Baker Hughes Corporation

Hughes Tool Company LLC

Hughes Tool Company-USA

George E Dolezal

Joseph L Kelly, Jr

Anton F Zahradnik

Matthew Ray Isbell

Bruce H Burr

Edward M Galle

Brian Andrew Baker

Rudolf Carl Otto Pessier

Robert A Cunningham

Brian Christopher Wiesner

Thomas M Harris

Philip B Kirk, Ii

Turlach Paul Boylan

James Lawrence Jacobsen

Douglas J Clinkscales

Ronald R Campbell

Richard T Upton

An earth-boring bit for attachment to a drill string has rotatable cones with rows of cutting elements. The cutting elements are arranged in generally circumferential rows on each of the cones and interference fit into apertures in the shell surface. The rows include a heel row of cutting elements on the heel surface of each of the cones, and an adjacent row of adjacent row cutting elements next to the heel row cutting elements. Each heel row cutting element has at least one counterpart adjacent row cutting element that is spaced no farther from it than any other adjacent row cutting element, defining a proximal pair. Each of the cutting elements in each of the proximal pairs has a grip ratio, which is the barrel length divided by the diameter. Some of the proximal pairs having cutting elements with higher grip ratios than other cutting elements. None of the proximal pairs has both cutting elements with higher grip ratios.

Long barrel inserts for earth-boring bit

An earth-boring bit has a bit body and at least one bearing shaft depending inwardly and downwardly from the bit body. The bearing shaft has a base and a generally cylindrical bearing surface and at least one cutter is mounted for rotation on the bearing shaft. A bearing seal recess is formed generally at the base of the bearing shaft and defines a cylindrical seal face radially recessed from the journal bearing surface. A cutter seal recess is formed in the cutter generally opposite the bearing seal recess and defines a bearing cylindrical seal face. The cutter and bearing seal recesses define a seal gland including a pair of opposed radial seal surfaces. A resilient seal ring is disposed in the seal gland and compressed between the cylindrical seal faces.

Earth-boring bit with improved bearing seal

An earth-boring bit has a bit body, at least one cantilevered bearing shaft, including a base and a cylindrical journal bearing surface extending inwardly and downwardly from the bit body, and at least one cutter mounted for rotation on the cylindrical journal bearing surface of the bearing shaft. A seal assembly is disposed between the cylindrical journal bearing surface and the cutter proximally to the base of the cantilevered bearing shaft. The seal assembly includes at least one resilient sealing ring which is formed of a carboxylated hydrogenated acrylonitrile butadiene rubber.

Earth-boring bit with improved bearing seal assembly

An earth boring bit of the type having at least one rotatable cutter on a bearing shaft, a hydrostatic pressure compensator to balance the pressure of the lubricant with the pressure of the drilling fluid in the borehole, a metal face seal assembly of the type that enables movement of the seal to compensate for dynamic pressure changes in the lubricant as the cone moves on the bearing shaft, and a protuberance extending from a metal ring of the seal assembly into an aperture in the body of the bit adjacent the shaft with both axial and radial clearances sufficient to enable compensating movements of the seal assembly.

Mechanical lock to prevent seal ring rotation

A solid head earth boring bit has a central tungsten carbide core sealed at the lower end of a drilling fluid passage that extends through the bit to the face of the bit. The core has a nozzle passage extending through it that is offset from the axis of the drilling fluid passage. The core also has at least one cutting element secured to its face. The cutting elements are secured in holes in the core.

Solid head bit with tungsten carbide central core

An earth boring rock bit having a sealed bearing with air or gas as the circulating medium. An annular groove is formed in the vicinity of the seal and connected to the interior of the bit for cooling the seal and cleaning debris from the area of the seal. An air groove scraper is mounted on the shaft in the exit port of the annular groove to prevent the annular groove from becoming plugged by debris mixing with moisture in the hole.

Air groove scraper

Disclosed herein is an earth boring bit of otherwise conventional construction except for the bearing and cutter retention. A snap ring is used to retain the cutter, the grooves that receive the ring and the ring construction being such that the ring is forced into the retainer groove when the cone is thrust inward. The ring cannot therefor accidentally return to its assembly position to permit cutter loss. This enables the use of exclusively frictional bearings and retainer means of exceptional strength and reliability.

Earth boring drill bit with snap ring cutter retention

An earth boring bit has features to reduce stress concentration. The earth boring bit is of the type having three bit legs, each bit leg having a depending bearing pin for rotatably carrying a cutter. An annular fillet is formed at the junction of the bearing pin and the bit leg for receiving a seal ring. To relieve stress above the fillet and on the inside surface of the bit leg, a depression is formed. The depression is formed in the inside surface of the bit leg with a lower edge commencing at the top of the fillet. The depression is curved in vertical cross-section and is located behind the backface of the cutter.

Stressed relieved bit leg for an earth boring bit

A rock bit used for drilling with air as the circulating fluid, and a centrifugal separator to filter liquid and other contaminants from the air diverted to the bit bearings. The filter generates a fluid vortex with radial vanes, each having plural pitches, located within the shank of the bit. Bearing coolant passages, located beneath the separator, receive filtered air from a central, filtered air location. The vortex centrifugally forces the water and other contaminants outwardly into nozzle passages that direct fluid toward the bottom of the borehole.

Centrifugal water-air separation in earth drilling bits

Disclosed herein is a drill bit for earth boring that achieves pressure compensation or equalization of pressure across the seal separating the lubricant inside the bit from the drilling mud on the exterior of the bit by providing sufficient displacement of the seal to accommodate changes in lubricant volume caused by temperature and pressure changes encountered in drilling. By minimizing the volume of lubricant in the system, seal displacement may be minimized to produce pressure equalization across the seal without need for additional pressure equalization. Therefore, the lubrication system may be simplified and its reliability increased.

Growing community of inventors

Friendswood, TX, United States of America

George E Dolezal