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Procedia Engineering 73 (2014) 134 – 142

Geological Engineering Drilling Technology Conference (IGEDTC), New International

Convention Exposition Center Chengdu Century City on 23rd-25th May 2014

Design & Application of Diamond Bit to Drilling Hard Rock in

Deep Borehole
Jia Meiling a,* , Cai Jiapina, Ouyang Zhiyonga, Shen Linaa, Wu Haixiaa, Li Chuna
a.
Beijing Institute of Exploration Engineering, 100083, Beijing, China

Abstract

Aiming to the drilling characteristics of hard rock in deep borehole, a new kind of impregnated diamond bit was redesigned from
structure, matrix formula, parameters of diamond and etc. in the paper. According to the design, the new long life impregnated
diamond bit was developed, which could significantly improve drilling efficiency and reduce drilling construction cost in deep
borehole. Compared with the conventional bit, the lifetime of the new diamond bit increased by over 1.5 times, and its drilling
rate was improved by over 20%. With the new bit, the drilling efficiency in deep borehole hard rock could be improved
immensely.
© 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
© 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Geological Engineering Drilling Technology
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Geological Engineering Drilling Technology.

Key words: Hard Rock; Diamond Bit; Bit Life; Deep Hole

1. Introduction

With the exploration drilling towards deep direction continuously, the complexity of drilling stratum is increasing,
especially the extra-hard and weak-abrasive stratum. There are lots of studies suggesting that, with the increasing of
borehole depth, the rock compactness in the deep borehole would be increasing under the pressure of overlying
strata, not only the rock density and hardness will be increased, but also the rock should has the tendency
transforming from brittle to plastic compact rock. Meanwhile, the forming-rock minerals of the strata are hard (with
high content of quartz), and have small granularity and high cementation strength (generally siliceous cement). With

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +86-13681358798.

E-mail address: Jiaml@bjiee.com.cn

1877-7058 © 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Geological Engineering Drilling Technology
doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2014.06.181
 Jia Meiling et al. / Procedia Engineering 73 (2014) 134 – 142 135

the impregnated diamond bit, the drilling rate on these strata is too slow, and the drilling cuttings are fine and its
number is few, meanwhile erosion and wear of the bit matrix is little, so the bit should be polished and slipping. In
order to resume the bit drilling, some abrasive stones need to be put in the borehole which may cause the bit serious
and abnormal wear.
The basic principle of diamond drilling is that the rock surface is consecutively broken using the exposed
diamonds on bit lip surface under the axial pressure and rotational torque. The fragmentation process not only
depends upon the drilling conditions, the physical and mechanical properties of rock, and but also is closely related
to the properties of diamond bit.
The footage and duration of each drilling roundtrip should be as long as possible in the condition of drilling a
deep borehole. The performance of diamond bit is one of the most important factors influencing the drilling
efficiency, the quality of borehole and the cost of drilling. This paper pays attention to the drilling characteristic of
hard rock in deep hole, focuses on rock samples in Wugang region of Henan Province and Chengde region of Hebei
Province, analyzes the micro characteristic of mineral composition of rock samples and discusses its genesis. The
rock drillability is classified by experimental results of indentation hardness, spring back number of pendulum ball
and its plastic coefficient. The adaptability of the bit to the formation has been increased after optimal design of
impregnated diamond bit.

2. Characteristics of Formation

2.1. Lithology Analysis

x Wugang Region, Henan Province

The hard rock formation in Wugang region belongs to metamorphic series, microscope analysis on the hard rock
showed that the mineral composition is given priority to with quartz, k-feldspar and plagioclase. The rock sample
was a mixed biotite-mont-granulite, which had granoblastic texture with unequal grain size ranged from 0.3mm to
1mm (Fig. 1, Table 1). The sample was composed of original metamorphic rocks and new veins, and the new veins
were k-feldspar veins and quartz veins within (or developed from) remelting or regenerationˈk-feldspar were
aggregated crystal, and quartz was podiform. So, through a long-term diagenesis, the rock is very hard (Mohs
Hardness 6~7 grade), which is a drilling handicap in this area.

(a) Photo of HENJSS-3 sample (b) Micrograph of HENJSS-3 sample

Fig. 1 Photo and micrograph of rock sample in Wugang region, Henan Province

Table 1 Mineral composition and percentage of the HENJSS-3 sample

Mineral quartz k-feldspar plagioclase biotite muscovite metallic mineral

Content percentage
40 35 20 4 - micro
(%)

x Chengde Region, Hebei Province

136 Jia Meiling et al. / Procedia Engineering 73 (2014) 134 – 142

˄a˅Photo of HEBCDKC-1 sample˄b˅Micrograph of HEBCDKC-1 sample

Fig. 2 Photo and micrograph of rock sample in Chengde region, Hebei Province

The hard rock formations in Chengde area were quartzite, its microscope analysis showed that the main mineral
was quartz (silica content more than 95%) with a small amount of feldspar, calcite and trace amounts of muscovite
and iron. They were formed from metamorphic recrystallization of quartz-sandstone, which hassub-rounded
granular with granularity ranged from 0.2 to 0.6 mm (Fig. 2, Table 2). Secondary enlargement structures could be
found which indicates that the tight mosaic granoblastic texture was generated through secondary enlargement edges
within the metamorphic recrystallization of cementing materials of original rocks. The samples were hard and
compact with Mohs Hardness grade 7, which led to slipping and footage problem of bit. So, these kinds of
formations were typical hard and slipping ones.

Table 2 Mineral composition and percentage of the HEBCDKC-1 sample

Mineral quartz k-feldspar calcite muscovite

Content percentage (%) 95 3 1 micro

2.2. Drillability Evaluation

The paper classified the drillability grade of rock with the main indexes of indentation hardness, the spring back
number of pendulum ball and the plastic coefficient. The main characteristic parameters of the rock samples
discussed above had been measured, and then the rock’s drillability grade was calculated through the formula 1, the
results are shown in the Table 3.
K=3.1980+0.008854HY+0.02578Hn (1)
Where:
x K ——drillability grade;
x HY——indentation hardness (kg/mm2);
x Hn——the springback number of pendulum ball on a standard rock sample.

Table 3 Main indexes and drillability grade of the samples

Indentation hardness Resilience frequency of ball pendulum on Drillability grade of
Samples
(HY) standard diameter rock sample (Hn) sample
HeNJSS-3 453.2 57.5 9

HEBCDKC-1 610 67 10
 Jia Meiling et al. / Procedia Engineering 73 (2014) 134 – 142 137

3. Design
D of Diaamond Bit Ussed Drilling Hard
H Rock in
n Deep Borehole

Drilling
D hard rrock in deep borehole is diifficult. Hencee, the high effficiency and long
l life diam
mond bit need d to be
desiigned to overrcome this challenge. Acco ording the feaatures of drilleed rock, the bit
b has been iimproved design in
stru
ucture, matrixx adaptability, diamond paarameters andd manufacturring process. These perforrmance param meters
shou uld be in conjjunction to eaach other, and d the bit shoulld gain a goodd working abiility. Base on the specificitties of
drilled hard rock in deep borehhole, the desig gn philosophy should be thaat a certain ratte of penetratinng must be realized
firsttly, and then tthe life is imprroved as long as possible.

3.1. Structure Deesign of the Bit

B

x Lip
L Surface Shhape
For
F increasingg "free cuttingg area" and "extruded
" crusshing zone", lip surface shhape of the bbit was designned as
ladd
der-like and zzigzag form. InI the early sttage of drilling
ng, the bit cou
uld form the shape of the cuut on the rockk, and
then
n reduce the w whole strengtth of the rock
k. The rock-bbreaking efficiiency was enh hanced with tthe combinatiion of
mecchanical fragm menting and grinding. On the other sidde, the waterrway number needs to be increased, an nd the
con
ntact area betw ween bit lip suurface and rocck should be decreased. Co onsequently bit
b weight perr unit area cou uld be
incrreased, the diaamond could cut
c rock effecttively, and a ccertain amoun nt and granularrity rock powdders were produced
whiich wore the bit’s matrix and urged th he bit’s diammond exposed effectively. Eventually,
E a virtuous circcle of
diam
monds cuttingg should be gootten.

x Height
H of Diammond Workinng Layer and Waterway
W
I order to exttend life of thhe bit with inccreasing effecttive cutting arrea, the heigh
In ht of working layer was dessigned
as 20~22mm,
2 andd indented doouble nozzles were designedd to ensure th he working lay yers could be sufficiently cooled
c
dowwn by drilling fluid (Fig.3).

Fig.3 High
H matrix diam
mond bit Fig.4 G
Gage schematic of
o high matrix dia
amond bit

x Bit Gage
The
T bit gage sshould be specially designeed to match w with the increaasing of workiing layer heigght. Different to the
connventional bitss, the new mulltistage gage should
s be preppared with sup per hard materrials which arre greatly acco
ording
to th
he height of w
working layer and do not afffect the drillinng efficiency (Fig.
( 4).

3.2. Design of M
Matrix Materiaal Capacity

The
T diamondss of impregnatted diamond bit b would be eexposed gradu ually with the wearing of m
matrix materiaal, and
then
n formed cuttiing edge. Eacch diamond would
w go throuugh the processs of from beiing exposed, wworking, and being
worrn to falling offf at the end. Consequently
C , the abrasionn resistance an
nd the retaining
g diamond off matrix materiial are
the main factors wwhich should significantly be consideredd in hard rock drilling.
138 Jia Meiling et al. / Procedia Engineering 73 (2014) 134 – 142

3.2.1 Application of Superfine Alloy Powder

The composition of superfine alloy powder is uniform. In order to observe the element distribution of pre-alloyed
powder, designated phase analyses on the fine grains of alloy powder have been carried out. As the test results
shown, there were various kinds of metal elements in the powder grains (Fig. 5).

(a) Micrograph of superfine alloy powder (b) Energy spectrum of superfine alloy powder
Fig.5 Energy spectrum analysis results of superfine alloy powder

Sintering properties of the superfine alloy powder is high. The SEM morphology is shown in fig. 5 and Fig. 6,
which is a larger version of particle. As shown in the SEM morphology, the grain sizes are in nanoscale, it has a
large surface area and its density is high in low sintering temperature due to its open-structure (Fig. 7).

Fig. 6 SEM morphology of alloy powder Fig. 7 Sintered density curve of superfine alloy powder

3.2.2 Selection of Matrix Material with Good Performance

The matrix material used in hard rock drilling should have a good mechanical performance and little interaction
with diamond. There are four basic principles should have been followed in the design.

x Design matrix material with high elastic limitation and low plasticity, improve the retention to diamond
Research results indicated that high elastic and low plastic matrix material could improve the holding force to
diamond largely. Plastic deformation of matrix material holding diamond is little, and diamonds don’t easily fall off.
During drilling operations, the matrix holding diamonds is eventually formed tadpole-shape support. Exposed
degree of diamonds is high, and the diamonds do not fall off from the matrix. The diamonds impregnated in matrix
 Jia Meiling et al. / Procedia Engineering 73 (2014) 134 – 142 139

could give full play to cutting action (Fig. 8a). On the contrary, the diamonds impregnated in matrix which material
has high plasticity should fall apart early and could not drill continually (Fig. 8b).

(a) Matrix material with wrapped diamond (b) Matrix material with high plasticity
Fig. 8 Matrix material types of diamond

x Proper hardness and high impact toughness

The crystal grain in superior matrix don’t grow up after sintered, the microstructure of which is homogeneous
and uniform (Fig. 9). The matrix has a high impact toughness and uniform hardness in a wide range of sintering
temperature (Fig. 10).

Fig. 9 Microstructure of matrix material Fig. 10 Sintered hardness curve of superfine alloy powder

x Little influence to diamonds during sintering

There are not chemical reactions between diamonds and matrix material at the sintered temperature. Diamonds in
the matrix section are still with bright yellow shine, and the graphitization is little, the diamonds could be kept to
have a good cutting performance during the drilling process (Fig. 11).

Fig. 11 Crystal morphology of the diamond after sintering

x Wear resistance design adapted to the formation

140 Jia Meiling et al. / Procedia Engineering 73 (2014) 134 – 142

The
T wear resisstance of matrrix is a key in ndicator on diaamond exposeed of the bit. AsA the less peenetration value of
imprregnated diammond bit is, thee smaller and finer the rockk powder is while
w drilling th
hrough hard rrock, this resuults in
that the erosive w
wear quality of matrix is deeclined, and thhe self-sharpeening of diamond is decreaased. So the matrix
m
h lower wear rresistance shouuld be selecteed according too the erosive wear
with w quality of o rock powdeer produced during
the drilling
d processs.
Matrix adapttability of bit applying
a to haard rock was ddetermined thrrough partial factor
f and sevveral process
expeeriments in thee paper (Tab. 4).

Table 4 Mattrix properties of the bit used at haard rock

Bendding strength Abrassive ratio Impact to
oughness Hardneess
(MPa) (MLL×10-5) (J/ccm2) (HRCC)
1280 0.68
0 6 20~255

3.3. Design of Diiamond Param

meters

The
T main purppose of the neew bit was solving the lowwer drilling effficiency in haard rock. The suitable diam
monds
paraameters (such as diamond grade, diamo ond concentraation and etc..) should be selected on th the basis of rock's
r
propperties, combiined with thee reasonable design on biit structure and
a matrix ad daptability haad been discuussed
prev
viously.

x Diamond
D Gradde
To
T determine tthe optimal diamond
d gradee for drilling hard rock, th
he characters of
o interactionn between MW WD8-
MWWD9 grade diaamonds and roock samples were
w tested in the material-testing machine of WDW--100. Experim mental
results showed thhat, the MWD D8 diamonds were
w unbrokenn when pressing-in the 9th hardness of ssample HENJJSS-3
(Fig. 12); the MW
WD8 diamondss were unbrok ken when presssed in the 10tht hardness of sample HEBC CDKC-1 (Fig g.13a),
but the MWD9 ddiamonds couuld be presseed in the sam mple HEBCD DKC-1 and diid not brokenn down (Fig.13b).
Therrefore, the prreferable diam
mond grade should
s be addopted rationaally and econ nomically forr drilling diffferent
form
mation.

Fig. 12 Status of im
mpression in HEN
NJSS-3 sample wiith MWD8 diamo
ond

x Diamond
D Conccentration
To
T achieve thee favoring drillling, the max
ximum pressuure acting on surface of thee single diamoond should bee less
than
n the compresssive strength of
o which. The specific conteent as the follo
ow formula 2:
”k [ı] (2)
Where:
W
x [ı]—the ccompressive sttrength of sing gle diamond, MMPa;
x k—strengtth coefficient,, as drilling co
ould cause som
me impact load ds;
x Diamond cconcentration could be reprresented as folllowing formu ula 3:
 Jia Meiling et al. / Procedia Engineering 73 (2014) 134 – 142 141

SQES G 
C• (3)
N>V @QGS  N >V @YE
Where:
x n—bit speed, r/min;
x d—diamond grain diameter, mm;
x v—drilling speed, m/h;
x ȕ—constant coefficient, the smaller the beta is, the greater the fall off diamond is.

Fig. 13 (a) Status of impression in HEBCDKC-1 sample with MWD8 diamond

(b) Status of impression in HEBCDKC-1 sample with MWD9 diamond

From the above formula, the diamond concentration is closely related to bit speed, bit pressure, expectant drilling
rate and its own quality. And that was one of the main factors during drilling in extra-hard and compact formations.
Appropriate diamond concentration should be designed to make sure that there is enough pressure on a single
diamond, and the diamond could be pressed in the hard rock.
Two diamond bits with different diamond concentrations have been produced, through stereomicroscope, the
distribution and exposure characteristics of diamonds can be gotten and shown as in Fig. 14. The drilling efficiency
of the bit in fig. 14a was higher, while the life of the bit in fig. 14b is longer. Experiments show that the most
appropriate diamond concentration is 60%~80%, the optimal diamond granularity is 30/40 mesh.

(a) Bit with 60% diamond concentration (b) Bit with 80% diamond concentration
Fig.14 Distribution and exposure characteristics of bits with different diamond concentration

4. Application Result of the Bit

Aiming at the extra-hard and compact formation, the diamond bits with high working layer had been designed
and produced based on the principles motioned above, and then had been used in Benxi, Liaoning province, Wugang,
Henan province, Dulan, Qinghai province and Chengde, Hebei province. The drilled rocks were silicated quartzite,
142 Jia Meiling et al. / Procedia Engineering 73 (2014) 134 – 142

maganetite quartzite, biotite plagiogranite, granite porphyry and etc. The accumulated footages of diamond bits were
6542 m. Compared to the conventional bit, the drilling efficiency and life of the new bit were significantly
improved by 30%̚100%. Its application effect data are listed in the Table 5.

Table 5 Application effect data of diamond bits with high working layer
Conventional bit Developed Increased percentage (%)
Drilling site Average drilling Average life Average drilling Average life Average
Average life
rate (m/h) (m) rate (m/h) (m) drilling rate
Benxi, Liaoling
0.62 26.2 1.25 70.0 101.6 167.2
Province
Dulan, Qinghai
1 24 1.3 80 18.2 233.3
Province
Chengde, Hebei
0.8 20 1.2 75 50 275
Province
Wugang, Henan
1 25 1.2 70 20 180
Province

5. Conclusions

x Applying the ultrafine alloy powder which had excellent mechanical properties and could obviously improve the
holding force to diamonds, can reduce diamond’s graphitization degree, and then increase the bit’s breaking
ability and life;
x Increasing the height of diamond bit’s working layer can improve its service life, and improve the drilling
efficiency in hard rock deep hole;
x High grade diamonds should be adopted to produce diamond bit for drilling the extra-hard and weak-abrasive
formation;
x With development of powder metallurgy technology and application of new materials, the height of a new
diamond bit’s working layer could be one or a few times higher than the conventional bit, which will obviously
improve the diamond bit’s lifetime.

References:

[1] Wang Da. Key techniques of deep hole drilling [J]. Exploration engineering, 2009, 37 (S1).
[2] Zhang Li, Yang Kaihua. Progress of the research on diamond drilling bits for extro-hard, compact and weak-abrasion rock
formation[J].Diamond & abrasives engineering, 2003(01).