Materials for enhancing the durability of earth-boring bits, and methods of forming such materials
AssigneeBaker Hughes Incorporated
InventorsDavid A. Curry, James L. Overstreet, Jimmy W. Eason
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An earth-boring drill bit having a bit body with a cutting component formed from a tungsten carbide composite material is disclosed. The composite material includes a binder and tungsten carbide crystals comprising sintered pellets. The composite material may be used as a hardfacing on the body and/or cutting elements, or be used to form portions or all of the body and cutting elements. The pellets may be formed with a single mode or multi-modal size distribution of the crystals.
Claims19
A composite material, comprising:
- crystals of tungsten carbide and a binder, the crystals having a generally spheroidal shape, a mean grain size range of about 0.5 to 8 microns, and a distribution of which is characterized by a Gaussian distribution having a standard deviation on the order of about 0.25 to 0.50 microns.
A hardfacing material for drill bits, the hardfacing material comprising:
- hard phase components held together by a metal matrix, the hard phase components comprising crystals of tungsten carbide and a binder, the crystals having a generally spheroidal shape, a mean grain size range of about 0.5 to 8 microns, and a distribution of which is characterized by a Gaussian distribution having a standard deviation on the order of about 0.25 to 0.50 microns.
A method of forming a composite material, comprising:
- providing crystals of tungsten carbide having a mean grain size range of about 0.5 to 8 microns, a distribution of which is characterized by a Gaussian distribution;
- forming a bulk composite of the crystals and a binder;
- sintering the bulk composite;
- crushing the bulk composite to form crushed particles having non-uniform, irregular shapes;
- and
- sorting the crushed particles by size for use in selected applications.
A method of forming a composite material, comprising:
- providing crystals of tungsten carbide having a mean grain size range of about 0.5 to 8 microns, a distribution of which is characterized by a Gaussian distribution;
- and
- forming pellets of the crystals and a binder.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.