Halliburton Energy Services, Inc.

Daniel Brendan Voglewede

Grant O Cook, Iii

Garrett T Olsen

Jeffrey Gerard Thomas

Grant O Cook

Yi Pan

Clayton Arthur Ownby

Jeffrey Glenn Thomas

Ronald Eugene Joy

William Brian Atkins

Jeff G Thomas

Venkkateesh Parthasarathi Padmarekha

Seth Garrett Anderle

Van Jordan Brackin

Curtis Clifford Lanning

Michael Clark

Kelley Leigh Plunkett

Krutibas Panda

Kevin Clark

Trung Quoc Huynh

Andrew D Lake

Philip Park Hung Leung

Matthew S Farny

Manoj Gangamwar

Darien Louis Gurka, Jr

Grant O Cook Iii

The present disclosure relates to an earth-boring drill bit including a shank, an internal region formed from at least a first alloy using additive manufacturing and secured to the shank, and an exterior region formed from at least a second alloy using additive manufacturing and secured to the internal region using additive manufacturing. The first alloy and the second alloy have a different modulus of elasticity, yield strength, resilience, ductility, hardness, fracture toughness, wear resistance, corrosion resistance, or erosion resistance. The disclosure further includes a method of manufacturing such an earth-boring drill by depositing a plurality of layers according to a drill bit specification using additive manufacturing.

Earth-boring drill bit formed by additive manufacturing

The present disclosure provides an earth-boring drill bit including a bit head and a shank. The shank includes a blank and a mandrel. The mandrel is concurrently formed by and secured to the blank by additive manufacturing. The mandrel includes a first region including a first alloy and a second region including a second alloy. The first alloy and the second alloy have a different modulus of elasticity, yield strength, resilience, ductility, hardness, fracture toughness, wear resistance, corrosion resistance, or erosion resistance. The disclosure also provides a mandrel wherein the second region comprises a sensor region or a fluid passageway having a geometry that is not obtainable in a mandrel that is cast, machined, or both. The disclosure additionally provides method of manufacturing such bits and mandrels.

Earth-boring drill bit mandrel formed by additive manufacturing

A drill bit has a plurality of cutters secured to the bit body, including a gauge cutter defining a gauge diameter of the drill bit. A reciprocating gauge assembly on the bit comprises a cavity defined in the bit body, a piston reciprocably disposed in the cavity, a wear element on an outwardly facing end of the piston, a piston retainer for moveably retaining the piston in the cavity, and a spring biasing the piston outwardly to a neutral position of the wear element with respect to the gauge diameter. The wear element and piston may be urged inwardly in response to an applied load at the drill bit gauge pad, increasing the lateral depth of cut and thereby controlling the aggressiveness of the bit in response to the load.

Drill bit with reciprocating gauge assembly

A pulsed power drilling (PPD) component includes a functional gradient of material from a first portion to a second portion of the PPD component. The functional gradient of material provides a greater wear resistance of the first portion relative to the second portion and a greater electrical conductivity or resistivity of the second portion relative to the first portion.

Binder jetting system and method for producing electromagnetic pulsed power drilling components

A metal-matrix composite tool includes a matrix region. The matrix region has a reinforcement material, an outer surface, and an inner, localized area spaced apart from the outer surface within the reinforcement material. The reinforcement material has a reinforcement density and the localized area has a localized density different from the reinforcement density. The matrix region has an overall matrix density different from both the reinforcement density and the localized density.

Variable density downhole devices

Wellbore drill bits can be used for excavation through subterranean formations for extracting hydrocarbons from a reservoir. Wellbore drill bits can experience excessive force during extraction processes. Drill bits can be assembled with resilience. Thus, treating a subsurface of a metallic blank material by adding one or more elements to the subsurface of the metallic blank material inhibits chemical interactions between a metal binding mixture and one or more construing alloying agents of the metallic blank material. The metallic blank material and a reinforcing agent can be positioned in the drill bit mold to begin an infiltration process where the metal binding mixture fills gaps between the metallic blank material and the reinforcing agent to generate a metal-matrix composite.

Surface treatment for a wellbore drill bit

Tools, for example, fixed cutter drill bits, may be manufactured to include hard composite portions having reinforcing particles dispersed in a continuous binder phase and auxiliary portions that are more machinable than the hard composite portions. For example, a tool may include a hard composite portion having a machinability rating 0.2 or less; and an auxiliary portion having a machinability rating of 0.6 or greater in contact with the hard composite portion. The boundary or interface between the hard composite portion and the auxiliary portion may be designed so that upon removal of the most or all of the auxiliary portion the resultant tool has a desired geometry without having to machine the hard composite portion.

Methods of removing shoulder powder from fixed cutter bits

A system for fabricating an infiltrated downhole tool for introduction into a wellbore includes a mold assembly including a binder bowl, a mold, a preformed blank, and a funnel. The binder bowl has a lower portion and a plurality of apertures extending through the lower portion. The preformed blank is disposed within the infiltration chamber to provide an attachment area for a body of the infiltrated downhole tool, and the funnel is disposed intermediate the binder bowl and the mold. The system further includes a binder flow channel which extends through at least one of the preformed blank, the funnel, or a displacement core disposed within the mold assembly, the blank being concentrically arranged around the displacement core.

Rapid infiltration of drill bit with multiple binder flow channels

The disclosure provides downhole tools with shaft regions that are hardened by a compressive residual stress created when an allotropic material in a precursor region transforms from a first allotrope to a second allotrope in response to heat, while continuing to occupy the same physical space. The disclosure further provides methods of forming such downhole tools.

Compressive residual stress-hardened downhole tool shaft region

A mold assembly and method for fabricating an infiltrated drill bit may comprise a mold forming a bottom of the mold assembly, a funnel operatively coupled to the mold, an infiltration chamber defined at least partially by the mold and the funnel to receive and contain matrix reinforcement materials and a binder material used to form the infiltrated drill bit, a displacement core arranged within the infiltration chamber and having one or more legs that extend therefrom, a metal blank arranged about the displacement core within the infiltration chamber, and one or more thermal elements. A method may comprise providing a mold assembly having component parts that include a mold that forms a bottom of the mold assembly and a funnel operatively coupled to the mold, imparting thermal energy to the infiltration chamber with one or more thermal element, and heating contents contained within the infiltration chamber.

Mold assemblies that actively heat infiltrated downhole tools

Drill bits and associated methods of manufacture and use employ a pre-diffused mandrel bonded to a composite metal-matrix material. The pre-diffused mandrel includes a chemically altered surface composition that enhances the bond with the composite metal-matrix component formed by infiltrating a metal-matrix component with a binder. The chemically altered surface may be configured to reduce binder-rich zones adjacent the mandrel, mechanically interlock the with the composite metal-matrix component or prevent the formation of brittle intermetallic particles along the bond.

Pre-diffused mandrel coating to provide enhanced bonding between metallic and composite components

A metal matrix composite tool includes a body having hard composite portion that includes reinforcing particles dispersed in a binder material. At least some of the reinforcing particles comprise a monolithic particle structure including a core having irregular outer surface features integral with the core.

Mechanical-interlocking reinforcing particles for use in metal matrix composite tools

A method for forming localized binder in a drilling tool is disclosed. A method includes placing a reinforcement material in a matrix bit body mold, placing a localized binder material within the reinforcement material at a selected location in the matrix bit body mold, wherein the localized binder material confers a selected physical property at the selected location, placing a universal binder material in the matrix bit body mold on top of the reinforcement material, heating the matrix bit body mold, the reinforcement material, the localized binder material, and the universal binder material to a temperature above the melting point of the universal binder material, infiltrating the reinforcement material and the localized binder material with the universal binder material, and cooling the matrix bit body mold, the reinforcement material, the localized binder material, and the universal binder material to form a matrix drill bit body.

Localized binder formation in a drilling tool

Forming a precipitation hardened composite material having reinforcing particles and precipitated intermetallic particles dispersed in the binder material may involve heat treating the hard composite material at a temperature above a solvus line for the binder material and below a melting point of the binder material and quenching the hard composite material to a temperature below the solvus line of the binder material. At least some of the precipitated intermetallic particles in the precipitation hardened composite material may have at least one dimension less than 1 micron. Such precipitated intermetallic particles may optionally be grown to larger sizes by heat treating the precipitation hardened composite material at a temperature below the solvus line of the binder material.

Growing community of inventors

Spring, TX, United States of America

Daniel Brendan Voglewede