Hole openers
Roller-cone hole openers for opening the pilot bore in rock — 10″, 12″ and 14″, with sealed-bearing TCI cutters.
Opening the bore in rock
A hole opener follows the pilot bore and opens it to the size the product pipe needs. Where a fluted or mud-mixing reamer would wear out in rock, the hole opener crushes the formation with rolling cutters — the same technology as a tricone rock bit, set around a stabilised body.
Each opener carries four or five rolling cutters on an integral body with welded parts. The cutters run on sealed journal bearings: instead of rollers, a silver-plated floating bush in a special alloy carries the load, sealed with an O-ring and lubricated from a built-in reservoir with a pressure compensator — highly resistant to heat and galling, and made for heavy weight on bit. Conical tungsten-carbide inserts arm both the gauge and the inner rows, and jet nozzles flush the cuttings away from the cutters.
The cutters are IADC 637: TCI cutting structure for medium-hard formations, with sealed journal bearings and gauge protection. The shirttails are fully hardfaced and protected with spherical tungsten-carbide inserts. All three sizes have a 2⅞″ box connection at both ends, an overall length of 1,200 mm and a Ø158.8 mm stabiliser, and run at 40 – 80 rpm.
- Three sizes: 10″, 12″ and 14″ (254 – 356 mm)
- Rolling TCI cutters, IADC 637
- Sealed journal bearings
- 2⅞″ box & box connection
- Jet circulation
- Fully hardfaced shirttails with TC inserts
- Pressure-compensated bearing lubrication
- Made to ISO 9001:2015 and API Spec 7-1 / 7-2
Sizes and operating data
Choose the hole opener by the bore diameter you need. Operating parameters are typical ranges and depend on the ground. Press Get quote on any row and we come back with a quote, stock and lead time.
Hole openers
Three sizes. All have a 2⅞″ box & box connection, 1,200 mm overall length and a Ø158.8 mm stabiliser, and run at 40 – 80 rpm. Run a new hole opener at reduced weight for the first 30 minutes, and use the lower end of the rpm range in harder rock — hard rock needs time under the insert to break, soft rock responds to speed.
| Hole size | Part number | Cutters | Weight | Weight on bit | Lead-in / stabiliser / tail (mm) | Quote |
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Data per the manufacturer's specification sheets, September 2026. Operating parameters are typical ranges and may vary with ground conditions; specifications are subject to change. Images are renders from the drawings.
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