A wear support assembly includes a wear pad arranged on top of a support plate, wherein the support plate has a lower surface for connecting to a raise boring tool and both the wear pad and the support plate have at least one hole for receiving a bolt to connect the wear pad to the support plate. Also, a raise boring tool for raise boring operations includes a reamer head having a body, a plurality of roller cutters connected to the body using a holder, a nose or drive stem connected the body, and at least one wear support assembly, wherein each support plate is connected directly to the raise boring tool and each wear pad is radially or perpendicularly bolted to each support plate.

A wear support assembly includes a wear pad arranged on top of a support plate, wherein the support plate has a lower surface for connecting to a raise boring tool and both the wear pad and the support plate have at least one hole for receiving a bolt to connect the wear pad to the support plate. Also, a raise boring tool for raise boring operations includes a reamer head having a body, a plurality of roller cutters connected to the body using a holder, a nose or drive stem connected the body, and at least one wear support assembly, wherein each support plate is connected directly to the raise boring tool and each wear pad is radially or perpendicularly bolted to each support plate.

A cutting table for a cutting element, including: a diamond phase; a tungsten carbide phase; a cobalt-tungsten metallic phase; and an intermetallic phase comprising Co.sub.3WC.sub.x, where 0≤x≤1. Also disclosed is a method of manufacturing a cutting element, the method including: sintering diamond and tungsten carbide particles in the presence of Co and W to about 1520° C. or greater under pressure of about 57 kbar or greater to form a hard metal-diamond composite compact and solubilize carbon and tungsten within the compact; cooling the cutting element at about 1° C./sec or greater; and subsequent to cooling the cutting element, heat-treating the cutting element to precipitate carbon and tungsten in the compact as an intermetallic phase.

A cutting table for a cutting element, including: a diamond phase; a tungsten carbide phase; a cobalt-tungsten metallic phase; and an intermetallic phase comprising Co.sub.3WC.sub.x, where 0≤x≤1. Also disclosed is a method of manufacturing a cutting element, the method including: sintering diamond and tungsten carbide particles in the presence of Co and W to about 1520° C. or greater under pressure of about 57 kbar or greater to form a hard metal-diamond composite compact and solubilize carbon and tungsten within the compact; cooling the cutting element at about 1° C./sec or greater; and subsequent to cooling the cutting element, heat-treating the cutting element to precipitate carbon and tungsten in the compact as an intermetallic phase.

Tools, for example, fixed cutter drill bits, may be manufactured to include hard composite portions having reinforcing particles dispersed in a continuous binder phase and auxiliary portions that are more machinable than the hard composite portions. For example, a tool may include a hard composite portion having a machinability rating 0.2 or less; and an auxiliary portion having a machinability rating of 0.6 or greater in contact with the hard composite portion. The boundary or interface between the hard composite portion and the auxiliary portion may be designed so that upon removal of the most or all of the auxiliary portion the resultant tool has a desired geometry without having to machine the hard composite portion.

Material removal systems including milling drum and milling-drumless products, systems, manufactures, and methods for removing material, such as concrete or asphalt, or industrial flowing applications may be augmented with manufactures that provide one or more of an alignment feature for controlling orientation of abrasive elements and manufactures that provide destructive interference and durability of abrasive elements during operation. Manufactures and methods of fabricating manufactures are provided. The method allows configurations of matched pairs of individual abrasive elements to be easily made to a variety of applications in a parametric, semi-parametric, or non-parametric manner, and may provide one or more of an alignment feature for controlling orientation of abrasive elements and sinusoidal, near-sinusoidal or non-sinusoidal destructive interference effects, while providing durability of abrasive elements during operation.

Material removal systems including milling drum and milling-drumless products, systems, manufactures, and methods for removing material, such as concrete or asphalt, or industrial flowing applications may be augmented with manufactures that provide one or more of an alignment feature for controlling orientation of abrasive elements and manufactures that provide destructive interference and durability of abrasive elements during operation. Manufactures and methods of fabricating manufactures are provided. The method allows configurations of matched pairs of individual abrasive elements to be easily made to a variety of applications in a parametric, semi-parametric, or non-parametric manner, and may provide one or more of an alignment feature for controlling orientation of abrasive elements and sinusoidal, near-sinusoidal or non-sinusoidal destructive interference effects, while providing durability of abrasive elements during operation.

Earth-boring rotary drill bits include heel portions exhibiting reduced aggressiveness. Earth-boring rotary drill bits may comprise a bit body and a plurality of roller cones coupled to the bit body. Each roller cone comprises a plurality of rows of cutting elements, and a continuous disk heel located further from an axis of rotation of the roller cone than the at least one row of cutting elements, the continuous disk heel exhibiting a reduced amount of aggressiveness compared to the at least one row of cutting elements.

A system includes at least one processing unit and a bottomhole assembly (BHA) that includes or communicates with the at least one processing unit. The BHA includes at least one drilling component and at least one acoustic transducer to convert drilling noise into one or more electrical signals. The at least one processing unit analyzes the one or more electrical signals or related data to categorize different components of the drilling noise as rock contact noise and mechanical noise. The at least one processing unit derives a data log, a plan, or a control signal based on the categorized drilling noise components.

A system includes at least one processing unit and a bottomhole assembly (BHA) that includes or communicates with the at least one processing unit. The BHA includes at least one drilling component and at least one acoustic transducer to convert drilling noise into one or more electrical signals. The at least one processing unit analyzes the one or more electrical signals or related data to categorize different components of the drilling noise as rock contact noise and mechanical noise. The at least one processing unit derives a data log, a plan, or a control signal based on the categorized drilling noise components.