Boring or penetrating the earth – With signaling – indicating – testing or measuring
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-29
2001-08-21
Neuder, William (Department: 3672)
Boring or penetrating the earth
With signaling, indicating, testing or measuring
C166S250010, C073S152590
Reexamination Certificate
active
06276466
ABSTRACT:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
Not applicable
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
Not applicable
REFERENCE TO A “MICROFICHE APPENDIX”
Not applicable
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The system of the present invention relates to oil well drilling and production. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system for monitoring both the direction of a drill string and the number of revolutions made by the drill string over a given time during back off or fishing operations.
2. General Background of the Invention
In the present state of the art, in the drilling of oil wells and the production of hydrocarbons, there are many tasks which have to be undertaken during the rather complex process, which requires that the operator of the rig know at all times certain features of the string. For example, during back off of the drill string during drilling, it is necessary that the number of revolutions that the drill string makes during the back off be monitored very carefully so as to be able to calculate the proper amount of torque that is needed during the back off work. Secondly, it is important that the operator on the rig floor know the direction i.e. clockwise or counter-clockwise that the drill string is rotating during operations such as back off work, or during fishing operations.
One of the more common systems of counting the revolutions that a drill string makes is to simply tie a piece of cloth or the like on the drill pipe or on the kelly and as the kelly rotates, the cloth would strike a worker or the like on the leg and the worker would keep count of the number of revolutions made during a particular given time. Although this is a quite primitive way of counting revolutions, it is often the only manner of counting revolutions of a drill string that it is used in such a system.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a system that is able to be a reliable yet precise system of counting the revolutions made by, for example, a drill pipe during operations conducted on a rig, and to sense the direction that the drill pipe is rotating so as to ascertain whether the drill string is turning clockwise or counter-clockwise as the case may be.
In a search conducted of the art in this field, there are several patents which were found that may be pertinent to the art and these patents are included herewith in a prior art statement submitted with this patent application.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The system of the present invention solves the problems in the art in a simple and straightforward manner. What is provided is sensing system mounted to a mechanical drill pipe swivel of the type which is mounted on a rig housing to a section of drill pipe. The swivel would include an enlarged body portion for securing to a section of drill pipe. There would be provided a first upper circular collar positionable around the outer surface of the swivel, the collar having a first and second halves hinged at a common edge, so that the collar may move to a first open position to be engaged around the body of the swivel and moved to a second closed position to be locked in place around the swivel body. The collar would include an arm member extending from the collar wall on a first end, to a position so that the second end of the arm member is in line with a portion of the drill pipe to which the swivel is engaged. The second end of the arm member would include first and second sensors positioned facing the section of drill pipe. The section of drill pipe would further include a second lower collar, again having first and second half portions and hinged at a common edge so that the second collar could be placed in a first open position around the surface of the drill pipe and moved to a second closed position to be locked in place. The second collar would include a plurality of two types of sensors which would be positioned at specific points along the wall of the collar. As the drill pipe rotated, there would be a first set of sensors aligned with one of the sensors on the arm member for sensing the direction of the rotation, and a second set of sensors aligned with the second sensor on the arm member for sensing the number of revolutions of the drill pipe as it turned in a 360 degree turn.
Further, there would be included a receiver which would be electronically attached to the arm member so that when the sensors on the end of the arm member received a signal from the direction sensors or counter sensors on the drill pipe, the receiver would receive this information and translate it into a digital format so that a person on the rig could see both the number of revolutions made by the drill pipe on the face of the receiver and the direction of the drill pipe as it rotated either clockwise or counter-clockwise.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3774445 (1973-11-01), Rundell et al.
patent: 4099410 (1978-07-01), Martin
patent: 4715451 (1987-12-01), Bseisu et al.
patent: 4756188 (1988-07-01), Fennell
patent: 4802143 (1989-01-01), Smith
patent: 4831871 (1989-05-01), Malinet et al.
patent: 5202680 (1993-04-01), Savage
patent: 5205163 (1993-04-01), Sananikone
patent: 5272925 (1993-12-01), Henneuse et al.
patent: 5347859 (1994-09-01), Henneuse et al.
Garvey, Smith, Nehrbass & Doody LLC
Neuder William
LandOfFree
System for measuring the direction and revolution of a... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with System for measuring the direction and revolution of a..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and System for measuring the direction and revolution of a... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2439299