Cutter assembly with at least one island and a method of manufacturing a cutter assembly

Abstract

A cutter assembly and a method of making the cutter assembly are disclosed. A method of fabricating a cutting element having at least one island structure in at least one pocket of a substrate may comprise steps of building the substrate with at least one pocket; putting the at least one island into the at least one pocket in the substrate to form an assembly, the at least one island is not in a final state, wherein in the final state, chemical composition, shape, phase distribution and content, density and mechanical properties are finalized without changes; and subjecting the assembly to a final fabrication process to form the said cutting element and achieve the final state of the cutting element and at least one island in at least one pocket.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of fabricating a cutting element having at least one island structure in at least one pocket of a substrate, comprising:
 building the substrate with at least one pocket;   putting the at least one island into the at least one pocket in the substrate to form an assembly, the at least one island is not in a final state, wherein in the final state, chemical composition, shape, phase distribution and content, density and mechanical properties are finalized without changes; and   subjecting the assembly to a final fabrication process to form the said cutting element and achieve the final state of the cutting element and at least one island in at least one pocket.   
     
     
         2 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the at least one island is island material powder. 
     
     
         3 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the at least one island material is an island green body. 
     
     
         4 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the final fabrication process is an HPHT process. 
     
     
         5 . The method according to  claim 4 , wherein the HPHT process uses sintering additive or aid to facilitate the HPHT process. 
     
     
         6 . The method according to  claim 5 , wherein the sintering additive or aid comprises Group VIII metals, cobalt, iron, nickel or metalloid silicon. 
     
     
         7 . The method according to  claim 4 , wherein the HTHP process is under temperature range of from 900° C. to 2300° C. 
     
     
         8 . The method according to  claim 4 , wherein the HTHP process is under pressure range of from 3 GPa to 20 GPa. 
     
     
         9 . The method according to  claim 4 , wherein the HTHP process is under pressure range of from 0.01 GPa to 20 GPa. 
     
     
         10 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the substrate is at least one of WC, polycrystalline diamond, single crystalline diamond, polycrystalline cubic boron nitride, single crystalline boron nitride, cermet, ceramics, thermally stable diamond, and diamond composite. 
     
     
         11 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the at least one pocket in the substrate is formed by at least one of EDM, EDG, milling, drilling, grinding, turning, laser ablation and laser cutting. 
     
     
         12 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the at least one pocket in the substrate is formed by removal of a pre-formed displacement part in the substrate after a fabrication process. 
     
     
         13 . The method according to  claim 12 , wherein the pre-formed displacement is made of at least one of graphite, hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), salt, ceramics, minerals. 
     
     
         14 . The method according to  claim 12 , wherein the removal includes at least one of dissolving soluble displacement materials, milling, and grinding insolvable materials. 
     
     
         15 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the substrate green body with at least one pocket is pre-formed with at least one method of pre-compaction, die-pressing, extrusion, slurry casting. 
     
     
         16 . The method according to  claim 9 , wherein the at least one pocket in the substrate green body is pre-formed with at least one method of milling, drilling, turning, grinding, coring. 
     
     
         17 . A method of fabricating a cutting element having at least one island structure in at least one pocket of a substrate, comprising:
 putting at least one island into at least one pocket in a substrate to form an assembly, the at least one island is not in a final state, wherein in the final state, chemical composition, shape, phase distribution and content, density and mechanical properties are finalized without changes; and   subjecting the assembly to a high temperature high pressure sintering process to form the said cutting element and achieve the final state of the cutting element and at least one island in at least one pocket.   
     
     
         18 . The method according to  claim 17 , wherein the at least one island material is an island green body. 
     
     
         19 . The method according to  claim 17 , wherein the HPHT sintering process uses sintering additive or aid to facilitate the HPHT process. 
     
     
         20 . The method according to  claim 19 , wherein the sintering additive or aid comprises Group VIII metals, cobalt, iron, nickel or metalloid silicon.