Hardfacing specialist Cutting & Wear announced the development of a new thermally stable polycrystalline (TSP) diamond hardfacing material that can increase the life of drilling tools operating in highly abrasive environments by up to 10 times and cut the cost of drilling operations.
The announcement was made at the SPE IADC Drilling Conference and Exhibition being held in London. The new material incorporates ‘Hardide-D’, the first successful metallurgically bonded coating for TSP diamonds that is suitable for brazing, extreme loads and aggressive media. Hardide-D has been developed by coatings innovator Hardide Coatings and coating of the TSP diamonds is performed for Cutting & Wear under an exclusivity agreement.
Treatment of TSP diamonds at Hardide Coatings
Cutting & Wear in-house wear tests have shown that the new TSP Xtreme inserts give a 200 times improvement over tungsten carbide inserts. They can be applied on downhole tools that need gauge protection such as stabilizers, bent housings, logging while drilling tools, rotary steerable tools and downhole motor bearings.
The TSP Xtreme inserts are applied using Cutting & Wear’s Quick Tip hardfacing system. The whole of the tool can be protected with the TSP Xtreme inserts, or critical areas with the TSP insert and the rest of the tool protected using standard tungsten carbide inserts.
