The structure of the roller core barrel and core barrel is almost the same. The only difference is the roller inlaid into the bottom to change the rock-breaking way and improve the rock penetration and reduces tooth wearing.

The roller-cutter core barrel is suitable for drilling in rock formation with a uniaxial compressive strength of 60–280 MPa.Rock penetration is achieved through the natural rolling of the rollers using high-frequency shearing or impact crushing by multiple carbide inserts.The core breaks along joints or bedding plane fractures.The cores are taken out with the combined working of rollers and the drill bottom.