US Patent 12091917 Shaped cutter with peripheral cutting teeth and tapered open region

A shaped cutter has a plurality of peripheral cutting teeth to enhance drilling. The shaped cutter may enhance rock failure modes in addition to shearing, such as by indentation, impacting, scraping and grinding. The peripheral cutting teeth are located along the periphery, where cutting energy and forces may be highest. An open region radially inward of the peripheral cutting teeth may be axially recessed to increase the proportion of cutting load on the peripheral cutting teeth. The cutting table may be tapered to modify a back rake angle. The flared periphery may result in a sharper indentation angle and/or larger radius of contact. The plurality of cutting teeth may also exploit vibrations in the drill string to enhance rock failure.