US Patent 7968184 - Erosion resistant CNT surface for oilfield exploration

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7968184.html

This patent from Schlumberger Technology Corporation teaches a way to reduce erosion of equipment used in wellbore drilling using carbon nanotube coatings. Claim 1 reads:

13. An erosion resistant device for oilfield exploration, drilling, or production comprising:

a component having an erosion resistant surface having an array of elastic whiskers;

wherein the array of elastic whiskers reduces a speed of a particle impacting the erosion resistant surface thus reducing an erosion rate of the erosion resistant surface;

wherein the array of elastic whiskers comprises a forest of vertically-aligned carbon nanotubes; and

wherein the erosion resistant device is selected from a mud motor rotor, stator, drill bit, and shirttails.