Fabricating drill bits

Abstract

A method of fabricating a drill bit is described. The method includes forming a mold with interior surfaces defining a mold cavity within the mold, the mold cavity having a shape corresponding to a shape of a body of the drill bit; forming catalyst-free synthesized polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC) cutting elements using an ultra-high pressure and temperature process; determining positions of the catalyst-free synthesized PDC cutting elements within the mold cavity; placing the catalyst-free synthesized PDC cutting elements at the determined positions within the mold cavity; filling the mold cavity with matrix materials of the body of the drill bit; and bonding the catalyst-free synthesized PDC cutting elements with the matrix materials of the body to form an impregnated drill bit.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.