Paper: The Economic Impact of Polycrystalline Diamond Compact (PDC) Drilling Bits

Since the perfection of a process for producing artificial or manufactured diamonds in 1955, attempts have been made to adapt their use for stone cutting. The original stones were commercially applied to manufacturing processes for grinding and polishing as they did not exhibit resistance to abrasion sufficient for stone cutting. Additional improvements in manufactured diamonds have resulted in a high enough abrasion resistance to utilize them in stone and masonry cutting applications. Drill bits utilizing natural diamonds have individual stones as the cutting element. Manufactured diamonds are of such a small size as to make the use of individual stones as cutters impractical. The introduction in the early 1970's of a polycrystalline aggregate of manufactured diamonds produced a cutting element that became practical for use in drill bits. Laboratory and field tests began on drill bits with P.D.C. cutting structures in 1973. Continual efforts have been made since that time to produce a drill bit that is economically feasible for use in petroleum drilling operations.