An improved tooth design to avoid shearing stresses.

摘要

An improved tooth design to avoid shearing stresses. Teeth (18) disposed on the bit face of a rotating bit are angularly oriented on the sloping surface of the bit face such that a vertical loading force (22) which is applied to each tooth (18) vectorially sums with a wedging force (24) exerted by the rock formation on each tooth (18) to create a resultant force (26) applied to the diamond cutting element (10) included within the tooth (18). The angular orientation of the tooth (18) is chosen such that the resultant force (26) is applied to the diamond cutting element (10) in a direction which minimizes shear stress on the element (10). For example, in the case where the diamond cutting element (10) is an equilateral triangular prismatic element tangentially set on the bit face with one apical edge defined by two adjacent triangular sides outermost on the tooth, the orientation or inclination of the tooth with respect to the vertical loading force (22) and wedge force (24) is such that the resulting force (26) lies near or on the bisector of the dihedral angle (16) formed by the apical edge.