Baker Hughes Oilfield Operations LLC

Andrew Robertson

Marc William Bird

Nicholas J Lyons

John A Bomidi

Jair Leal

Paul Butler-Smith

Amir Rabani

Methods of forming a cutting element include sintering diamond particles at a temperature of at least about 1400° C. under a pressure of at least about 10 GPa in the absence of a metal solvent catalyst so as to form a polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC), providing a barrier material over at least a portion of the PDC, providing a carbide material and a metal binder comprising at least one transition metal element over the barrier material and the PDC, and performing a second sintering process comprising sintering the carbide material, the metal binder, the barrier material, and the PDC at a temperature of at least about 1400° C. under a pressure of at least about 5 GPa to form the cutting element. At least a portion of the PDC proximate an exposed exterior surface of the PDC may be at least substantially free of the metal binder.

Polycrystalline diamond compact cutting elements, earth-boring tools including such cutting elements, and related methods of making and using same

A sintered cemented carbide includes a high entropy carbide or a spinodal decomposed product thereof; and a metallic binder containing at least one of Co, Co—Ru, Ni, Co—Ni, Co—Cr, Co—Ni—Cr, Co—Re, Co—Ni—Re, Co—Ni—Ru, or a high entropy alloy, wherein the high entropy carbide is a single-phase solid solution carbide comprising four to ten metallic elements, and the spinodal decomposed product thereof includes two chemically distinct phases having a same crystal structure. A sintered cemented carbide also includes a carbide including at least one of WC, TiC, ZrC, HfC, NbC, TaC, or CrC; and a metallic binder including a high entropy alloy. The high entropy alloy is an alloy of four to ten alloy elements selected from Al, Be, Fe, Co, Cr, Ni, Cu, W, V, Zr, Ti, Mn, Hf, Nb, Mo, Ru, Re, Ge, Sn, C, B, or Si.

Cemented carbide containing multi-component high entropy carbide and/or multi-component high entropy alloy

Methods of making cutting elements for earth-boring tools may involve intermixing discrete particles of superabrasive material with a binder material in a solvent to form a slurry. The slurry may be vacuum dried or spray dried to disaggregate individual precursor agglomerates including a group of discrete particles suspended in a discrete quantity of the binder material from one another. The precursor agglomerates may be sintered while exposing the precursor agglomerates to a quantity of catalyst material to form agglomerates including discrete quantities of polycrystalline, superabrasive material while inhibiting formation of inter-granular bonds among the agglomerates themselves. The agglomerates may subsequently be sintered while exposing the agglomerates to another quantity of catalyst material to form a table for the cutting element including inter-granular bonds among adjacent grains of the agglomerates.

Techniques for forming polycrystalline, superabrasive materials, and related methods and cutting elements for earth-boring tools

A method of making a cutting element for use on an earth-boring tool may include forming the cutting element including a cutting table formed from a superabrasive polycrystalline material. The method may further include polishing a cutting surface of the cutting table by pulsing a laser onto the cutting surface of the cutting table. The cutting element may include a superabrasive polycrystalline cutting table including a cutting surface substantially free of micro-anomalies in the superabrasive material.

Methods of making a cutting element for an earth-boring tool, methods of reprocessing cutting elements, and associated cutting elements

A cutting table for a cutting element, including: a diamond phase; a tungsten carbide phase; a cobalt-tungsten metallic phase; and an intermetallic phase comprising CoWC, where 0≤x≤1. Also disclosed is a method of manufacturing a cutting element, the method including: sintering diamond and tungsten carbide particles in the presence of Co and W to about 1520° C. or greater under pressure of about 57 kbar or greater to form a hard metal-diamond composite compact and solubilize carbon and tungsten within the compact; cooling the cutting element at about 1° C./sec or greater; and subsequent to cooling the cutting element, heat-treating the cutting element to precipitate carbon and tungsten in the compact as an intermetallic phase.

Precipitate-strengthened hard metal-diamond composite

A cutting element comprises a supporting substrate, and a cutting table attached to an end of the supporting substrate. The cutting table comprises a first region and a second region. The first region comprising inter-bonded diamond particles and is substantially free of at least highly catalytic metallic compounds, one or more non-catalytic compounds within interstitial spaces between the inter-bonded diamond particles, and voids within interstitial spaces between the inter-bonded diamond particles. The second region comprising inter-bonded diamond particles, one or more non-catalytic compounds within interstitial spaces between the inter-bonded diamond particles, and one or more metallic phases within interstitial spaces between the inter-bonded diamond particles. The first region of the cutting table has a content of elemental metal of at least about 2.6 wt %. A method of forming a cutting element, and an earth-boring tool are also described.

Selectively leached thermally stable cutting element in earth-boring tools, earth-boring tools having selectively leached cutting elements, and related methods

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The Woodlands, TX, United States of America

Andrew Robertson