Device for expanding pipes

Wells – Means for perforating – weakening – bending or separating pipe... – Cutter rotates circumferentially of pipe

Patent

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Details

29234, 29523, 72 75, E21B 2910

Patent

active

050147790

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE ART

The present invention relates to well-drilling technologies, and, more particularly, it relates to a device for expanding pipes.
The invention can be employed to the utmost effect for expanding profile pipes used for patching off troublesome zones in a well-drilling operation, such troublesome zones being those associated with intense losses of the drilling mud and cement slurries, the inflow of either liquid or gas into the borehole from exposed formations, or caving-in of the rock being drilled.


PRIOR ART

It is not unfrequent nowadays that in the drilling of deep wells for oil or gas prodcution there are encountered formations which are incompatible from the drilling viewpoint, e.g., having abnormally high and low formation pressures, and also formations with the rock displaying a tendency towards crumbling or caving-in into the borehole.
The hitherto used practice has been to close off such formations by running into the well additional intermediate or curtailed casing strings. However, this practice involves considerable material inputs and costs incurred by the necessity of cementing the strings in the well and the need for additional metal, cement and operation time. Furthermore, with every additional casing string set, the diameter of the well becomes smaller, which adversely affects the production conditions.
At present, in order to provide for further drilling without reducing the predetermined diameter of the well, a portion of the well in the zone of an exposed troublesome formation has a patcher set therein, e.g., in the form of a string of profile pipes urged into engagement with the walls of the expanded portion of the well by building up fluid pressure inside them, followed by calibration of their internal passage to the predetermined well diameter by means of a pipe expanding device.
There is known a device for expanding casings (SU, A, 371340), comprising a housing rigidly connected with a tapering guide member with slots receiving therein the expanding members in the form of cylindrical rollers. The slots extend at an angle to the axis of the housing, their lowermost part being offset with respect to the uppermost part in the intended rotation direction of the device.
This known device is run on the drill pipe string into the well to face a crumpled portion of the casing string, and then rotated under a preset load, so that the rollers roll in engagement with the crumpled portion of the casing string, straightening it.
A drawback of this known device is its inadequate performance reliability, as the roller received in the slots of the tapering guide member of the housing are exposed to the hazard of hard particles suspended in the borehole fluid finding their way into the slots, causing jamming of the rollers, and with some of such particles being abrasive, their rapid wear.
Another shortcoming of the known device is the relatively low expansion rate imposed by the great friction forces experienced by the rollers in the slots of the tapering guide member of the housing.
There is further known a device for expanding well casings upon their crumpling in a well (SU, A, 467994), comprising a housing in the form of a direct tapering guide member made integral with an inverse tapering guide member, the guide members having slots receiving therein with the aid of bearing means the expanding members in the form of tapering rollers set at an angle to the geometric longitudinal axis of the housing and having their greater ends facing the centre of the housing.
The last-described device is operated similarly to the previously described one.
A major drawback of this device is the inadequate strength of the bearing means of its rollers, which prohibits the application to the device of a sufficiently heavy load, e.g., of a magnitude required for expanding profile pipes, which adversely affects the efficiency of expansion of pipes of this kind.
Another shortcoming of this last-described known device is its inadequate performance reliability, on account of the hazard of suspended par

REFERENCES:
patent: 1417980 (1922-05-01), Dixon
patent: 1594114 (1926-07-01), Prout
patent: 1597212 (1926-08-01), Spengler
patent: 3191677 (1965-06-01), Kinley
patent: 3201827 (1965-08-01), Reynolds et al.
patent: 3528498 (1970-09-01), Carothers
patent: 3818734 (1974-06-01), Bateman

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