Benefits of a Hybrid Additive Manufacturing Approach to Repair Directional Drilling Components

Modern downhole tool assemblies with point-the-bit technology experience extreme in-service stresses and temperatures in some of the worlds most aggressive environments. Maximum lifetime and reliability of drilling components under these demanding conditions is critical to the success of drilling operations, which requires the utmost precision during manufacturing to guarantee tool performance. Tolerances on critical high stress areas are within 13μm (0.0005 in.) total tolerance, and require repair due to wear/damage. Conventional arc welding repairs are impossible on these high strength nickel-based superalloy driveshafts for reasons of alloy heat and corresponding loss in strength without subsequent heat treatment. Laser cladding, an industrial additive manufacturing technology, has been successfully applied by Apollo-Clad to refurbish many of these high-value, high performance components with the same lifetime as newly manufactured parts without the detrimental effects of arc-based repairs.

In additional to dimensional repairs, Apollo has developed a hybrid manufacturing approach to repairing downhole tool products using laser cladding technology to 3D print layers and features onto existing materials that have been pre-machined using traditional subtractive machining methods. The combined use of additive and subtractive process paths has substantially improved the manufacturing economics of many of these drilling components. Additionally, the ability to reuse minimally damaged shafts represents a substantial reduction in environmental impact compared to the high energy demands of recycling and remanufacturing from new. Part lead times are reduced significantly through hybrid manufacturing, which from a procurement perspective is critical where consequences of downtime are often higher than the value of the part itself. Case studies using traditional manufacturing processes compared to Apollo’s state of the art hybrid manufacturing methods will be presented.