Abstract: Boring apparatus for drilling laser guided microbore tunnels uses a liquid stream to remove soil as slurry and an airstream to conduct the slurry away from the bore head. The cylindrical head houses a drill shaft steered by a pair of remotely controlled rams according to the position of a laser spot on a target fixed close to the end of the drill shaft. Small arcuate steering movements shift the cutter up and down through a first ram alongside the shaft working through a linkage. Side to side steering is provided by a second ram acting directly on the shaft. The components are mounted on an axial base wall which gives repair access and camera view of the target. A drilling platform has rams for advancing the cylindrical head.

Abstract: A micro tunnelling machine has a tunnelling head with a boring bit which is forced in a horizontal direction by a hydraulic thruster. The direction of the head is laser guided. The beam strikes a target in the head and a camera relays an image of the target to an operator located at the tunnel entrance. The operator adjusts the direction by admitting water and draining water from a pair of rams inside the head which move the boring bit up and down or left and right. Water is introduced into the boring bit through the drive shaft of the boring bit. The water forms a slurry which is extracted by a vacuum pipe which enters the slurry as droplets and particles and conducts them away from the tunnelling head.