Reverse Engineered Swivel Spindle for Drill Rig
The Problem
The customer needed a replacement swivel spindle for a drill rig after a newly purchased genuine replacement part failed within only one week. That part had already taken 42 days to arrive from overseas, and ordering another replacement would have meant waiting at least another 42 days while the drill rig remained out of service.
The broken spindle components were brought to Pinney Engineering Services to see if a replacement could be manufactured locally.
The Engineering Solution
Using the broken pieces as samples, Pinney Engineering Services produced a reverse engineered swivel spindle to replace the failed component. The spindle forms part of the drill rig’s water swivel system, allowing drilling fluid to pass through the rotating drive assembly and into the drill rods while the external hose connection remains stationary.
Important features to engineer precisely included the internal passage, side feed hole, sealing grooves, thread and hex section all needed to be reproduced accurately for the new component to work correctly within the assembly.
Instead of waiting another six weeks or more for an imported replacement, the customer had the critical part reproduced locally.
The Reverse Engineered Swivel Spindle Result
The replacement spindle was completed and the customer had the drill rig back up and running within days.
This job shows the value of reverse engineering when critical heavy equipment components fail or involve long overseas lead times. Even damaged parts can often provide enough information to reverse engineer an accurate replacement and significantly reduce downtime.
After four weeks the customer advised the component is performing better than the original OEM, and has ordered another of the same part.
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