The Advantages of Wet Drilling with Percussion

For core drilling of reinforced concrete there are now three methods for operators to choose from:

• Wet drilling is the most common and traditional method of core drilling reinforced concrete.
• Dry drilling of reinforced concrete is a newer method which has been gaining popularity. This is especially true in sensitive work areas where the slurry could be problematic. This method requires special bits and special motors with soft percussion (impact) function.
• Wet drilling plus percussion is the newest method and it offers surprising gains in work speed and capacity. This method requires the use of hybrid drilling motors which are a new class of motors which have percussion function and are wet and dry capable. The best bits used for this application are the PDA type. PDA stands for Patterned Diamond Array, and these diamond segments work especially well drilling wet with percussion, working 15% faster than standard type wet bits.

When comparing the performance of these three methods, the results are surprising. These comparisons are using the same motor in the same workpiece and using the same diameter bit:

• On average, wet drilling reinforced concrete (without percussion) is about 40% faster than dry drilling with percussion.
• Wet drilling with percussion is a further 10% faster than wet drilling without percussion and a staggering 25% faster if using PDA bits! Not only that, using percussion also allows a 15~20% larger diameter than would otherwise be possible.

In summary, wet drilling plus percussion with PDA bits offers notable gains in speed, capacity, and overall efficiency, establishing it as the most effective method for demanding drilling tasks.