This paper deals with a study of striker type impact hammer drill for improving the drilling performance. The study was performed through a numerical simulation of the impact hammer mechanism and an experimental comparison of the numerical simulation results was followed. Optimization of the impact mechanism was also performed. The numerical model of the impact hammer drill takes into account the striker motion and the effects of the pressure in the cylinder as well as the friction acting on the striker. The equation of motion is solved with the pressure equation in the cylinder including the friction force. The friction is considered as a combination of Coulomb friction and viscous damping friction. At the moment of impact, an ideal impact model that uses restitution coefficient is used to calculate the sudden change of the striker motion. The numerically simulated impact force shows a good agreement with the experimental result and thus, the validity of the numerical model is proven. Based upon the proposed model, an optimization was performed to improve the impact force of the hammer drill. The objective function is to maximize the impact force and the used design variables are striker mass, frequency of piston, bit guide mass, cylindrical diameter and dimensions of the mechanism components. Each design variable and some other conditions that are essential to manitain normal operation of the hammer drill are considered as constraints. The optimized result show a remarkable improvement in impact force and an experimental proof was investigated.