Three Key Characteristics of PDC Cutters

When comes to evaluate PDC Cutters quality, people mostly mentioned below 3 key performance characteristics, wear resistance, impact resistance and thermal stability. In actual downhole drilling process, drill bits would have to drill through rocks of different formation, hardness and abrasion, which would request PDC Bits wear resistant enough so not to consume soon after, impact resistant enough so not to break or crack drill bits themselves and thermal stable enough so not to get deformed.

To test PDC Cutter quality, most PDC Bits manufacturers and PDC bits manufacturers prefers laboratory testing for fast feedback since field testing takes too long to help PDC Cutter development and it is little bit risky and costly as well. Build up a well-designed lab testing system that analogs actual downhole drilling processes and conditions would be a must and critical to evaluate PDC cutter all quality parameters. However, lab testing simply works as indicators of PDC cutter performance, field testing should be done to prove quality and consistency, PDC cutter manufacturers should work cooperatively with PDC Drill Bits manufacturer and oil field companies.