The Software Behind Better Bits

The problem

In 2023, Taurex was building a more automated, data-driven way to make PDC drill bits. It started with photobot, a process that captured high-resolution images of every bit. The originals ran up to 100MB and lived on an on-prem network drive, so they were slow to open. Downscaling wasn't an option, because Taurex's engineers needed full resolution to judge bit condition.

Their ambitions for imaging, AI damage classification, and a tighter design feedback loop were outrunning an on-prem setup and an in-house team that already had a full plate. Taurex had the strategy and the engineering vision. What they wanted was a software partner who could move as fast as their ideas.

The solution

It started with one problem and grew into a partnership. SEQTEK built a DeepZoom image viewer and a pipeline that converts Taurex's 100MB originals into tiled DZI images that open instantly at any zoom, full resolution, no waiting, integrated directly into BitOps, their main operations software.

That trust compounded. Today SEQTEK builds and maintains Taurex's full software portfolio: BitOps, the main operations platform with sales, manufacturing, repair, and accounting integrated; BitLife for bit record management; and Greenlight for accounting. SEQTEK also trains the ML models behind image cropping, damage classification, and the other inference that sharpens Taurex's digital dull feedback loop.

SEQTEK manages Taurex's Azure environment alongside their internal DevOps and IT manager, covering serverless functions, Blob Storage, ML Workspace, DevOps Artifacts, and GitHub. Releases moved from hand-deploys off a developer's laptop to automated GitHub Actions builds shipped through a controlled deployment pipeline.

The partnership reaches past business software into how Taurex designs and inspects bits: Python edge applications for photobot, scanbot, and inspection; Polyworks automation; the hardware-to-software interface for BitVision 2.0; and SolidWorks integration with BitLogic, their bit-design application. The embedded team runs lean, a developer and a product owner, and scales to three developers and a data engineer when the work calls for it.

The impact

The viewer that started it all lets engineers open full-resolution bit images instantly, at any zoom, with no downscaling and no waiting. Taurex now runs its whole operation, from sales and manufacturing to repair, accounting, and bit records, on software one partner builds and maintains, so the systems work together instead of in silos.

A modern data and ML stack keeps sharpening the digital dull feedback loop that improves bit design. Releases are automated and repeatable instead of hand-deployed, so updates ship faster and more safely, and Taurex's people stay focused on what only they can do: advancing drill bit performance.