The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 05, 2002
Filed:
Jul. 22, 1996
Applicant:
Inventor:
Stephen G. Southland, Spring, TX (US);
Assignee:
Smith International, Inc., Houston, TX (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
B29C 3/900 ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
B29C 3/900 ;
Abstract
A mold is formed for an building earth boring bit by designing the bit geometry in three dimensions using a computer aided design (CAD) system and then feeding the geometry data of the design to a layering device. The layering device then builds the mold a layer at a time. Materials used in building the mold include, sand, graphite, ceramic, clay, other refractory materials, plastic, rubber and wax. Once the mold is formed, powdered steel or tungsten carbide is poured into the mold and is cured by press molding or infiltrating with a binder forming a bit body. Cutting elements are then inserted in the bit body forming the earth boring bit.