In Russia’s energy, power generation and mining sectors, every unplanned shutdown comes with a heavy price: lost production, maintenance labor, spare parts and delivery risk. Field maintenance teams frequently complain about a recurring issue when drilling steel structures, supports and thick-wall components: “The drills just don’t last. They dull fast, chip easily, and we constantly have to stop and change tools.”

Maintenance drilling is very different from stable, serial production. It often involves high-strength materials, larger diameters, difficult access, hand-held or portable machines and limited coolant. Under these conditions, general-purpose HSS drills struggle to deliver both tool life and reliable hole quality; teams are forced into very conservative feeds and speeds yet still face frequent tool failures.

A Wear-Resistant Drill Concept for Maintenance Environments

In these high-downtime-cost scenarios, the main objective is not maximum productivity, but extended tool life and low risk of sudden failure per tool. A suitable technical strategy includes:

• Choosing HSS-M35 or similar cobalt-alloyed HSS for higher hot hardness and wear resistance;

• Using reinforced, robust geometries that trade a bit of sharpness for greater resistance to chipping and micro-fracture;

• Applying a Black & Gold steam-tempered oxide layer to enhance lubricity and chip flow where coolant is limited;

• Incorporating sensible pilot-drilling and step-drilling strategies, instead of attacking large diameters in a single pass.

Typical Wear-Resistant Drill Parameters for Maintenance

How Russian Users Can Turn Drill Life into Less Downtime

• Equip maintenance teams with a standard drilling kit: A defined set of wear-resistant drills covering key diameters, instead of random mixes from different suppliers.

• Measure tool value by completed tasks, not unit price: Track how many holes and maintenance jobs each drill completes before change-out.

• Set simple, practical criteria for regrind and discard: Avoid running drills to catastrophic failure, which can cause stick-ups, breakage and extra damage.

When maintenance operations move from “improvised drill sourcing” to a planned wear-resistant drill platform, Russian energy and heavy equipment operators can significantly reduce tool-related downtime and improve confidence in on-site repair work.