Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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INTERMETALLIC ALUMINIDE POLYCRYSTALLINE
DIAMOND COMPACT (PDC) CUTTING ELEMENTS
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present disclosure is related to rotary drill
bits and associated cutting elements and more
particularly to fixed cutter drill bits and associated
cutting elements and/or inserts with hard layers of
cutting material disposed on at least one portion of
the cutting elements and/or inserts.
BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE
Polycrystalline Diamond compositions were
originally developed by General Electric. An early
reference to manufacture of these composites in an
ultra high pressure press is U.S. Patent 3,141,746 to
De Lai. In this reference De Lai describes a family
of metals that may be used to provide a catalyst for
diamond to diamond bonding in the manufacture of a
polycrystalline diamond composite (sometimes referred
to as a "polycrystalline diamond compact") (PDC). The
metal catalysts included by De Lai are iron, cobalt,
nickel, ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium,
iridium, platinum, titanium, chromium, manganese, and
tantalum. General Electric continued to test various
metal catalyst combinations throughout the 1960's and
1970's as is evident in the literature of PDC
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development.
Nickel, aluminum, and alloys thereof have
been used as binder catalysts for cubic boron nitride
(CBN) compacts and PDC.
In the mid 1980's new intermetallic materials,
including nickel aluminide (Ni3A1) began to find
commercial application.
Prior to the mid 1980's nickel
aluminide was often considered as having little
commercial value due to inherent brittleness and less
than desired hardness. The addition of approximately 1%
boron during production of intermetallic nickel aluminide
(INA) made it stronger or harder and more ductile while
at the same time maintaining high heat transfer
capability. A
key patent in this area is to Huang et
al., U.S. Patent 4,478,791.
Recent developments of Intermetallic Bonded Diamond
(IBD) by Wittmer and Filip as described in US Patent
Application Publication 2006/0280638 published on
December 14, 2006 and International Publication Number WO
2006/107628 published by WIPO on October 12th, 2006
disclose the use of nickel aluminide as a binder material
during production of Intermetallic Bonded Diamond (IBD).
Two further publications "Final Technical Report March 1,
2004 through December 31, 2004" and "Final Technical
Report January 1, 2005 through September 30, 2005" for
the project titled "Intermetallic-Bonded Diamond Tools
for Coal Mining" further describe their work and
observations.
Wittmer and Filip use various methods to produce IBD
composites including: heating in a furnace with
continuous flowing argon, vacuum/pressure sintering, and
hot isostatic pressing. Hot
isostatic pressing is well
known in the art and is the process often used to make
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impregnated diamond segments for rotary drill bits and
other downhole tools.
Typically such segments may
include a copper / nickel binder to bind a mixture of
tungsten carbide powder and small diamond particles. It
is important to note that IBD composites developed by
Wittmer and Filip do not involve diamond to diamond
bonding but rather form metallic binder with diamond
particles disposed therein.
Wittmer and Filip have identified several advantages
to their IBD composites. These
composites appear to be
more resistant to thermal degradation than composites
that use copper / nickel alloys or other metals as a
binder. In
addition it appears that the use of nickel
aluminide may retard the tendency of diamond to
graphitize at higher temperatures where diamond
graphitization typically occurs with copper / nickel
binders.
SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE
One aspect of the present disclosure may include
ultra high pressure manufacturing of polycrystalline
diamond composite (PDC) using an intermetallic aluminide
as a catalyst and forming cutting elements or inserts
with PDC's resulting from this process. For
example,
PDC's formed at least in part by using an intermetallic
aluminide as a catalyst may be attached to a substrate to
produce PDC cutters for rotary drill bits.
PDC cutters incorporating teachings of the present
disclosure may benefit from high heat transfer
capabilities of intermetallic aluminide as compared to
prior catalysts such as cobalt used to form PDC's. High
heat transfer may mitigate possible effects of
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differences between respective coefficients of expansion
of intermetallic aluminide and diamond. Heat
transfer
capabilities of an intermetallic aluminide may act
synergistically with the diamond crystals of such PDC's
to rapidly dissipate heat generated by friction at the
cutting tip or cutting surface.
PDC cutters incorporating teachings of the present
disclosure may benefit from an intermetallic aluminide's
ability to retard diamond graphitization at higher than
typical temperatures and in the presence of a ferrous
work piece.
Historically cubic boron nitride cutters
have been used to machine ferrous materials due to the
well known ineffectiveness of diamond in this
application.
Cubic boron nitride is generally not as
hard and wear resistant as diamond but is superior to
diamond in ferrous machining applications. The
capabilities of PDC cutters manufactured using an
intermetallic aluminide as a catalyst may overcome the
historic inapplicability of a PDC to satisfactorily
machine ferrous materials and may offer a superior
alternative to cutters made from cubic boron nitride.
IBD composites using nickel aluminide may be capable
of cutting ferrous material, such as gray cast iron, over
long periods of time with very little wear of cutting
surfaces formed with such IBD composites. It has always
been a given in machining ferrous materials that diamond
reacts chemically with ferrous material and breaks down
or graphitizes quickly at a frictional interface between
the diamond cutting element and the ferrous material.
This has been the case with cutting surfaces formed with
natural diamond, synthetic diamond, impregnated diamond
and PDC.
Apparently IBD composites made with nickel
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aluminide may not experience such break down of cutting
surfaces or graphitization of associated diamond.
Apparently thermal and/or chemical processes that break
down diamond during ferrous cutting applications may be
5 significantly retarded by using nickel aluminide as a
binder material to form a PDC.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
A more complete and thorough understanding of the
present embodiments and advantages thereof may be
acquired by referring to the following description taken
in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which
like reference numbers indicate like features, and
wherein:
FIGURE 1 is a schematic drawing showing one example
of an aluminide PDC cutting element or cutter
incorporating teachings of the present disclosure;
FIGURE 2 is a schematic drawing in section showing
another example of an aluminide PDC cutting element or
cutter incorporating teachings of the present disclosure;
and
FIGURE 3 is a schematic drawing in section with
portions broken away showing a layer of hard cutting
material formed from diamond pellets using an
intermetallic aluminide catalyst.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DISCLOSURE
Preferred embodiments of the present disclosure and
various advantages may be understood by referring to
FIGURES 1, 2 and 3 of the drawings. Like numerals may be
used for like and corresponding parts in the various
drawings.
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The terms "rotary drill bit" and "rotary drill bits"
may be used in this application to include various types
of roller cone drill bits, rotary cone drill bits, fixed
cutter drill bits, drag bits, matrix drill bits and PDC
drill bits operable to form a wellbore extending through
one or more downhole formations. Rotary drill bits and
associated components formed in accordance with teachings
of the present disclosure may have many different designs
and configurations.
Cutting elements and blades
incorporating features of the present disclosure may also
be used with reamers, near bit reamers, and other
downhole tools associated with forming a wellbore.
The terms "cutting element" and "cutting elements"
may be used in this application to include various types
of compacts, cutters and/or inserts satisfactory for use
with a wide variety of rotary drill bits. The
term
"cutter" may include, but is not limited to, face
cutters, gage cutters, inner cutters, shoulder cutters,
active gage cutters and passive gage cutters.
Polycrystalline diamond compacts (PDC), PDC cutters
and PDC inserts are often used as cutting elements for
rotary drill bits. Polycrystalline diamond compacts may
also be referred to as PDC compacts.
For some applications cutting elements formed in
accordance with teachings of the present disclosure may
include one or more polycrystalline diamond layers formed
on a substrate by using an intermetallic aluminide
catalyst. Such
layers may sometimes be referred to as
"cutting layers" or "tables".
Cutting layers may be
formed with a wide variety of configurations, shapes and
dimensions in accordance with teachings of the present
disclosure.
Examples of such configurations and shapes
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may include, but are not limited to, "cutting surfaces",
"cutting edges", "cutting faces" and "cutting sides".
The terms "cutting structure" and "cutting
structures" may be used in this application to include
various combinations and arrangements of cutting
elements, cutters, face cutters, gage cutters, impact
arrestors, protectors, blades and/or other portions of
rotary drill bits, coring bits, reamers and other
downhole tools used to form a wellbore. Some
fixed
cutter drill bits may include one or more blades
extending from an associated bit body. Cutting elements
are often arranged in rows on exterior portions of a
blade or other exterior portions of a bit body associated
with fixed cutter drill bits. Various configurations of
blades and cutters may be used to form cutting structures
for a fixed cutter drill bit in accordance with teachings
of the present disclosure.
One embodiment of the present disclosure may include
using nickel aluminide as a catalyst during production of
PDC cutters. Nickel aluminide is not a typical alloy of
nickel and aluminum, rather nickel aluminide is a well
ordered crystalline compound expressed as NiIAl. It
is
one of an emerging materials family of intermetallic
aluminides that also includes iron aluminide, cobalt
aluminide, titanium aluminide, nickel-platinum aluminide,
nickel-titanium aluminide, niobium aluminide, ruthenium
aluminide, scandium aluminide, and zirconium aluminide.
The process may involve loading a cell with a WC
substrate inclusive of a small percent (2% to 15%) of
cobalt and covering one end or one portion of the
substrate with a mixture of intermetallic nickel
aluminide powder and diamond particles of a size range
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between approximately 3 microns to 60 microns. A size
range of 5 microns and 25 microns of diamond particles
may be preferred for some applications.
Resulting PDC's may have a diamond volume percent
between approximately 50% and 95% of the total volume of
each PDC. A diamond volume percent between approximately
75% and 92% may be preferred for some applications. A
substrate with a mixture of diamond particles and an
intermetallic aluminide may be placed in a conventional
container associated with manufacture of PDC cutters.
The loaded cell may then be placed into an ultra high
pressure press and brought up to pressures and
temperatures for time periods as are well known in the
art and described at length in the literature. The
result may be a PDC cutter better suited to high
temperature applications and/or to ferrous machining
applications than prior art PDC cutters.
FIGURE 1 shows a cutting element which includes a
substrate with a PDC layer disposed on one end thereof.
The PDC layer may be found using an intermetallic
aluminide catalyst as previously described.
For some applications a wafer of intermetallic
nickel aluminide may be placed between one end of a
substrate and powder mixture of intermetallic nickel
aluminide and diamond particles. This wafer may act as a
barrier to large scale migration of cobalt from the
substrate into the PDC during the pressing cycle. If too
much cobalt enters into the PDC during the process then
advantages obtained through the use of an intermetallic
aluminide catalyst may be reduced.
FIGURE 2 shows a cutting element which includes a
layer or wafer of intermetallic aluminide disposed
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between one end of a substrate and an associate PDC
layer. The
PDC layer may be formed using an
intermetallic aluminide as previously described. The
substrates shown in FIGURES 1 and 2 may be formed from a
wide variety of materials including, but not limited to,
tungsten carbide (WC).
PDC cutters made using the teachings of the present
disclosure are especially applicable to rock drilling
tools, down hole drilling and reaming tools, mining
tools, ferrous and non-ferrous machining tools, wire
dies, wood processing, and diamond saw blades for rock
quarrying.
Although the present disclosure and its advantages
have been described in detail, it should be understood
that various changes, substitutions and alternations can
be made herein without departing from the spirit and
scope of the disclosure as defined by the following
claims.
