Selecting the right material is imperative in demanding industrial environments as this can affect operational efficiency. This case study illustrates how Hi-Tech Seals provided a tailored solution for a customer who required better-performing drill bit inserts compared to the conventional ones in the market. Hi-Tech Seals introduced WolCar™ Carbide as the excellent solution for the customer’s application.

WolCar™ Carbide [hyperlinked to WolCar webpage] is Hi-Tech Seals’ family of superior-performing cemented tungsten carbide materials. WolCar™ Carbide offers extreme strength, remarkable wear resistance, and versatility as it can be produced into virtually any shape and size, enabling customized solutions for different applications.

Customer Profile

The customer provides innovative and tailored hard-facing solutions across a range of industries. They specialize in creating product life extensions for commodity-type items.

Application

Drill inserts are replaceable cutting tips used in drill bits and machine tooling, playing a major role in cutting hard materials. The customer has been using profiled tungsten carbide drilling inserts for their equipment used in oil and gas mining operations. These are commonly used in applications where heavy-duty and high-precision drilling are required. They are used in extreme environments, from drilling hard rock formations to operating in applications exposed to highly aggressive chemicals.

The Challenge

Hi-Tech Seals was given the opportunity to enhance the performance of the customer’s drill inserts. The challenge was to provide tungsten carbide inserts that would surpass the capabilities of conventional inserts. The new inserts should also be reasonably priced with acceptable lead times to promote ease in the customer’s overall buying process.

Proposal and Testing

After assessing the customer’s requirements—with the help of our engineering department, we were able to choose the right WolCar™ Carbide material to help enhance the performance of various profiles. The customer then performed two controlled impact trials to validate the proposed solution. During the first trial, both the customer’s existing profiled tungsten carbide drill inserts and Hi-Tech Seals’ WolCar™ tungsten carbide drill inserts were subjected to heavy impact testing. The second trial employed the same techniques but with the involvement of heat.

The Results

In both tests, the WolCar™ carbide drill inserts outperformed the customer’s samples and proved to be the most suitable material for the customer’s application. The combination of successful results with WolCar™’s characteristics, cost-effectiveness, and quick delivery turnaround was key to the customer’s decision in choosing Hi-Tech Seals as their new provider of drill bit inserts.