Drilling is a very significant and common activity which is used in many fields and industries in our everyday life; such as oil drilling and construction. Drilling requires large mechanical devices that dig deep into the ground and sometimes through several layers of rock and mineral. Drilling machines have a rotating mechanical tool attached to them known as drill bits which are used to cut and remove materials in order to penetrate deep below the ground. Drill bits come in different shapes, materials and sizes, and can create different kinds of holes in many different materials. Because of their vital role in drilling, it is hence very important that the material of the drill bits is strong. A common material for drill bits is steel. However, they proved to be inefficient as they have difficulty going through hard rocks because the metal is not strong enough. Moreover, they tend to overheat and collapse when used for a period of time. This is because the Metals are better conductors of heat than any other solids, as the electrons …show more content…
According to ukam.com, diamond is an excellent alternative to carbide, steel, and other types of drills as diamond drill bits will drill materials faster, produce smoother surfaces, and provide consistent performance without collapsing many times in a short period of time. Due to steel drill bits overheating and collapsing regularly, a lot of time is wasted on changing the drill bit, however diamond drill bits will machine the hardest material at a high speed and will not collapse. Even though diamond drill brits are very effective, they are quite expensive to purchase. According to Water Well contractors, drill bits cost an average of about $30,000-$50,000, but can also vary up to $150,000 depending on the quality of the drill bit. In addition
On April 9, 1997, Rig 52 that belonged to Mallard Bay Drilling was towed to a location in the territorial waters of Louisiana, where it drilled a well over two miles deep. After the well was almost complete an explosion occurred killing four of the crew and injuring several others. Seeing that this was a marine casualty in navigable U.S. waters, under existing regulations the United States Coast Guard responded. When the investigation was over the Coast Guard did not find any violations of their regulations and noted it was an uninspected vessel and the operator held an Operator Uninspected Passenger Vessel (OUPV) license. Soon after the incident the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) cited Mallard Bay Drilling for violations
We use metals to construct all kinds of structures, from bridges to skyscrapers to elevators. The strength as well as durability of materials that are crafted out of metal make the materials ideal not only for construction but also for many other applications.
There is an abundance of oil underneath earth’s crust on land and in the water but getting to that oil can be proven as a challenge and a negative impact on the earth. Many of these oil reservoirs lie in federally protected land or water to minimize the negative impact on the earth. But should those restrictions be removed? Removing the restrictions can allow the US to tap into domestic reserves rather than rely on imported oil from the Middle East and Asia but tapping these reservoirs can also leave behind an impact that is harmful to this planet. “Critics oppose this move for fear that it will cause irreparable harm environmental harm. They point to the April 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as evidence of the risks associated with offshore drilling” (SIRS).
There are many potential adverse health impacts caused by the chemicals used at the drilling site, which are later often unintentional released into the environment. These chemicals are hazardous and as Witter et. al. (2008) state “some of the chemicals used in this process are brought to the surface, potentially contaminating soil, air, and water, while some of the chemicals are left underground, potentially subsurface aquifers” (4). This makes it difficult to track which chemicals are causing effects and where they are coming from. Another piece to the puzzle is that the drilling companies do not disclose the full-list of chemicals so there is a great mystery in what chemicals and what concentrations are used in the process (Lauver 2012:383). However, recently there researchers have begun to breakdown the chemical identities and concentrations.
Current drilling technology was unable to penetrate the thick rock of southwest Texas and oilmen could only extract the surface layers of oil, unable to tap the vast resources that lay far below. Big Howard came up with the idea for a rolling bit, with 166 cutting edges and invented a method to keep the bit lubricated as it tore away at the rock. Later that year, Big Howard produced a model and went into business with his leasing partner, Walter B. Sharp, forming the Sharp-Hughes Tool Company. Rather than sell the bits to oil drillers, Hughes and Sharp decided to lease the bits out on a job basis, for the tidy sum of $30,000 per well. With no competitor able to duplicate this new technology, Sharp- Hughes Tool possessed a profitable monopoly over oil extraction. So quickly was the invention successful that in late 1908, the partners built a factory on a seventy-acr...
The United States relies on imports for about forty percent of its crude oil, which is the lowest rate of dependency since 1991 according to the U.S Energy Information Administration. Today our country is trying to keep on track in becoming less and less dependent. When it comes to the topic of the future ways the United States will get its fuel, most of us readily agree that the United States should become more independent by using natural gas that is already here on our land. Where this argument usually ends, however, is on the question of the consequences drilling for natural gas brings. Whereas some are convinced drilling is safe, others maintain that it is actually in fact dangerous. Hydraulic fracturing or "fracking", the terms for drilling for natural gas, is dangerous to our public health and to the environment because of the water contamination it causes. Therefore, it is not something that should become a project for alternative fuel used by the United States.
It is a known fact Pennsylvania is greatly impacted by the Marcellus Shale. The Marcellus Shale is a layer of black shale located under the Appalachian basin from Prehistoric times. Natural gas and oil are being extracted from this layer for their increasing economic value, with natural gas having a worth of $10 for every thousand cubic feet of it. Furthermore, improved technology such as “hydraulic fracturing” and “horizontal wells” has made Marcellus drilling more efficient and has increased the implementation of the drilling as a source of economic opportunity for not only drilling companies but for the whole state of Pennsylvania (“Marcellus Shale”). An important part of this Marcellus activity is that “most drilling is occurring in rural areas” according to Joseph Morris, a poll analyzer from Mercyhurst College (Begos, Kevin. “Gas”). Amid the economic opportunity, farmers in these areas are resistant to signing over their farmland to drilling companies. Bradford County farmer Carol French, who wrote an editorial in The Patriot News, stated, “Has anyone considered how these gas developments and industrial uses on farmland will impact agriculture production for years to come if a farmer does not have the necessary means or information to negotiate protection measures?” She fears that drilling will ruin rural property and thus unnecessarily change or hurt farmers’ economic way of life (French). However, because of the vital economic benefits that Marcellus Shale drilling has for Pennsylvania, farmers in rural areas of the state should choose to allow drilling on their property.
It all began on a normal day in October 1961, when I was a freshman in high school. Me and my sisters, Ruth and Dorothy were growing up on a corn farm in the Nebraska prairie. The corn had just been harvested, and we would put the cows in thf feild to eat the little stalks in the ground. To do that we had to put up the fence, and the first step towards doing that was to drill the holes. Normally Dorothy and I, the two oldest, went out to help dad, but that day mom was especially busy so she sent seven-year-old Ruth out to the field to “help”. The drill was very dangerous, with a sharp blade wound around a metal pole and the whole thing spun super fast, when it was hooked to the PTO of the tractor. Dorothy and I knew to stay well away when it was spinning, but Ruth did not. She must have seen dad adjusting the drill when it was stopped and wanted to do it as well. It all went by in a flash. Ruth stepped a little closer to the drill.
Pounding metal and fabricating metal in thin sheets and sections that humans need or want has a long history. The discovery of how to make and control fire made extracting metals form or more efficient instead of having to find almost pure nuggets of metal. In many civilizations copper was the metal they used but that was succeeded by bronze eventually it is made of copper and tin.
They wanted to try to develop a water-based mud that would not have a strong effect on the Pierre shale and would be environmental friendly to dispose of the cuttings. They studied the PDC bits in order to help the drilling rates while drilling through this troublesome shale. They performed the project with two 8 1/2 –in PDC drill bits and nine different types of drilling fluids. Two of the drilling fluids were oil based while seven of the drilling fluids were water based. The different types of drilling fluids can be seen in figure two. The cores used for the experiment came from outcrops of the Pierre shale in Colorado and they were preserved in diesel oil in order to make the shale fully saturated during the experiment and this would model a soft formation where bit balling would be prevalent [5]. The two experimenters also used two types of PDC bits for the experiment; a steel-body ribbed PDC and a matrix-body bladed PDC bit. Hemphill and Clark ran many different tests changing the flow rate, weight on bit, drilling fluids, and the two different drill bits. They first concluded that the two different bits had different penetration rates for the Pierre shale. The matrix bodied bladed bit drilled faster than the steel body bladed bit in all of the mud samples
Today many types of drill accessories and tools are used for domestic and commercial tasks. The use of cordless drill accessories prove effective for doing a hole in roofs or walls. In this regard, drill is an ideal item used in many types of applications.
Though it has had many negative impacts on the environment in the past, mining is a vital industry completely necessary to our economy and lives. Nearly every item we use or encounter in our day to day lives is mined or contains mined products. Without the excavation of such materials things like computers, televisions, large building structures, electricity, and cars would not be possible. Virtually every technological and medical advance uses minded materials, without which millions would suffer. Some examples of minerals in the home include the telephone which is made from as many as 42 different minerals, including aluminum, beryllium, coal, copper, gold, iron, silver, and talc. A television requires over 35 different minerals, and more than 30 minerals are needed to make a single personal computer. Without boron, copper, gold and quartz, your digital alarm clock would not work. Every American uses an average 47,000 pounds of newly mined materials each year, which is higher than all other countries with the exception of Japan, which is a staggering figure representative of our dependence and need for mined minerals. Coal makes up more than half of nation’s electricity, and will continue to be the largest electrical supplier into 2020 & accounting for some 95 percent of the nation's fossil energy reserves – nine of every ten short-tons of coal mined in the United States is used for electricity generation. As the population of the world grows more mineral resources must be exploited through mining in order to support the rising demand for such products. Though it may present a hazard to the environment and those physically located nears the mines, the materials extracted from mines...
Diamonds were created million years ago, when the earth was formed, the material experienced pressure of 5million times the atmosphere at sea level and temperatures between 1000~1200degreesC. These conditions caused carbon in the layers inside the planet to crystallize into diamonds. The diamonds moved up to the earth’s surface through volcano eruptions. This is why many Diamond mines are near volcanoes. Diamonds occur in two types of rock: Kimberlite and Lamprolite. Diamonds are mostly found in South Africa, India, Brazil, Russia, Australia, and Arkansas. Right now about 100million carats are mined each year. Today the largest cut Diamond in the world is the Cullian I at 530.2ct .
Metals possess many unique fundamental properties that make them an ideal material for use in a diverse range of applications. Many common place things know today are made from metals; bridges, utensils, vehicles of all modes of transport, contain some form of metal or metallic compound. Properties such as high tensile strength, high fracture toughness, malleability and availability are just some of the many advantages associated with metals. Metals, accompanied by their many compounds and alloys, similar properties, high and low corrosion levels, and affects, whether negative or positive, are a grand force to be reckoned with.
The value of diamonds lies on their physical properties that make them suitable for many applications. Natural diamonds are only of high value if they are scarce in nature. Realizing this, De Beers Consolidated Mines was formed to control the supply of diamonds from mines across the world. The diamond market is influenced by mine production, rough diamond distribution, preparation/cutting, and retail markets. The project will be concentrating on the retail markets for diamonds and other high end jewelry.