(Redirected from Full face drilling)
Full face drilling is when the excavation of a tunnel face is performed in one operation with the use of several rolling cutters mounted on the head of a tunnel boring machine. The high feed pressure and rotation of the head, against the tunnel face, leads to the crushing of entire rock face of the tunnel.
Full face drilling is a quicker method than the conventional drill-and-blast method. The two methods are often used in combination to excavate hardrock tunnels. The primary difference is that the full-face drilling method is used in the excavation of longer tunnels and the drill-blast method in excavating shorter tunnels.[1]
