The next step in top hammer drilling
Sandvik Alpha 340 has received the 2026 Wilhelm Haglund Medal for a drilling system that improves hole straightness, service life and drilling costs in underground mining.
In underground mining, efficiency is often decided by parts measured in millimeters.
For Sandvik, one of those parts is the thread connection in a rock drilling system. It is not the most visible component in a mining operation, but it carries repeated impact, transfers energy into the rock and has a direct effect on service life, hole quality and cost.
That is the engineering problem behind Sandvik Alpha 340, a thread system optimized for drilling 43 to 45 millimeter diameter holes in rock. The system replaces Sandvik Alpha 330, a widely used product among major underground mining customers for drilling blast holes, rock bolt holes and rock bolt applications.
At the 2026 Annual General Meeting, the team behind Sandvik Alpha 340 received the Wilhelm Haglund Medal for Product Developer of the Year. The award recognizes John Hammargren, Principal Engineer, Andreas Norman, Senior R&D Professional, and Stefan Karlsson, Production Engineer, for developing a system that has set a new benchmark in top hammer drilling.
The award highlights product development that is directly tied to customer economics. Better fatigue strength can mean longer service life. Straighter holes can improve drilling quality. Reduced wear can lower drilling costs over time.
A stronger profile
The development work began in 2016, as the patent for Sandvik Alpha 330 was approaching expiry. The task was not simply to replace a successful product, but to create a stronger one at a time when low-cost competitors were expected to move closer to the existing design.
After several years of development, the breakthrough came in 2020.
“After a sleepless night thinking about the relationship between thread pitch, flank angles and profile, I came up with the idea of Sandvik Alpha 340,” says Hammargren.
The answer was an engineered asymmetrical thread profile. In top hammer drilling, fatigue strength is critical because failures often begin where stress concentrates in the thread. The new design moves that stress concentration away from the tightening flank, the area where many failures start.
“The challenge is to optimize fatigue strength,” says Hammargren. “This engineered asymmetrical thread profile allows us to move the stress concentration away from the tightening flank where most failures start, and it has also prolonged thread wear life.”
From technical detail to customer value
The performance gains have been significant. Sandvik Alpha 340 delivers 40 to 100 percent better performance compared with competitor systems. Customers see benefits in hole straightness, service life and drilling costs.
The market response has followed. Since launch, sales of the system have increased by 700 percent, and the platform has already enabled the launch of Sandvik Alpha 360 for 48 to 51 millimeter holes.
That gives the system broader importance. Sandvik Alpha 340 is not only a successor to an established product. It is a platform that strengthens the Sandvik position in top hammer drilling and gives customers a route to more efficient underground operations.
For Hammargren, the award has personal significance.
“Winning the Haglund Medal has always been a personal goal for me,” he says. “It’s the finest award you can receive if you work in product development at Sandvik.”
The achievement reflects years of engineering persistence and a solution shaped by deep technical understanding of how drilling systems perform under pressure.