Everything You Need to Know About Hole Openers

A hole opener is a popular fixed diameter borehole enlargement tool that is used in all facets of drilling in several industries including oil & gas. While some hole openers run with roller cones, there are a few other categories too that do not run on roller cones. Considering the fact that most horizontal hole openers do not have a moving part, there is no fear of losing the cones.

Talking about a special category of hole openers - versatile hole openers, also called VRS hole openers, are used to drill the hardest of the formations very smoothly, especially when paired with a centraliser. The most common use of a hole opener is to enlarge the pre-drilled pilot hole, however, it may also be utilized to make sure that the gauge of a pilot hole is intact using a method called wiper trip. There have been several instances where hole openers were utilized in the same drill string as the bit to perform the function of actually enlarging the wellbore. This extends to ensuring that the bit gauge is maintained and all the formation beds that may accumulate throughout the section being drilled are cleaned up.

As far as the features of a VRS hole opener are concerned, these are usually manufactured from a single piece of steel through a fully non-welded construction. In addition to reducing the possibility of cracking, this also helps in making the hole opener easier to push out if required. Most VRS hole openers come with a unique locking system that allows the interchange of a plethora of cutter types in the oil and gas field. Additional stability can be achieved by adding a centraliser to the drill string. These help ensure greatly improved centralisation of the drill path and avoid any deviation hence saving time and effort on-field.

Rockpecker is known for manufacturing the best hole openers across the UK. Other than hole openers, we manufacture and deal in high-performance PDC drill bits, TCI drag bits, and PDC hole openers, VRS Reamers as well as Spiral-Bladed Centralisers. We back our designs by various methods to simulate drilling and to make sure our bits deliver optimum performance. For more information about the products we manufacture, feel free to browse through the website or simply reach out to us.