Methods used for Testing Performance Characteristics of PDC Cutters

Quality and Consistency of PDC Cutters are critically important in oilfield drilling application. Hereby we list some testing methods used to measure PDC Cutter quality for your references.

Wear Resistance Testing: by measuring how many weights lost after PDC cutters ground with abrasive wheels, we get a wear-off ratio. The higher the ratio, the more wear resistance the PDC Cutters will be.

Impact Resistance Testing, it is also called Drop-Weight test, using a vertical lathe at certain height hammering onto PDC Cutter cutting profile, usually with a certain degree (15-25 degree) slide. Weights of this vertical lathe and its preset height would indicate how impact resistant this PDC cutter would be.

Thermal Stability Testing, aiming to test if PDC Cutters are thermal stable enough under high temperature working conditions.  At laboratory, using we put PDC cutters under 700-750 ℃ in 10-15 minutes and inspect diamond layer condition after coolant in the air, normally this process would accompany with another wear resistance and impact resistance to compare PDC quality before test and after test.

Lathe turning on granites, testing PDC cutters with certain linear rotation speed and feeding speed to lathe turning on granite, no coolant involved so to test PDC capable to work under high temperature. Measure how many weight PDC cutter lost and how many volume granite has been cut.

Ultrasonic C-Scanning: With C-scanning system, ultrasonic wave at 0.2~800MHz could penetrate PDC layer and detect its delamination or cavity defect. C-scanning system could find out size and position of defects and show them on PC screen.

Field Testing is final testing field of PDC Cutters in form of drill bits. As per different field conditions, different footage, rotation speed and down feed speed would be applied to test PDC cutters are qualified enough and test out all its performance characteristics.