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Indestructible: High performance civil engineering tools in the Qatar desert

The Emirate of Qatar is a country in the north east if the Arabian Peninsula on the Persian Gulf. Thanks to giant deposits, Qatar mainly lives on petroleum and natural gas extraction. The country has the third largest natural gas deposit on earth. The Peninsula is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the South. From the South to the North, the country spans around 180km and around 80km from West to East. Qatar is separated from the Arabian Peninsula by desert areas and salt marshes. This predominantly flat country is arid and barren and marked by boulder and gravel desert areas with isolated sand dunes in the coastal regions. The climate is subtropical all year round, hot and humid with high air humidity. In the summer, temperatures of up to 450C are not unusual. This region, with its inhospitable climate, is a real challenge for building and associated with extreme strain for the construction team, construction machinery and tools.

For the following construction project, erecting piles for high voltage towers and masts across the desert region of Qatar, all machines, tools and spare parts and catering for the construction team had to be obtained from Dammam in Saudi Arabia, 400km away. This was also the case for the 40 tonne pile drilling machine that was required for drilling holes for the later electricity supply masts. Special tungsten carbide tools, made in Germany by tungsten carbide manufacturer BETEK, were also there for the hard desert conditions and so was Thomas Eggers, who supports the most wide-ranging construction projects all over the world for BETEK in the service department.

The project was executed on a 120km stretch of desert between the areas of Ras Fallam and Doha, by the renowned Saudi civil engineering company Al-Suhaimi Foundation, commissioned by the Qatar electricity ministry. For the electricity supply line, a total of 1,750 piles with a diameter of between 0.8 and 1.2m had to be erected over the distance. The bore holes were 6 metres deep.

The desert climate required high performance from the SOILMEC pile drilling machine, but mostly from the civil engineering tools that had to get through not just the hot desert sand but also medium-hard limestone containing dolomite and sometimes through pure dolomite.
They bravely passed this test and proved themselves so well that the project was able to be completed earlier than planned.

Three different types of tungsten carbide tools from BETEK were used, as well as several round shank bits and tools with welding bars made from tungsten carbide, especially for difficult civil engineering applications. Fewer than 4,000 tools and approx. 280 tool holders were used for the entire distance with its large amount of bore holes: Considering the circumstances it is likely to be a truly record-breaking achievement.

The project lasted a total of 8 months, which is an astonishingly short time and a great achievement by everyone involved. The project team that did the work and the client were delighted with the BETEK tools and by the quick and cost-saving way the project progressed.

BETEK is one of the the world's leading manufacturer of tungsten carbide mounted special tools for road building, mining and tunnel building, civil engineering, recycling, abrasive wear protection and many other applications. BETEK's main office is in Aichhalden near Schramberg, in the Black Forest.
More information at: www.betek.de