To face competition from Far East and South America the European stone industry aims at the improvement and optimisation of quarrying technologies in order to satisfy the growing demand of the end-users, which is expected to reach 53 million tons by 2010. Currently in Europe 40% of quarrying operations are performed with hand-held pneumatic top-hammers. Pneumatic top-hammers have a low energy efficiency, produce high levels of noise and vibrations, generate high hole deviationsand dust.

Medical Studies performed in the last years and ISO standards have highlighted that the maximum levels of vibration and noise that a worker can safely cope with over a 8 hour working shift are respectively 2 m/s2 and 85 dB while microscopic particles below 5 micron are responsible for cancer, silicosis and poisoning. The EC has recognized the seriousness of these problems, however none of the available equipment is able to guarantee vibrations below 4 m/s2 and noise below 100dB as well as full capture of micrometric particles.

The main objective of the project is to develop an innovative water powered Down-the-Hole hand-held hammer for quarrying of dimensional stone. The enabling technology is a novel and cost-effective deposition of a water and wear resistant Diamond Like Coating on the percussion piston/cylinder sliding surfaces. The principle innovation is the development of a water powered DTH Hammer capable of drilling straight holes with increased energy efficiency, reduced levels of noise and vibrations as well as full capture of micro-metric particles through the deposition a novel water and wear resistant coating technology. Main innovation of the coating concerns the deposition through remote plasma discharge that allows a low deposition temperature thus decreasing residual stress and providing unique water resistance properties. Further novelty is provided by the special mixture of gas precursor that enable the formation of friction sites that establish the unique frictional behaviour of the coating.