, said Breiner. Breiner says the company had several rigs already on site, one even was used to bore the hole that initially found the miners. I'm not surprised the Chilean people executed it as well as they did, said Breiner. Real character they demonstrated. They're solid people. Copyright 2010 WFMZ. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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