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They’re built to take on the toughest formations on the planet, thousands of feet at a time. These marvels of technology and tungsten carbide steel are the big cousins of the drill bits you use in your hand-held drill at home – taken to the extreme.

Modern drill bits:

  • Withstand up to 40,000 pounds of weight
  • Are fitted with a full set of industrial diamond-tipped ‘teeth’
  • Bore through up to 2 miles of rock

Without these tough tools, drilling for oil and natural gas would be astronomically slower and more expensive. But how are they made?

Follow the journey from digital model to the finished product to see all that goes into a drill bit before it goes to work at the business end of American energy.

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