THE
MIDDLE EAST
The distinctive people and products of Smith Diamond Technology are playing expanding roles in the world's most competitive markets.

(Click on right picture for a personal profile.)
After a productive day, four members of the Smith Diamond Technology sales staff meet at The Citadel in Cairo. Pictured above are (l to r) Boktor Boktor, sales engineer; Marlo Zemanian, secretary; Ahmed Khoudeir, sales engineer; and Hesham Lotfy, sales manager.

Smith Diamond Technology was formed in 1995 to provide additional focus on customer needs for specialized diamond bit designs and expanded application engineering service. This business unit consists of two segments: GeoDiamond and MegaDiamond-SupraDiamant.

MegaDiamond-SupraDiamant manufactures ultrahard products in the United States, France and Italy. GeoDiamond designs, delivers and helps oilfield customers obtain the best performance from specialized diamond drilling bits. During 1996, MegaDiamond added significant new manufacturing capacity through the acquisition of the SupraDiamant S.p.A. plant in Scurelle, Italy. Synthetic polycrystalline diamond (PDC) products are developed and manufactured for three Smith business units, customers in the oilfield and in the metalworking, woodworking and specialized industrial applications markets.

The new generation of GeoDiamond synthetic diamond bits is delivering superior drilling results in wells around the world. In addition to new bit designs and improved diamond cutters, a customer-focused selling strategy implemented during 1995 has increased GeoDiamond revenues over three times the level of two years ago.

Diamond bit manufacturing and field application engineering services are also expanding. To meet customer requirements, new sales engineers at GeoDiamond are being drawn from the fields of geology, petroleum engineering and drilling engineering. A number of the GeoDiamond field staff hold advanced degrees, are multilingual and have significant worldwide field operating experience at the job site.

During 1996 GeoDiamond provided continuous, year-round training sessions covering laboratory research results, diamond bit engineering developments and new technologies which have been successfully applied in the field. These sessions delivered in the United States and at several locations around the world, provide advanced training both to GeoDiamond sales engineers and customer drilling engineers.