I N NOVATI N G WH I LE DR I LLI N G
narrow our scope down to extract all of that forensic informa-
tion for that application,” he noted. “That includes dull analytics
from Oculus data, photography and downhole performance data.
Having all that made it possible to build visualizations that help
design engineers make trade-offs to optimize bit design for those
applications.” The sheer number of bits that go into Halliburton’s repair and
maintenance facilities on any given day is actually an advantage
when paired with a system like Oculus. “Every service center is
set up with Oculus,” Mr Propes said. “So, when a bit comes back
to the facility post-run, the first step of the cycle is to scan it with
Oculus to capture that forensic data.”
It is not enough, though, to simply obtain information on the
dull grade. Instead, forensic data from Oculus must be correlated
with design characteristics — the cutters being run, the back
rakes being run, and so forth — so that design decisions can
be tied to the advanced forensics analysis to make meaningful
improvements. Halliburton, Mr Propes noted, approached this
process in a systematic way.
“When you think historically about how you design a bit, you
would get offsets from three or four runs, you would look at pho-
tographs and determine if there was impact damage or abrasion,
and then you would make decisions based on that, but you’d be
isolated with those designs,” he explained. “The key enabler we’re
seeing gain traction is that, although we can still look at those
three offsets in fine detail, we can now enhance decision making
using data from 100 offsets or 1,000 offsets — whatever we filter
to be relevant. It’s about making data-driven decisions versus
intuition-driven decisions, and we’ve moved our whole design
philosophy in that direction.”
Cutter development is the other area in which Oculus provides
quantifiable improvement. With Halliburton running thousands
of cutters, a system that allows the company to compare cutter
performance in a manner that is analytical instead of anecdotal
has driven a step-change in how it interfaces with cutter manu-
facturers. “In collaboration with the cutter manufacturers, we have a
robust understanding of the levers of PDC diamond — grain size,
pressure, leech and all the other variables that go into making
different types of cutters,” he said. “The additional value we bring
is a high-level understanding of dull condition, so we can provide
data on the cutters relative to the downhole environment and
determine what levers we need to pull to solve specific challeng-
es. The advent of data in those discussions has been beneficial by
taking subjectivity out of the equation.”
Another technology critical to Halliburton’s drill bit forensics
program is the Cerebro in-bit sensor package. The sensors capture
downhole data, including lateral and axial vibration, torsional
resonance, whirl and stick-slip, while an upgraded version also
captures data on weight, torque and bending measurements.
Understanding the drilling environment with data about down-
hole conditions and phenomena coming directly from the drill bit
makes it possible to determine why the damage noted by Oculus
occurred in the first place.
“We want to combine data-driven dull analytics and in-bit
sensing with advanced bit technologies and cutters to bring
The Oculus data analytics platform lets Halliburton take 3D
scans of bits and then correlate the data from the scans
with the bits’ design characteristics to make meaningful
improvements. everything together through our design interface,” Mr Propes said.
“We want to take all that information and efficiently integrate it
into a bit design that will consistently outperform whatever the
baseline target is. Historically that’s been an SME-driven, one-
off process. Now, with automated systems, we can make it more
repeatable and consistent to extract performance out of our
designs through data.”
Instead of basing decisions on limited, often anecdotal pieces
of information, companies that use technologies like Oculus
and Cerebro are able to more precisely understand cutter failure
mechanisms and downhole drilling environments. Advanced
dull analytics and depth-based run data come together to provide
a much clearer picture of what happened to the bit, enabling
superior solutions that ultimately result in drilling performance
improvements. Autonomous bit dull forensic digitization
system While some bit forensics solutions focus on technology in a lab,
Trax Electronics has a system that can be used either in a shop,
lab or at the rig site. Called grA+de, the autonomous dull bit foren-
The images collected by Trax’s bit scanner are used to
produce high-resolution 3D models of the bit, including all
wear measurements and characteristics.
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