Sonic Drilling refers to the technique of using high frequency applied vibrations to install soil sample tubes or other material into unconsolidated overburden.

When soil sampling, a hollow tube with a tapered cutting shoe at its bottom edge, is vibrated at high frequency and advanced into the soil. The vibration allows the cutting shoe to displace an annulus of material equal to the wall of the sample tube, and this lets the sample tube descend over the core of material to be captured. The vibrations virtually eliminate friction both inside and outside the sample tube so that the captured sample is virtually undisturbed.

Samples can be captured in clear liners for inspection or archiving of the samples.

Yes. Depending on soil conditions, stainless steel well screens can be vibrated directly into sandy soils without any prior drilling required.

Hollow rods with drive points such as are used in Seismic exploration can be driven much faster with Sonic methods. Recent tests with 2-Inch diameter solid mini piles drove them 10 feet into the soil in less than 60 seconds, while percussive methods were taking 5 to 7 minutes to do the same job.

Monitoring wells are routinely installed once the core sample has been retrieved.

Yes. MPI Drilling manufactures technology packages that can be added to most drill rigs to allow them to add Sonic drilling to their other methods.

If the size of the object permits, it may be taken into the sample tube or merely pushed aside if the soil conditions permit. Sonic Drilling alone is not designed to penetrate rock, but is capable of picking up the interface material if not too hard.

The use of the optional rotary head permits the use of augers to help get through tougher materials.

Yes. The addition of rotation to the drill string along with cooling air or fluid will permit Sonic Drilling methods to penetrate rock formations. Samples of rock are collected in the core barrel along with the overburden, but due to the rotation, the samples may not be as pristine as with Sonic alone.

The high integrity of samples with soil layers preserved just as in the formation in the ground can allow for precise determination of substrate characteristics useful in soil analysis, environmental assessment and remediation, and geological intelligence.

Yes. Working off a barge or other marine platform, samples of the marine sediments are obtained in the same manner as on land.

Normally not. Once the sample has been captured in the sample tube, the vibration is turned of. Hence the friction that had been eliminated is allowed to return and is normally enough to retain the sample for retrieval.

Depth is a function of the material being sampled and the power of the rig being used. The larger the horsepower of the rig, the deeper you can get.

In order to drill at all however, there must be a pore space available to displace material into or no drilling can be accomplished as in the case of solid concrete.

They start with the smallest 13 hp portable single rotor Meta-Drill, next the twin rotor 30 hp Meta-Probe, and just being introduced is the Multi-Quad, requiring over 60 hp to operate.

Yes. MPI Drilling regularly does contract work throughout North America, and is available for overseas work as well.

Canada, the USA, Holland, Africa, Australia, Guyana and Japan.

MPI Drilling had its roots planted in 1986 when challenged to build a machine to sample alluvial gold. MPI has progressed since then over the past 16 years and continues to grow.