Bionic surface design of cemented carbide drill bit

The development of a high-performance cemented carbide drill bit is of great significance to the reduction of rock drilling-cost. The non-smooth features of a biological surface provide an insight into how they can obtain low friction and good wear resistance with evolving surface morphology. By analyzing the mechanism of the surface of a dung beetle for reducing soil wear and adherence, we design a cemented carbide drill bit with a bionic surface, which is expected to have superior anti-wearing and anti-sticking properties for drilling the soft coal seam. Inspired from the characteristics of the head and pronotum surface of the dung beetle, optimized non-smooth surface of the drill bit was constructed. The working performance of this innovative drill was experimentally tested. With comparative experiments under the identical drilling conditions, the wear rates, drilling times of conventional drills and bionic drills were measured. Compared with the conventional counterpart, the drill designed exhibits better performance in reducing wear and sticking drilling-breaks, therefore achieving higher levels of efficiency. The diameter of the dome and pit on the bit surface is in the range of 0.8–1.2 mm, and the bionic drill bits could get better performance with preferable drilling speeds and wear rates.