Methods of inspecting rotary drill bits

A method for conducting nondestructive inspection of a drill bit for subterranean drilling comprising:

• inserting at least one of an ultrasonic energy emitter and an ultrasonic energy receiver into a longitudinal bore of a rotary drill bit;
• positioning the at least one of the emitter and the receiver at a known location relative to the drill bit using at least one reference feature of the drill bit;
• communicating ultrasonic waves into at least a portion of the rotary drill bit from the ultrasonic energy emitter;
• detecting ultrasonic waves that are at least one of reflected and refracted by the at least a portion of the rotary drill bit using the ultrasonic energy receiver;
• and
• generating a representation of at least a portion of the rotary drill bit using the detected ultrasonic waves.

A method for conducting nondestructive inspection of a drill bit for subterranean drilling comprising:

• communicating ultrasonic waves into at least a portion of a rotary drill bit from an ultrasonic energy emitter;
• detecting ultrasonic waves that are at least one of reflected and refracted by the at least a portion of the rotary drill bit using an ultrasonic energy receiver;
• and generating a representation of at least a portion of the rotary drill bit using the detected ultrasonic waves;
• communicating the ultrasonic waves onto at least one reference calibration feature on the rotary drill bit;
• detecting ultrasonic waves that are at least one of reflected and refracted from the at least one reference calibration feature;
• and
• calibrating the ultrasonic probe using the detected ultrasonic waves that are at least one of reflected and refracted from the at least one reference calibration feature and at least one known dimension of the at least one reference calibration feature.

A method for conducting nondestructive inspection of a drill bit for subterranean drilling comprising:

• communicating ultrasonic waves into at least a portion of a rotary drill bit from an ultrasonic energy emitter;
• detecting ultrasonic waves that are at least one of reflected and refracted by the at least a portion of the rotary drill bit using an ultrasonic energy receiver;
• and
• generating a representation of at least a portion of the rotary drill bit using the detected ultrasonic waves;
• and
• positioning at least one of the emitter and the receiver at a predetermined selected location relative to the drill bit using at least one landing pad formed in a surface of the drill bit.