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New Support Page www.dando.co.uk  In order to make it easier for Dando customers, both current and prospective, to access our support services, we have launched a support page on www.dando.co.uk. This new service contains a contact form for directly contacting our product support services as well as other useful drilling and drilling rig information and tools. At launch the page will have a driller's conversion tool that can either be used online or downloaded to your PC. The conversion tool will allow unit conversion between commonly used units for a range of properties. See for yourself! Gopher it.
Dando Drilling Rigs have long promoted the use of low life-cycle cost cable percussion machines such as the Buffalo 3000 for the installation of water wells in rural Africa. Recently, however, in response to competition from cheaply built rotary machines, Dando have launched a new rig, the Dando Gopher.
The Gopher is a lightweight and compact trailer mounted drilling rig that can be used to drill with either mud or air and is ideal for drilling shallow water wells in harsh climates. For more information, get in touch with us via our website: www.dando.co.uk
Watertec 40 on site in Iraq
These are some images taken during commissioning in Iraq of one of two Watertec 40 water well drilling rigs supplied to the national Ministry of Water. Note the extending jack legs which are a unique feature of this largest Watertec rig.
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Water proves hedge against recession for Britain's number one rig builder
The drilling industry, as all industry, is subject to fluctuations in demand over which the participants have little or no control. The recent demand contraction across swaths of the civil engineering world has put this into sharp relief. The observed reduction in activity has been widespread with geotechnical investigation activity having declined not only in the UK but in many previously buoyant regions with strong UK ties including The Gulf and Australasia.
While conditions have undeniably improved, uncertainty persists over the strength and sustainability of global economic recovery, many planned purchases for geotechnical and civil engineering plant remain on hold or have been revised. There is strong consensus that demand will return and clear signs that the industry will be well placed to greet the recovery when it comes. But what happens until then?
Dando Drilling Rigs have been manufacturing and supplying water well drilling machines for over 140 years and have seen markets rise and fall but have always kept the constancy of humankind's need for clean, safe water at the heart of the business. As Managing Director, Martin Fitch-Roy says:
 'Dando has a long history and a strong brand built on supplying machines to get water from the ground and this has remained our primary focus. As new industries and new applications for drilling rigs have emerged, we have evolved, something that I believe our broad product range shows. Often we use what we have learned from the water well drilling to inform the design of new products for the geotechnical and geothermal markets just as we take innovations from these industries and improve our waterwell rig offer.
The main difference between the market for water well rigs and these other types of machines is the volatility of demand. The manufacture of rigs for all aspects of civil engineering is certainly profitable, particularly when demand is as voracious as it was during the middle part of this decade, but it can be very cyclical. The volatility arises from the complexity of the underlying demand (ie. the demand for construction and related activity) and the difficulty of predicting it. The demand for civil engineering plant is essentially a function of both the credit and the relevant asset markets and while we believe that the medium/long term prospects are very positive, it is to water well drilling equipment that we look for steadily increasing volumes.'
The main trends in water well drilling rigs are currently those of scale. 10 or 15 years ago a rig that could pull 10,000kg was considered relatively large whereas today it is more common that aid agencies, governments and, increasingly, private drilling contractors are inviting manufacturers to tender to build 30, 40 and even 60 tonne capacity machines.
We have identified several drivers behind this trend.
- Firstly, the increase in the scope of the large aid agencies in bringing water to increasingly remote and arid regions. This is likely in response to long term changes improvements in funding and international consensus on the need to use ground water as a preferred resource in certain areas.
- The necessity of deeper wells as poor management of shallower water sources allows unsustainable use or climate change effects change the recharge properties of aquifers in existing use.
- Faster drilling is required as demands on governments and NGOs ramp up in the developing world in response to increases in demand and the deleterious effects of climate change on water availability.
Dando have offered for some time a large water well machine, the flagship Watertec 40. This rig is fast becoming the prime choice for Government departments, often replacing the slightly smaller but hugely successful Watertec 24 model.
The Dando Buffalo in Action. Malawi, October 2009. The trusty Buffalo is still a low life-cycle cast alternative to cheaply built rotary machines.
Another development is the demand for smaller, cheaper drilling rigs that are suitable for use by smaller NGOs which are increasing in number at a dizzying rate. Dando have long advocated the use of low life-cycle cost cable percussion drilling machines such as the Buffalo 3000 for the developing world, but in response to fierce competition from low-cost rotary machines, Dando have relaunched the Dando Gopher, a 2,000kg pullback model that is ideal for all forms of water well drilling.
The tiny Gopher is an appropriate machine for shallow water well drilling
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