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RIGS AND EQUIPMENT 
CUSTOMIZED HYDRAULIC RIG SOLUTIONS 

Herrenknecht Vertical designs and builds automated hydraulic drilling rig and equipment solutions: proven, innovative, adaptable technology for any drilling project. Rigs are used onshore and offshore for wells down to 8,000 meters for oil and gas drilling, and for geothermal energy projects.

Our rigs are for applications with hook loads of 150-750 tonnes. In addition, our drilling components maximize the performance and efficiency of the complete rig package. The components can also be used to upgrade existing conventional rigs, enhance safety and efficiency, and conform to new operational requirements.

Herrenknecht Vertical hydraulic rigs and components feature significant automation. They eliminate dangerous work in hazardous areas by hands-off pipe handling and enhance process efficiency and reliability via PLC control.

Rig features

Rig features

  • centralized hydraulic drive and energy management
  • hydraulic cylinder or rack and pinion hoisting and rotary system
  • horizontal or vertical automated pipe racking
  • driller’s cabin with joysticks, touch screens and PLC rig control with anti-collision and interlock

Rig advantages

Rig advantages

  • sensitive, precise drilling control for hole safety
  • small footprint and minimized noise for operations in urban and sensitive areas
  • eliminates exhausting physical, repetitive work
  • safe, efficient, reliable pipe handling and drilling

ONSHORE RIGS

Proven onshore drilling technology

Our drilling rigs with hook loads 170-750 tonnes are based on two hoisting concepts:

  • Cylinder rigs with super singles or doubles stroke
  • Rack and pinion rigs with super singles stroke

Combined with various masts and substructures, our adaptable onshore rigs enable efficient drilling in both remote and built-up areas, for quick, standardized wells with frequent rig moves, or for longer-term complex deep drilling such as ERD wells.

Our rigs and their core components, such as the hoisting system, top drive and pipe handler, are based on a hydraulic drive concept. A central hydraulic power unit (HPU) distributes the hydraulic power to the respective component depending on the capacity required. This allows for a reduction in total installed power and provides high redundancy. 
Our energy management concept aims to lower energy consumption, increase operational lifetime and facilitate online maintenance of the HPU. Another advantage of the central hydraulic drive instead of individual electric motors is lower noise, especially at the top drive. Our rigs are particularly quiet and suitable for urban and sensitive areas.

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Cylinder rigs

Herrenknecht Vertical hydraulic cylinder rigs have hook loads of 250-750 tonnes.

Substructure and mast concepts

Cylinder rigs 
Substructure and mast concepts

Our cylinder rigs are for super singles or doubles stroke, and the mast can be telescopic or static

Characteristics of self-erecting slingshot substructure and telescopic mast:

  • assembly in horizontal position with minimum footprint
  • reduced crane capacities required
  • hydraulic cylinder erection system for mast and substructure
  • superior in remote areas where heavy machinery is unavailable or cannot reach the wellsite

Characteristics of containerized box-on-box substructure:

  • compact layout due to the main components being in substructure containers
  • noise-insulated containers
  • fast rig-up with minimized footprint due to vertically assembled mast
  • superior in urban and sensitive areas, for example in geothermal energy projects

SLINGSHOT RIGS

BOX-ON-BOX RIGS

Hydraulic cylinder hoisting and rotary system

Cylinder rigs 
Hydraulic cylinder hoisting and rotary system

Compared with conventional drawworks, our direct-acting hydraulic cylinder hoisting system gives direct feedback of downhole conditions. The driller can therefore identify potential stuck pipe incidents and better control weight on bit.

Benefits:

  • fully self-erecting
  • dampening effect of the cylinders prevents top drive damage and minimizes maintenance costs
  • capability of pushing the drill string adds weight on the bit and prevents stuck pipe or casing
  • slim timbered mast due to direct distribution of the hook load into the substructure
  • lower exposure to wind allows continued operations

SLINGSHOT RIGS

BOX-ON-BOX RIGS

Horizontal to vertical pipe handling

Cylinder rigs 
Horizontal to vertical pipe handling

No pipe is stored vertically at the mast of our rig, reducing the load in height and eliminating a source of noise. Tubulars are stored and prepared at ground level. Different pipe rack automation levels are possible, from manual handling to a mechanized racking system comprising pipe boxes and a gantry crane. The horizontal catwalk provides the tubulars to the horizontal-to-vertical pipe handler that transfers the tubular doubles to the well center. 

The pipe handler is equipped with grippers for tubulars including HWDPs and casing up to 4.5 tonnes and 24 1/2 inch diameter. In addition to the drilling and tripping process being hands-off, casing can be run safely by the drilling crew without losing time, for example to change the grippers. 

Hands-off pipe handling improves safety, the position of derrick man is eliminated and during standard operations no manual intervention is required at the rig floor.

SLINGSHOT RIGS

BOX-ON-BOX RIGS

Rig moving systems

Cylinder rigs 
Rig moving systems

Skidding and stepping systems for moving the rig in one or two directions are available. This enables efficient pad drilling or drilling of geothermal doublets. The horizontal pipe rack stays in place when using the telescopic catwalk, which transfers the drill pipes to the handover position of the pipe handler over up to 10 meters. Extension lines can be included in a cable container with drag chain, so the rig can be moved without disconnecting the backyard for immediate spud-in on the next well.

SLINGSHOT RIGS

BOX-ON-BOX RIGS

Rack and pinion rigs

Overview

Rack and pinion rigs 
Overview

Rack and pinion rigs combine the advantages of the automated, hydraulic rig concept with a robust, modular rack and pinion hoisting system. The super singles rig has hook of 150-250 tonnes and is especially for projects where the rig move is critical due to poor local infrastructure. Therefore, the trailerized design comprises smaller and lighter components.

RACK AND PINION RIGS

Characteristics

Rack and pinion rigs 
Characteristics 

  • fully self-erecting
  • craneless rig-up with only a heavy forklift
  • super singles mast separable into three segments for short transport units
  • mast base with integrated trailer including mast erection cylinder
  • rig floor with driller's cabin is self-erecting via a slingshot mechanism
  • main components (rotary table, iron roughneck, top drive) permanently fixed to the mast, staying “on board” for transportation
  • backyard components fully trailerized and easily moveable by standard oilfield trucks

RACK AND PINION RIGS

Adaptable hands-off pipe handling

Rack and pinion rigs 
Adaptable hands-off pipe handling

The rack and pinion rig comes with a space-saving, vertical cassette-type pipe rack next to the rig. It is equipped with a two-stage pipe handling system between the vertical racking boxes and the well center. Placing the pipe rack on the ground reduces the rig surface pressure and the load in height, allowing for a lighter mast and substructure. Non-standard drill string components are handled via the power catwalk in front of the rig.

The rig can also be operated without the vertical pipe rack system, for example when standardized wells do not require frequent tripping. In this case the rig can be provided with tubulars only via the power catwalk.

RACK AND PINION RIGS

Special application rigs

Our customized rig solutions include our hydraulic test rig for Shell’s R&D center in the Netherlands. The rig is used to test new drilling and completion equipment and procedures under standardized conditions. Its high safety and low noise enable it to be located in the backyard.

T-250 TEST RIG

OFFSHORE RIGS

Innovative solutions for offshore applications

Automation, combined with hydraulic rig technology, is superior to conventional rig designs. Automated pipe handling and racking reduces manual work and staff numbers, minimizing downtime. Shifting work to shore, such as preparing drill pipes in boxes, further reduces high offshore labor costs.

Our hydraulic offshore rig solutions apply to hook loads of 150-750 tonnes. The field-proven equipment can be adapted to exploration, production drilling, work-over, P&A and other operations.

Characteristics and benefits:

  • stable and weight optimized design with lower CoG
  • moveable with filled pipe rack, shortening rig move times between wells
  • flexibility regarding deck loads, skidding envelope and weather capabilities
  • precise control of the drilling process with direct feedback of hole conditions
  • pushing capability (eg for extended reach wells and life well interventions)

Our automated offshore rig packages are for installations such as jack-up and platform rigs. 
We also offer concepts for floating applications.

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Jack-up rigs


Drilling and work-over rig packages of 250-750 tonnes for cantilever installation form the jack-up rig portfolio. Our packages integrate automated pipe storage systems, either horizontally in pipe boxes or as horizontal storage with vertical system to handle up to triples.

Separating drilling and completion components into two storage areas allows simultaneous operations, increasing efficiency and safety. The pipe racking and handling is highly automated up to a robotic drill floor for handling BHA components. Combined with integrated make-up/break-out units in the horizontal catwalk, this enables automatic drilling controlled from the driller’s cabin or remotely.

JACK-UP RIGS

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Modular and platform rigs

Multiple drilling and workover operations on production platforms require flexible, compact and light rig packages. Our hydraulic rigs are ideal for platform upgrades (eg for drilling additional production wells) or workover operations (eg P&A) on downgraded platforms with insufficient payload for a conventional rig.

Different mast concepts (eg telescopic versions for doubles or triples) and the transfer of the hook load through the cylinders or rack and pinion hoisting system directly into the substructure, reduce rig weight and footprint, ensuring suitability for platforms with a large skidding envelope. Especially for operations on downgraded platforms, modular rig weight is minimized for rig-up and rig-down with the existing platform cranes and any vessel. This allows the rig package to be easily moved.

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Floating application rigs


We also bring the advantages of hydraulic offshore rig packages to floating vessels. For a subsea P&A package, installed on a well intervention package of a well-known vessel manufacturer, the compact topside drilling package combines all key elements for decommissioning in one multi-purpose mobile offshore drilling unit.

The aft deck area is clear and usable for storing and recovering subsea equipment. Separating the non-standardized decommissioning works from the automated P&A and well intervention working area increases efficiency and safety. Hydraulically integrated heave compensation boosts system efficiency and reduces weight, resulting in a smaller vessel.

On geotechnical drilling vessels, integrating seabed winches into the mast system increases flexibility by running different operations simultaneously. Optimized arrangement of the automated pipe rack reduces the footprint, improves moon pool accessibility and enhances safety.

For riser-less well intervention such as wireline activities and top hole drilling without return mud circulation, our multi-purpose tower integrates drilling components with an offshore bridge crane, allowing crane accessibility to the moon pool through skidding. The system has high operational flexibility and utilization, as it can pick up BOP stacks and can be upgraded for geotechnical drilling.

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COMPONENTS

Optimum support for your fleet

Operational performance depends on the core drilling rig, and on the rig package including backyard components and their efficient integration.

Our drilling components match with our hydraulic rig solutions and enable customers with existing conventional rigs to upgrade and modernize. The stand alone components come with their own power supply and control system. The remote control panel can be integrated within the customer’s control system and we provide all interfaces for data exchange.

We are with you from design to new equipment commissioning and training, ensuring smooth integration, start-up and operation.

Top drives

Components 
Top drives

Our hydraulically driven rotary top drives integrate all features for onshore and offshore drilling in oil and gas, and for geothermal applications. The CE-certified system allows pushing and pulling and relevant components are designed according to API 8C.

Characteristics and benefits:

  • hook load 270-825 tonnes
  • high torque, large quill ID and push
  • precise control
  • available as stand-alone components with guide rail system, hydraulic or power pack and remote control
  • tested in-house under full speed, torque and load 

In addition to hydraulic top drives, we offer electric top drives.

TOP DRIVES

Mud pumps

Components 
Mud pumps

We offer triplex mud pumps with our rigs or as stand alone units (1,000-2,200hp, 5,000-15,000psi). The configurations are electric motor or diesel-driven, air- or water-cooled. The pumps are on oilfield skids and can be equipped with noise protection.

Key benefits:

  • robust design based on 30,000 hours under full load
  • spur gearbox transmits the motor power to the mud pump, instead of using belt transmission
  • ball joint heads in the power unit instead of crossheads prevent shear forces
  • extended power unit warranty by using a four-fold mounted crankshaft and eliminating an internal pinion shaft
  • dumping chamber preventing the mixing of mud and gear oil for environmental protection and minimized maintenance

Before being sent into the field, the mud pumps can be tested at our in-house facility under full motor speed and working pressure. 

MUD PUMPS

Power catwalks

Components 
Power catwalks

Our remotely controlled hydraulic power catwalks automate the transportation of tubulars between the ground and the rig floor. Tubulars, drill collars and casings are run highly efficiently, enhancing safety by replacing manual handling. Our power catwalks have capacities from super singles to doubles, up to 4.5 tonnes and diameter 24 inches. They include an onboard hydraulic power unit and a remote control panel that allows flexible control from the rig floor or at ground level.

POWER CATWALKS

Pipe handling systems

Components 
Pipe handling systems

We integrate automated pipe handling systems into rigs for safer hands-off operations. On conventional rigs, automation of pipe handling and racking processes can be an upgrade.

For conventional vertical pipe racks at the mast, our modernization package replaces the derrick man at fingerboard level by a pipe handling system that allows automated hands-off tripping. The lower pipe feeder at rig floor level bears the full load of the handled tubulars. The pipe guide at the mechanized fingerboard moves synchronously with the pipe feeder. The system can handle drill pipes in triples, and drill collar, up to 6 tonnes and diameter 9 inches.

The design does not require derrick structure reinforcement, as loads are transmitted into the rig floor and substructure. The stand-alone component modernization package comes with power supply and control system with anti-collision and interlock.

PH MODERNIZATION

Iron Roughneck

Components 
Iron roughneck

Engineered for demanding onshore or offshore working, our HV-IR120 Iron Roughneck handles the toughest job on a rig – making up and breaking out drill pipe, drill collars and BHAs – and still has plenty of torque to make and break drill bits. It delivers quick, efficient connections due to its innovative ±120° torque up / breaking out sequence.

Key benefits:

  • Handles API and premium connections and other extended length threaded tool joints
  • Standard hydraulic pilot operated controls (electrical version available)
  • Stepping guide
  • High torque spinner
  • ±120° torque rotation
  • Three jaw torqueing
  • Spinning wrench thread compensation

IRON ROUGHNECK

WATCH VIDEO

Urban Vibro Truck

Components 
Urban Vibro Truck

New innovative mobile shaker for reflection seismology - specially optimized for use in urban areas. This project is implemented in close collaboration of Geophysical Institute of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Herrenknecht AG. The development project is funded by the Federal Government of Germany, assisted through Research Center Jülich (PTJ).

Advantages at a glance:

Technical data:

  • Machine weight: 32 t
  • Operational noise level: 65 dB
  • Maximum drive speed: 40 km/h
  • Width: 2,5 m
  • Axle load: max. 9.5 t
  • Front and All-wheel steering
  • EU approval
  • Driving license class T
  • Collision Awareness System
  • Bird-View-Camera System
  • Underfoot Surface Assessment System

P-Wave Shaker:

  • Digital high response servo valve
  • Reaction mass: 5 t
  • Ground peak force: 280 kN
  • Frequency range: 1 Hz to 150 Hz
  • Full force: from approx. 3 Hz to 150 Hz
  • Servo valve with digital feedback
  • Hydraulic oil with reduced compression module