Silicon carbide re-facing core drills

Silicon carbide fibre provides a very strong and stiff material which is currently used as reinforcement in titanium composites. This material is being developed as a strong, stiff, light weight, corrosion resistant material for demanding applications such as aircraft landing gear, engines and brakes, satellite structures or defence equipment. Another major use of silicon carbide is as a cutting or abrading material because it is very hard. This project aims to utilise the silicon carbide fibres as a cutting face and combine this with the mechanical performance of titanium composite to evaluate the potential for a stiff strong light weight drill bit with the composite providing high compression strength (twice that of high strength steel), good toughness relative to an all ceramic or ceramic composite drill bit and light weight for high rotation speeds and minimal balance issues. An additional benefit is that the fibres provide a fresh cutting face as the composite matrix wears in use. Applications in mineral drilling, oil and gas drilling, decommissioning heavy plant and space exploration are envisaged.