Tri-Con™ HDD Connection System: Redefining Job-Site Efficiency

Ask any HDD crew foreman where the production dollars are won or lost, and they’ll point to the clock. Every minute the rig sits idle while the crew wrestles with breakout tongs or seized threaded connections is a minute that isn’t putting pipe in the ground. That simple truth drove Melfred Borzall to create the Tri-Con System, an innovative, non-threaded, rounded triangular connection that replaces time-consuming threaded make-ups with two heavy-duty coiled pins and a smooth, load-spreading geometry.

A Breakthrough Born in the Mud

The engineers started shoulder-to-shoulder with drillers, watching crews go through the standard changeover (unthreading the bit, unthreading the housing, threading on the reamer, and threading on the pulling eye), and it revealed a choke point: the connection. Even when everything goes perfectly, torquing a 2 3/8-in. API Reg takes minutes. Add imperfect elements, such as galling or seizing, and suddenly the crew is burning daylight—and profit.

Tri-Con flips that process on its head. When the pilot bore is finished, the driller uses a punch and hammer to drive out the two coiled pins, slides the bit off the housing’s rounded triangular connection, and slips on a reamer, pulling eye or Tri-Con swivel for direct pullback. Two fresh pins go in, the locator confirms depth, and the rod is moving again.

Timed head-to-head: Independent crews clocked a complete change-over in 7 minutes with Tri-Con versus 30 minutes using the traditional threaded sequence—a 4X speed advantage that compounds on every job.

Field-Proven Strength in a Compact Package

Speed means nothing without strength, so Melfred Borzall over-built the connection. The rounded triangular geometry puts 25 percent more surface area in contact than competing connections, distributing stress evenly and eliminating high-pressure corners.

The compact 3¼-in. The Tri-Con transmitter housing maintains that strength in a footprint small enough for 18-in. launch and exit pits. Crews laying fiber or gas services in manicured yards appreciate the smaller pits just as much as the faster swaps. Less dirt out means less dirt back in—another time saver that rarely shows up on the bid sheet but always hits the bottom line.

A Driller’s Testimony

No brochure says it better than a satisfied customer. Danny Alvarado, owner of Alvarado Directional Drilling, put the system through its paces on a 500-ft utility shot that transitioned from clay to hardpan:
“We’d planned a full half-hour for the changeover because that’s what 25 years in the business has taught us–with Tri-Con, we were reaming in seven minutes.”

Alvarado’s crew also noted a less-obvious benefit: less fatigue. Without heavy breakout wrenches, hands and backs stayed fresher, and morale stayed high—an advantage that shows up in both safety stats and crew retention.

Innovation That Pays for Itself

Add up the parts—7-minute swaps, 18-inch pits, 60 k lbf tensile strength, rebuildable cutters, pennies-cheap pins—and the math is simple. Every hour saved in change-overs is an hour the rig can drill; every smaller pit is less restoration; every spared back is one less claim. That’s innovation a spreadsheet can measure.

Whether you’re pulling fiber through city streets or setting water main beneath a cul-de-sac, the Tri-Con System turns the slowest part of the job into the fastest—and pays for itself in days, not months. Drillers like Danny Alvarado are already banking the savings. How long will you let the clock run before you do the same?

Joshua Parker is Director of Marketing & eCommerce, Melfred Borzall