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PRD Interim – August Issue

MD DESK

The month of August always sets the pace for us to close strong at the year-end. This month was very eventful with its ups and downs. We have sure got busy after COVID – 19 lockdown. In the export area, we have reached the optimal production capacity. Our design and development team also has its share of appreciation with the completion of a 6-month long project on Rod-handling feeder design. The concept was completed and showcased, at exporters we look at equaling our YTD sales this month billing.

In the domestic front, the major participation came through an exhibition organized by CII. India’s first virtual construction mining exhibition called DiECE 2020, estimated to have a Global Participation of around 7500 visitors and 3000 exhibitors. PRD is a title sponsor showing our keen involvement in digital tech, also we ended the month with a celebration of 93rd Birth Anniversary of Late Thiru T.A. Ponnusamy Aasariyar with which we organized a blood donation camp. Successful donations of over 100 volunteers.

As the coronavirus is still a serious threat to our community, I urge everyone to follow strict COVID – 19 protocols of social distancing and wearing masks. Be safe and ensure your community safe.

DOMESTIC NEWS

93rd Birthday of our Vishwakula Thilagam
We honored and celebrated 93rd Birth Anniversary of Vishwakula Thilagam Late Thiru T.A. Ponnusamy Aasariyar on 18th August 2020, father of our respected chairman and grandfather of our beloved Managing Director, at premises of the corporate office.

Our chairman paid respect by garlanding the statue followed by our beloved Managing Director, Family Members, Staffs, Local Personnel, and the general public.

To mark this occasion, Blood Donation camp has been conducted at T.A. Ponnusamy Aasariyar Alamelu Ammal Marriage Hall by Indian Red Cross Society, 25 donors from the PRD Rigs India factory has donated Blood with a total of 100 donors. Also, Certificate of Appreciation given to each Donor by Govt Blood Bank of Tamil Nadu.

Webinars
A webinar – Online Seminar, Virtual platform online which helps to reach a wider audience, promote business, market know-how and lead generation tool.
In PRD Rigs India – Domestic Marketing have attended 3 webinars in this month as follows
• Aggregate Sustainability India Perspectives – Conducted by Crushing & Quarrying World Team.
• Borewell Drilling Rate – Conducted by Rigs India 24×7
• Innovation through startup in Mining & Mineral Sector – Conducted by Mining Engineers Association of India – Hyderabad Chapter.
The above webinars help the team to understand about Market situation post COVID 19 lockdown with
respect to different segments/applications for our drilling rigs.

AROUND THE GLOBE - IMPACT OF COVID IN WEST AFRICA

As countries in the region navigate the uncertainties of the COVID-19 pandemic, their governments should learn lessons from the management of the crisis so far. This will help inform policy choices and societies’ responses to future crises.

Among the eight worst affected countries in Africa, three – Nigeria, Ghana, and Cameroon – are in West Africa and the Lake Chad Basin. Despite variations in individual countries’ situations, Africa so far maintains relatively low declared morbidity and high recovery rates.

In Senegal, initial government consultations ensured a wide social consensus about the restrictions
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, elections have taken place in Guinea, Mali and Benin. Polls in some countries were inherently risky, and the pandemic added an extra layer of conflict or more opportunity in the case of some governments. In all these countries, the political context has strongly influenced COVID-related decision making.

Citizens’ compliance with COVID-19 measures isn’t static – it changes as the situation evolves
In Guinea, the elections took place amid political agitation around a possible constitutional change aimed at paving the way for a third term for President Alpha Condé. Opposition parties suspect Condé restricted political freedoms to achieve his goals.

In Mali, the double threat of terror attacks and the spread of COVID-19 probably contributed to keeping voters away from polling stations. The abduction of opposition leader Soumaïla Cissé by unknown groups compounded an already volatile situation.

As Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Niger are scheduled to hold elections this year, numerous lessons should be drawn regarding voter registration, innovative campaigning, sanitized polling stations, consultations, and consensus-building, among others.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres’ call for a ceasefire during the pandemic didn’t resonate with most violent extremist groups in the Sahel and the Lake Chad Basin. Available data doesn’t indicate an increase in the number of attacks but shows a continuation of the existing trends.

WHAT’S NEW IN THE FACTORY - MASSIVE LAND MOVING MACHINE JCB 3DX

The latest acquisition in the factory is the massive land moving machine which our honorable chairman purchased for saving costs on installations and execution of earthmoving activates. Instead of hire and service, we purchased our very own JCB 3DX 12 m reach backhoe loader which is very versatile and used for multi applications.

As the first use of the JCB was innovatively applied for pouring concert on to the mezzanine floor in the upcoming shop floor area. It was very adaptive and saved us 7 hours and 14 working hours of labor. Moreover, the job was completed without a mess created on the shop floor.

Congratulations to the team. Safe and speedy work.

TECH FUTURE - COVID-19 VACCINE

India may get Oxford’s COVID-19 vaccine in December; Covaxin may also be available by year-end
As the novel coronavirus continues to wreak havoc across the world, scientists and researchers across the world are making great strides in developing a vaccine to combat the spread of the highly infectious disease. Currently, there are more than 160 vaccine candidates in different stages of clinical trials and 32 vaccines have already reached the crucial human trials phase. With more than 22 million coronavirus cases across the world, a vaccine fit for human use remains our biggest hope in containing the novel coronavirus.

Oxford vaccine to be called COVISHIELD in India
India, which reported more than 12 lakhs COVID-19 cases in the month of August (the highest in the world), is already developing two indigenous coronavirus vaccines, namely COVAXIN & ZyCoV-D. As of now, the country is hopeful that the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Oxford University’s Jenner Insititute might the first coronavirus vaccine to be available for Indians by the end of 2020. The vaccine candidate backed by Kindly share your information / feedbacks / suggestions to mithun@prdrigs.com British-Swedish pharmaceutical AstraZeneca will be launched under the brand name COVISHIELD in India.

SII to produce a billion doses of Oxford Vaccine
The British Pharma giant AstraZeneca has tied up with the Pune-based Serum Institute of India to produce a billion doses for low-income nations including India. The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) had already given the go-ahead to conduct the Phase II/III trial of the Oxford vaccine in India. The trials are being conducted in 17 selected sites across India on 1600 volunteers, including KEM and Nair Hospitals of Mumbai.

Covid-19: Oxford vaccine may be the first shot for India
Given that Oxford’s COVID vaccine trials are already in advanced stages in India and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and Ahmedabad-based Zydus Cadila’s Zycov D are only in the early phases of human trials, India is hopeful that Oxford’s vaccine could be the first COVID-19 shot given to Indians.

Covaxin may be available by the end of 2020 says health minister Harsh Vardhan
It should be noted that clinical trials of India’s locally produced vaccine ‘Covaxin’ and ‘Zycov D’ have been fasttracked and both the vaccine candidates are looking to complete their human trials by the end of 2020. This would essentially mean that a homegrown coronavirus vaccine may be pushed out in public circulation by the first quarter of 2021, as per the Heath Minister of India.

TECHNICAL CORNER - BLAST HOLE - ADVANTAGE OF SINGLE-PASS DRILLING

Long mast
The drilling of large diameter holes, 9 inches in diameter, is done predominantly with rotary blast hole drills. One of the reasons for this is that larger diameter tricone bits allow for large bearings to handle high pulldown forces to drill through hard rock quickly.

These high pull down loads require a heavy tower structure to transmit these pull-down forces to the drill bit. Further, this high pull-down must be offset by sufficient mass to keep the drill rig from lifting off the ground. The resulting rig is therefore quite heavy.
With a heavy, durable rig already dictated by a large hole diameter, drill designers are able to take advantage of the large platform to offer longer towers capable of drilling benches in one pass. This often drives a change in structural design and supporting components such as undercarriages, but the basic rig envelope doesn’t change. Drilling a hole in one pass has many advantages.

Elimination of rod changing time
Adding a rod may take 45 to 60 seconds depending on the size of the rig, and taking the rod back off may take 60 to 90 seconds. The extra time for removing a rod is due to the extra cycle required to lower the head to pick up the next rod.

The effect of rod changing time is more dramatic in soft material, as shown in Fig 1. Surprisingly, it is the large metals mines that pioneered the use of single-pass drills, even though they may see limited productivity benefit. In extremely hard rock such as that encountered in taconite, the single-pass benefit might only be 3 percent. At the other extreme would be very soft coal overburden.

This material can be drilled with claw-type bits at rates of 400 meters/ hour or more. In this situation, a single- pass drill would yield an overall productivity gain of over 25 percent.

Simplified operation
Even in situations where the productivity gain from eliminating rod changes is relatively small, there are benefits. Operators don’t have to worry about the rod changing operation, which consists of 10 actions to add a rod and 13 actions to remove a rod.

Eliminating these tasks during each hole reduces the chance for errors such as cross-threading the tool joints on the drill rods or dropping a rod.
Tasks such as changing a bit in the middle of the hole or reaming the hole to clear out cuttings are much simpler when you don’t have to add or remove rods. These factors could increase overall productivity by a few more percent.

PRD Rigs

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