Thin Wall Wireline Core Drill Rods: Bigger Core Through the Same Hole

As mineral exploration pushes deeper and into smaller hole sizes, recovering more core through the same hole has become a direct driver of drilling economics. The thin wall wireline core drill rods of CGE Group (Wuxi) Drilling Tools Co., Ltd. — a state-owned manufacturer with 68 years of history — are supporting a growing number of deep-hole and slim-hole programs.

A bigger core through the same hole. 

Wireline coring retrieves the inner tube with an overshot on a wireline cable — no tripping of the drill string. Thin wall rods reduce the kerf, so the same hole diameter yields a larger core. The range covers BTW, NTW and HTW, all built to the DCDMA international standard for worldwide interchangeability with core barrels, casing and bits:

Manufacturing depth, from steel to thread. 

Rods are made from ZT950 (yield strength 950 MPa) and 30CrMnSiA (≥ 835 MPa) high-strength alloy steel, with tapered Q-thread joints, forged and heat-treated ends, and rod straightness of about 0.4 mm/m. The factory operates friction welding, petroleum casing and thread hardening production lines. All steel comes from well-known steel mills, verified by metallographic analysis and chemical composition testing; threaded products are fully inspected, with a final product sampling rate above 30%.

A state-owned manufacturer since 1958. 

Founded in 1958 and named the Geology Department Wuxi Drilling Tools Factory in 1964, the company is today a direct subsidiary of China Geological Equipment Group under SINOMACH, occupying about 80,000 square meters in Wuxi Huishan Economic Development Zone. It holds 81 product patents and is recognized as a National High-tech Enterprise. In 2011, its research on high-strength wireline core drill rods, part of a national "11th Five-Year" major project, won the National Science and Technology Progress Award and was widely applied in deep-hole exploration. From 2009 to 2010, the company also co-organized the formulation and revision of geological core drilling tool industry standards.

Recent news. 

In August 2026, a batch of Q-series drill rods featuring a double-end upset thin-wall structure, together with supporting tools, was shipped to Kazakhstan for deep-exploration projects in Central Asian mining fields. The TW series (NTW / NTWA / NTWH, HTW / HTWA / HTWH) is available in lengths from 1 m to 3 m, with OEM/ODM customization on request.

Serving the new round of national mineral exploration programs and global exploration markets, the company will continue to rely on its own factory's manufacturing capability and full-process quality control to deliver reliable, fully matched wireline coring tools. Visit the TW series product page on our website for detailed specifications, or contact us for spec sheets and sample orders.