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Gold/Mining/Energy : Big Dog's Boom Boom Room
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To: Salt'n'Peppa who wrote (206167)12/10/2025 1:46:54 PM
From: David   of 206182
 
Automation of drill pipe handling has been around for over two decades. Called "iron roughnecks" on the rigs, pipe handling was done by remote control joysticks from the driller's control room, and then upgraded to almost completely computer operated on newer gen offshore rigs. I saw them first hand in 2009-12 during my time in the Gulf of Mexico. Definitely a life saver for crews and a time saver for operators.
Nothing new there.
Several companies make them, but NOV and Cameron were the preferred offshore equipment provider in my day. Not sure about now.
It is a VERY niche market. My money would go to RIG long before NOV, FWIW.

Assume you meant "picking" and not pickling". Pickling season was a couple of months ago. :)
I had one job for maybe 6 months making drawings for a drilling rig using some British software, mostly as built drawings as the rig load designs seemed to be significantly influenced by the workers on the shop floor. I remember doing drawings for a fuel skid and for an automated pipe handler they called a "cat walk". I was there near the end of the project and did not work on many of the about twenty loads.

At the end of the job I was revising titleblocks on drawings for the purpose of linking the titleblock to a database when a senior in the next cubicle checking my drawings said out loud "Why are we doing this?" and I said "Should I go home?", he responded "No". A day or two later I was let go.
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