The products required by customers today have become far more complex and consequently more demanding to handle. And there's the dilemma. Nowadays, people tend to stick to a trade for just a few years instead of for a lifetime, and this means that the customer's employees cannot be expected to get more than general knowledge of how to handle modern mining and construction equipment._x000D_
To meet this challenge, major steps are being taken by suppliers to make their muscles' more user-friendly. Also the supplier is assuming a larger share of responsibility for the product including operators training, supply maintenance services and, in many cases, performance guarantees. In other words, the supplier is today supplying a function or an activity rather than just muscles._x000D_
Some of the new generation drill rigs have been on the market for a few years and reliable experience has been collected and is addressed in this paper. Some of the information is well supported by figures while others are just statements from users of the rigs._x000D_
FORMAL CITATION:Nord, G, 2005. Modern underground drilling rigs and their effect on mine production and preparation, in Proceedings Ninth Underground Operators' Conference 2005, pp 111-116 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).