| Project Engineer: Leon Holloway |
Carbonado diamond bits have been designed and are being built for the XCB. These bits should allow basement to be drilled into without tripping the string for the RCB assembly. Many times, scientists have wanted to sample just the basement after APC/XCB coring but have been unable to do so because the existing XCB shoes would not hold up once the harder rock was encountered. These new shoes, which are interchangeable with the existing bits, should allow better recovery and reduce the operating costs incurred in destroying XCB bits every time hard material is encountered. They will also be an excellent choice when chert stringers or other hard rock strata are encountered before actually drilling into basement.