Continuous feed drilling system

A controller adapted to operate a continuous feed drill head assembly including a plurality of chucks, comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a memory operably coupled to the processor and having program instructions stored therein, the processor being operable to execute the program instructions, the program instructions including:
• closing a first chuck to engage a drill stem;
• advancing the first chuck;
• repeating the following steps a-h:
• a) synchronizing an open second chuck's linear velocity with the closed first chuck's linear velocity;
• b) closing the second chuck to engage the drill stem;
• c) opening the first chuck;
• d) retracting the open first chuck while advancing the closed second chuck;
• e) synchronizing the open first chuck's linear velocity with the closed second chuck's linear velocity;
• f) closing the first chuck to engage the drill stem;
• g) opening the second chuck;
• and
• h) retracting the open second chuck while advancing the closed first chuck.

A continuous feed drilling system, comprising:

• a rotary drive;
• a first chuck slidably coupled to the rotary drive;
• a second chuck slidably coupled to the rotary drive;
• a first linear actuator operable to slidably move the first chuck in relation to the rotary drive;
• a second linear actuator operable to slidably move the second chuck in relation to the rotary drive;
• a first linear transducer operably coupled to the first chuck;
• a second linear transducer operably coupled to the second chuck;
• and
• a controller operatively coupled to the first and second chucks, the first and second linear actuators, and the first and second linear transducers, the controller being programmed to synchronize the first and second chucks using position signals received from the first and second linear transducers.

A method for operating a continuous feed drilling system including a plurality of chucks, comprising:

• repeating the following steps:
• synchronizing a retracted chuck's linear velocity with the linear velocity of an advancing chuck engaged with a drill stem;
• closing the retracted chuck to engage the drill stem;
• opening the advancing chuck;
• and
• simultaneously advancing the now closed chuck and retracting the now open chuck whereby the previously retracted chuck becomes the advancing chuck and the previously advancing chuck becomes the retracted chuck.