Flushing Head For Well Drilling Equipment

Today it is impossible to imagine well drilling equipment without rotary unions or flushing heads, because what was not so important a few years ago has become an increasingly important commodity in recent years. We speak of water. But what does a flushing head for a well have to do with water? This question can be answered relatively easily. In today's society we consider water to be a "normal good" which is available in abundance and always available. Unfortunately this is not always the case! Water has become much more expensive in recent years and will continue to rise steadily but gradually in the future. Unfortunately, this cannot be prevented, because the water shortage in Europe and especially in Germany will continue to increase, as we can already see. Because the last summers are getting hotter and hotter and the water is getting scarcer.

Due to the rising temperatures, it is only natural that the rainy seasons are getting less and less and we still want to have our water balance secured. To reach this state, however, a small effort is required to get to the water in the ground, as a direct source of drinking water. For this purpose, well drilling equipment is an important asset, which is also recognized by homeowners and the idea of drilling a well matures itself. Now, of course, you can say to yourself, ok, I have the possibility to borrow a well drilling machine with a rotary distributor flushing head and use it to drill a well in my garden. This idea is very good, but if you now start looking to rent such a water rotary distributor flushing head as a well drill, you will soon realize that this can and partly is an almost hopeless undertaking. Because such professional well drilling equipment can hardly be found at the rental locations. And when you have found a drilling rig you will find that it is only intended for dry drilling and usually only allows a maximum depth of 5-7 meters. In order to penetrate to greater depths, it is indispensable to use water flushing methods equipped with a rotary distributor flushing head to penetrate to very great depths.

Water must be constantly pressed through a pipe to flush out the layers of earth around the drill. For this purpose a rotating element with a rotary union or flushing head or a rotary distributor for water must be connected. If you want to use these great depths, you can also get a quote from a professional well drill master, who can quickly take a drilling price of 2000-2500 Euro for a depth of 14-16 meters, if the well installation is already included. But who can afford such high prices, if it is only to supply his garden with free water and if possible also to connect his house to the well. This idea is even more tempting, because then the costs for water will be reduced to almost zero. Imagine supplying your washbasin, toilet and bathtub with filtered well water from great depths. You save extreme costs for life, which you would otherwise have to pay. Now, in order to penetrate to such great depths of water, where the water does not dry up and is also very clear and clean, you should always drill to a depth of over 13 metres to 20 or 25 metres. However, we do not want to quantify the costs for this, especially if you have to consider that a guarantee from the well drilling master about the success of the well drilling is excluded in the offer. If no water is found, one can decide to invert the costs of 1500 Euro or more to make a second drilling and then to play the lottery in the hope of success. For this reason, more and more people are deciding to save these costs and build themselves a simple wet well drilling machine, which is not very expensive and you can drill your own wells for very little money anytime and as often as you want, until you succeed. Many garden owners or land owners then pool some money and build a flushing head well drill for wet flushing in a joint project. So everybody can use the device as often as he wants and as long as it takes. Without time limit!

Once the decision to build a well drilling rig has been made, you can start building your own independent well drilling rig. It is practically not very complicated. Such a device for drilling wells consists essentially of a support sub-frame, a mast, which allows the guide carriage to run on rollers. The frame that supports the construction can be placed on two wheels for easy transport, making it very easy to get to the well drilling site. The guide carriage that can be moved up and down the mast is only equipped with a gear motor. To enable the up and down movement, a cable pull, which is electrically driven, is usually attached to the carrier frame. This can then move the carriage up and down. In order to bring the entire carrier frame with the mast naturally into line on the borehole, it is always advisable to use at least three supports from a large trailer, which can be set to the desired position by means of a crank handle. The whole construction is already aligned. However, a flushing head or a rotary distributor / rotary union for water distribution must be attached to the gear motor as the almost most complicated part. This flushing head must be flanged directly to the gearbox output shaft and can be provided with a water connection. Due to the intelligent design, the shaft can rotate and still the water can be transported into the drilling spindle without any loss. This is the only way that water can be continuously pressed into the flushing head via a pump while the drill bit and drill pipe are rotating and then be further discharged into the rotating drill pipe. Now you can penetrate the ground almost indefinitely deep via the flushing method and drill until you have clear and clean water and do not have to worry that the water will dry up once. If this should happen later, simply take your well drilling machine with the rotary union / rotary distributor / flushing head and drill another new hole without additional costs!

Some time ago we decided to develop a flushing head for well drilling equipment, so that you only have to flange it to your motor shaft or gear output shaft and you can start drilling with your well drilling equipment. Since this is a complex part of a well drilling rig and most people do not have the possibility to produce such a flushing head at an affordable price, we have taken over this part for you and would like to supply you with inexpensive, new flushing heads and offer them for sale in our online shop as a finished assembly or to build it yourself. Since all gear motors always have a different shaft diameter and a different thread attachment to screw the drill pipe to the flushing head, we have decided to leave all options free for you. The motor shaft side of the rotary union or the flushing head is equipped with a 20 mm bore, so that you either have to drill the bores yourself to adapt the shaft of the flushing head to your gear motor, or weld the shaft end directly to an existing shaft hub, which is located on the gear shaft. A keyway is not required in this case, because we have provided the flange side for your gear motor with two screws which engage directly into the keyway, thus ensuring the necessary power transmission to the flushing head shaft. The same applies of course to the side of the flushing head shaft to which the drill pipe must be connected. Here we have prepared an attached shaft outlet which has a bore for the water supply with a diameter of 22 mm. An enormous amount of flushing water can be pressed through this drilling channel and directly transferred to the drill rods. You have the possibility to weld your threaded connection to this shaft end, so that the rotary union or flushing head can be used and installed for any diameter and any variation. Likewise, we also offer you the suitable screw connections for the drill pipe, so that you can also build the drill pipe yourself. But more about this later.

In order to save costs, future well owners have many possibilities to drill or build their own well. The definitely most complex part is always the rotary distributor or the rotary distributor flushing head (rotary union) of the well drilling equipment. All other parts, such as the gear motor and the steel parts as well as the gear carriage, which holds the gear, can also be produced well by yourself. But with the flushing head it is somewhat different. On our website we offer a finished flush head to install it on the motor. But if you want to build your own rotary distributor flushing head for the well drilling machine, you will soon realize how much it can cost. Because first of all the technical drawings have to be made and for that you need some knowledge. But that is the even easier part. The second step is to find a company that can also set up individual parts on the lathe and manufacture them for you at a reasonable price. Let's face it, most turning shops will probably not even answer such inquiries or offer extremely high prices or costs, so that the project "build your own flushing head" is quickly off the table. So we would like to supply you in the near future with either a complete flushing head for your well drilling equipment via our online shop or as a kit. So you can buy the individual parts from us as a kit and assemble your (rotary union) flushing head yourself. These basic parts include the continuous shaft and the fixed drum. Furthermore there are the two bearing flanges or pressure flanges on both sides and the pipe double nipple as well as the single screws. Please have a look around our website now to buy either a completely assembled rotary distributor flush head made of stainless steel with bearings and stuffing box seals from us, so that you can build your own flush head.

The design of the flushing head is such that the main shaft is a shaft with a diameter of 45 mm. This shaft has an internal bore on the gearbox flange side, which can be easily bored out as required. This diameter is 20 mm. The opposite end has a through-hole up to the middle of the shaft, through which the flushing water can flow freely and in large quantities. At the level of the water inlet via the double nipple of the fixed drum, there are cross holes which can guide the water via the drum into the shaft. The drum is also provided with a connection in a 3/4 inch pipe thread and screwed to a pipe nipple. You can simply connect the water supply to this pipe nipple and install a ball valve if required. The drum from the rotary distributor is installed later and can be easily held or fixed around the pipe nipple with a pipe clamp. Thus the flushing head has a secure and firm fit. The drum is supported by two thin ring bearings which are naturally closed on both sides by a protection. In front of the ball bearings there are three rows of cords of a stuffing box packing on each side, which completely secure the shaft against water leakage. We have deliberately chosen a cord seal as stuffing box packing because these are the best and cheapest seals when it comes to sealing contaminated water. These seals are pressed together in three packages by the flange, where the ball bearings are located, and the pressure screws, so that a long sealing surface on the shaft can be created. Only this long sealing surface to the shaft ensures long sealing times with rotating shaft and stationary housing. Since cord seals are coastal, this type of packing is the best and most cost effective way to keep shafts permanently sealed from dirty water. If the square cord seals give way once, the flange can easily be adjusted and everything is tight again! When the square sealing cords to the shaft are worn out, the seals can be removed and turned through 90 degrees and then re-inserted as stuffing box packings into the (rotary union) rotary distributor flushing head. The whole process can be repeated 4 times with these seals.

 

In this article we would like to explain the exact design of the flushing head for a well drilling rig in more detail. The shaft and the drum are used as the main unit. Here the drum is equipped with the 3/4 inch double nipple with the locking nut and holds everything together well. On each side of the drum there is a pressure flange, which contains the shaft bearing on one side and the function of compressing the stuffing seal on the other. Inside the drum, marked in blue, are the three stuffing box cords which are then pressed together with the flange against the drum stop, thus allowing sealing. The pressure can be easily regulated via the flanges. The studs, three on each flange, have the task of creating the correct counterpressure when tightening the flanges and the seal in the correct position, so that the tightening screws are under pressure and nothing can come loose. The second is to use jacking screws when the bearings need to be pushed off the shaft for maintenance or stuffing box packing replacement.

The gear shaft side is provided with a bore and can be easily attached to the existing motor shaft flange by welding or can be brought to the correct dimension by drilling. The opposite side has a recess in which our threaded pipe connections for the flush drill pipe fit and can be fixed by a weld seam. However, you can also drill the hole and integrate and weld or otherwise fasten your threaded distributors for the existing flush pipe rods. We have also integrated a spanner flat for counterholding on the shaft, with which a counterholding can be held when opening the flush pipe rods with a 41 mm spanner.

Attention: The ball bearings, as shown in the picture, are not open at delivery, but are supplied as double-sided closed bearings. We have only removed the bearing covers from the drawing for a better understanding to be able to see how the bearings fit in the flanges.

 

The flushing head seals as stuffing box packings and the safety overflow

Changing the stuffing box bands on the rotary distributor / flushing head

The house-height advantage of a stuffing box packing over a mechanical seal in a flushing head for a well drilling rig

The material of the entire rotary union or flushing head

 

 

The attachment of the thread adapter (screw connection) for the flush pipe linkage to the rotary distributor / flush head

The production of the individual parts of the rotary distributor / flushing head with a CNC lathe

The production of the individual elements, which later form a flushing head, must first of all be cut to size as raw material blanks on a machine saw. Once this stage has been completed, the CNC lathe is set up and set up so that the machine is loaded with the CNC program and understands exactly how the production process is to be carried out. Once the program is loaded and the raw material is clamped and aligned in the head, the entire part should be roughed in this clamping in order to create the approximate contours that will later serve the shaft. In this process, all steps must be carried out precisely so that the dimensional accuracy is accurate. The most expensive is to work in the fits for the ball bearings for the drum and the shaft in order to place the ball bearings and the seals on them without play. The shaft must also have two surfaces turned on, which on the one hand serve as a sealing surface for the lip seals and on the other hand as ball bearing seats. The two shaft end holes must also be drilled and the cross holes for the water supply. The same is done with the flanges, which can be found on both sides of the (rotary union) flushing head and which exert pressure on the seals.

During the production of the drum housing for the rotary distributor or the (rotary feedthrough) flushing head, similar measures as mentioned above are necessary to start production on the CNC lathe. The raw material has to be precisely aligned in the chuck of the lathe and then the heels on both sides for the bearings and the seals have to be turned in. These surfaces are also mating surfaces and make the turned parts so expensive and complex because mating surfaces always have to be checked by multiple checks using limit plug gauges. In order to give you an insight into how such a CNC lathe works, we would like to show you this video, which does not show the production of a flushing head, but shows exemplary other processes for turned parts during the production on a CNC lathe.