CUTTING ELEMENTS

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Upon completion of this module, you should be able to list and describe the two
major types of cutting elements:

 Steel Tooth
 Insert

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CUTTING ELEMENTS
Steel tooth and insert bits are designed to penetrate the rock due to the heavy weight
applied on the bit and they are also designed to incorporate action on bottom for
scrapping the formation. At the same time, rock behavior changes from brittle to
plastic at great depth (high confined pressure) which offsets the efficiency of the
cutting structure, and the abrasiveness of the rock has a great impact on the cutting
elements wear.
The two major groups of cutting elements are steel teeth, fully or partially covered
with hardmetal, and tungsten carbide inserts. We are using a diamond feature, (DEI)
Diamond Enhanced Inserts, in very abrasive formations and it is working very well.

STEEL TOOTH
The tooth shape has a rectangular base pyramidal frustum with established relations
of height, crest length, profile or groove angle and tooth angle. A careful balance
between aggressiveness and strength must be maintained when selecting the
length, angle and radii to prevent tooth breakage.
Steel bits use the strength of the heat treated material to support the loads and
stresses applied to the teeth while drilling. Tooth wear, due to the abrasion during
tooth penetration and scrapping motion, is resisted by application of hardmetal over
the tooth by different processes like Atomic Hydrogen (XT line) and Oxy-acetylene
(XS line).
The hardfacing materials are basically a mixture of tungsten carbide particles of
different grit, shapes and processes blended in specific percentages to obtain
different grades of weld rod with varying wear resistance, weldability and toughness.
In soft and medium formation drilling, hardfacing is crucial to obtain satisfactory
durability and ROP performance. When drilling harder formations, the hardfacing will
chip off due to the increased weight applied to overcome formation resistance to
penetration.
The gauge surface is the most heavily stressed area of the bit cutting structure,
especially at the gauge tip which is the most over worked zone due to the dual
function of penetrating the formation and scrapping the side of the hole wall.
The tooth tip, where gauge surface and the gauge tooth crest meet, is generally the
most important area of the steel tooth bit and requires a lot of analysis and
compromise between formation type, strength, abrasiveness, gauge configuration,
number of teeth on gauge, and required penetration rate to obtain a durable gauge.
If that tooth tip wears prematurely (gauge rounding) it will create a serious problem
for the cutting structure and increase bearing load. End results can be alleviated, but

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not cured, by increasing hardmetal thickness on the gauge surface or by pressing flat
inserts on surf area or diamond ones on gauge tooth root.

The basic types of tooth hardfacing are:

ATOMIC HYDROGEN HARDFACING

An arc welding process that is used for the application of hardmetal on most bits
larger than 12-1/4” and in situations where the costs of hardmetal application is
critical. Atomic hydrogen (often referred to as “atomic”) welded hardmetal
application is not as wear resistant as oxy-acetylene applied hardmetal but it has
significant manufacturing and cost benefits.

OXY-ACETYLENE HARDFACING
The oxy-acetylene process is a gas welding process that has several advantages
over atomic hydrogen welding where it is feasible. Due to intrinsic process
characteristics, such as the temperature of the weld puddle, the oxy-acetylene
hardfacing (commonly referred to as “oxy”) contains a larger percentage of carbide
particles, dissolves less of the carbide during application and includes encapsulated
diamond pellets. These diamond pellets, which have a propriety coating allowing
bonding with the hardmetal, provide additional wear resistance and are synonymous
with the “Diamond TECH2000” hardfacing name. Oxy hardfacing provides an
approximate twenty-five percent gain in wear resistance over atomic hardfacing but
due to the nature of the process it takes more than twice as long to apply and the
hardfacing rod is more expensive. As the cone size becomes larger that difference

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becomes greater to the point that it is almost impossible to apply oxy to our largest
size bits, therefore oxy hardfacing is the standard hardfacing up to the 12-1/4” bit
size range with larger cones receiving atomic hardfacing. There are some
exceptions based on either cost considerations where smaller bits have atomic
hardfacing for specific applications or performance requirements, such as long hour
17-1/2” bits with oxy hardfacing for extra life.

SEM photograph showing diamond and carbide particles in Diamond TECH2000 hardfacing.

OXY-ACETYLENE HARDFACING WITH CLAWS

One of the advantages that oxy-acetylene welding provides is the ability to produce
the proprietary claw feature in our tooth bits. The claw is a series of slots placed in
strategic locations in the tooth crest to reduce the cupping action typically found on a
dull tooth. The addition of the claw delays the breakdown of the tooth crest allowing
the tooth to maintain a sharper shape and reduces the wear rate as well as the
delays the decline in ROP as the structure wears. The claw feature can only be
provided on teeth hardfaced with the oxy process.

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INSERTS
The other and most used type of cutting element is tungsten carbide inserts. This
sintered product uses cobalt as a binder with tungsten carbide with properties
adjusted to fit their application through variation in cobalt content and grain size.
Inserts are also referred to as compacts or buttons.

CARBIDE GRADES
Tungsten carbide inserts are formed from carbonized tungsten powder mixed with a
cobalt binder and then sintered to the desired size and shape. The higher the cobalt
content, the tougher and less brittle the insert becomes and conversely, the lower the
content, the more wear resistant the insert. The increased extension in soft
formation inserts along with the scrapping and sliding cutting motions require the
toughness of the insert with higher cobalt content. The grain size of the softer,
tougher inserts is larger as well. The shorter, hard formation inserts require wear-
resistance over toughness; therefore they have lower cobalt content and smaller
grain sizes. The wear resistance of a given carbide grade is typically directly related
to the hardness of the insert and fracture toughness reflects the resistance to
breakage.
The carbide grade number is a 3 digit number with the 1st number indicating the
carbide grain size, and the 2nd & 3rd numbers indicating the percent of cobalt content
(binder material).
For example, an insert made of 616 carbide grade materials has an average grain
size of 6 microns and 16% cobalt content.

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In general the toughness and hardness of tungsten carbide inserts are considered to
be inversely related as is demonstrated by the diagram shown below.

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Insert Shapes
Inserts can be roughly categorised by a few principal features such as insert
extension, buried depth, diameter, shape and carbide grade. The insert extension is
defined by the height of the portion of the insert that projects above the cone surface
and the buried depth is the length of the cylindrical portion that is below the surface
and pressed into the cone material. The diameter is the diameter of the largest
cylindrical part of the insert measured perpendicular to the insert centerline.
The inserts are defined by families of insert shapes with similar topologies and
dimensional descriptions meaning every insert in that group can be defined by the
same drawing by changing only the dimensional values. The carbide shapes are
each defined by a two-digit code for design purposes as shown below.

10 Surf

17 Full Faced Diamond Surf (same shape as Surf)

20 Ovoid

24 Hemispherical

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28 Diamond Enhanced Ovoid (same shape as Ovoid)

30 Conical

38 Diamond Enhanced Conical (same shape as Conical)

40 Double Conical

50 Tooth (also called Chisel)

55 Rooftop Tooth

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58 Diamond Enhanced Tooth (same shape as Tooth)

60 Shaped Gauge

65 Angled Shape Gauge (EB orientation)

INSERT DESIGN
The selection and design of an insert involves the same compromises as selection of
the material; aggressiveness is typically inversely related to toughness. It is obvious
that a tooth shaped insert with a long extension is more aggressive and will probably
generate higher ROP but it is likewise more vulnerable to breakage and is usually
made of a softer, less wear resistance carbide to increase toughness. The best
method for selection of insert shape and material grade is based on the type of
cutting structure and any available dull bit information.
When trying to correct cutting structure issues there are often very subtle changes to
material or shape features, such as the crest radius on a tooth insert that can
significantly affect performance. There are an almost infinite number of possible
combinations of shapes, size and materials as evidenced by the fact that we
currently have more than nine hundred different inserts available for use in cutting
structure design. The creation of new compact shapes is limited by standardizing
some features, like the compact diameters and available materials.
Most of the discussion of inserts is focused on the portion of the insert that extends
above the cone surface because that is where the cutting is performed but it is
essential to have a properly selected buried depth as well. It seems obvious that you
would like as much buried depth as possible for insert retention but there are again

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compromises that must be made to achieve maximum performance. Virtually every

design has limitations on the number of inserts that can be placed in a given row due
to the clearances required between the bottoms of the holes in which the inserts are
pressed. A reduction in the number of inserts in a row spaces the insert holes further
apart and allows for more buried depth and better insert retention, but obviously
reduces that amount of inserts available for accomplishing their desired purpose of
cutting the bottom of the well bore. Design “rules of thumb” based on experience
and empirical observations have been established to limit the risk of lost inserts.
Examples are:
 The buried length on an insert is always greater than or equal to the diameter.
 The buried length of an insert must equal or exceed the extension.

These restrictions, as well as most design standards, are integral to the design
software. The Performance Improvement section will provide additional information
on suggested cutting element changes to resolve specific performance issues.

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