This application is a U.S. National Phase application under 35 U.S.C. § 371 of International Application No. PCT/NO2019/050069, filed on Apr. 4, 2019 and which claims benefit to Norwegian Patent Application No. 20180545, filed on Apr. 20, 2018. The International Application was published in English on Oct. 24, 2019 as WO 2019/203655 A1 under PCT Article 21(2).
The present invention relates to a crane yoke and to a crane for handling tubulars, including but not limited to tubulars used in drilling operations, as well as to a method for moving a pipe between a pipe storage and a drilling operation.
In various industrial processes, it is necessary to handle tubular elements between, for example, a tubular storage, a tubular handling machine, and a place of use of the tubular. One example of such processes is drilling operations where tubulars, such as sections of a drill string or other types of pipe, are used in a wellbore. In such drilling operations, which can include offshore or onshore operations, the pipe elements are commonly transported between a storage area (for example, a pipe deck) to a pipe handling machine on a drill floor by the use of a crane. This transport may be done both ways: from the storage to the drill floor during construction of a tubular string (such as for drilling or tripping in), and from the drill floor to the storage during retrieval of the string from the wellbore (such as tripping out a drill string).
Such operations involving transport of individual tubular elements or a bundle of tubular elements will usually have stringent health and safety requirements as there will often be the need for personnel to work on, for example, the pipe deck and the drill floor, at the same time as tubulars are being moved. There is also a continuous need to make such operations as efficient as possible in order to reduce downtime of the overall plant and industrial processes. There is finally a need to reduce, as much as possible, energy use and wear on machines involved in such operations.
Documents which may be useful for providing background information include WO 2006/096068 A1, WO 2010/087710 A1 and US 2002/153169 A1.
An aspect of the present invention is to provide systems and methods which provide improvements over known solutions and techniques in one or more of the above areas, or other areas.
In an embodiment, the present invention provides a yoke for a pipe handling crane. The yoke includes a magazine comprising a plurality of storage slots for tubular pipes, and a pipe lifting unit comprising a lifting tool. The lifting tool is configured to supply one of the tubular pipes to and retrieve one of the tubular pipes from the magazine.
The present invention is described in greater detail below on the basis of embodiments and of the drawings in which:
In an embodiment, the present invention provides a yoke for a pipe handling crane, the yoke comprising a pipe lifting unit and a magazine, the magazine comprising a plurality of storage slots for tubular pipes, wherein the pipe lifting unit comprises a lifting tool operable to supply a pipe to and retrieve a pipe from the magazine.
In an embodiment, the present invention provides a crane comprising a yoke.
In an embodiment, the present invention provides a method of moving a pipe between a pipe storage and a drilling operation, the method comprising the steps: operating a crane having a yoke to pick up a plurality of pipes from the pipe storage and to store the pipes in a magazine, and delivering the pipes from the magazine to a pipe handling machine associated with the drilling operation.
Various characteristics will become clear from the following description of illustrative embodiments, which are given as non-restrictive examples, under reference to the attached drawings.
A connection 4 for fixing the yoke 2 to the pipe handling crane 1 is also schematically illustrated.
In this embodiment, the plurality of storage slots 12 are provided by two vertically arranged screw elements 13a,b having a helix-shaped support surface for the pipes 6. Each screw element 13a,b defines a plurality of support slots for supporting a pipe 6 in the helix, and pairs of support slots make up each storage slot 12.
One or more end supports 16 may be arranged to provide longitudinal support for pipes 6 arranged in the magazine 3. Only one end support 16 is shown in this embodiment for clarity. The end support 16 prevents the pipe 6 from sliding longitudinally and out of the respective storage slot 12. Whether an end support 16 is required will depend on the specific requirements in each application. The end support 16 may, for example, be advantageous if the yoke 2 is used on an offshore rig which operates in harsh weather, i.e., sea motion exists. Alternatively, if the requirements and operating conditions permit, such longitudinal support can be provided by suitable high-friction materials on the support surface of the storage slots 12 or, for example, a separate mechanism can be used to selectively clamp the pipe 6 in place in the storage slot 12 to prevent longitudinal motion.
An actuator 14a,b, in this example, electric motors 14a,b, are provided and are operable to move the plurality of storage slots 12 vertically by turning the screw elements 13a,b. It is thereby possible to free the lowermost storage slot 12 for supply of another pipe while the previously loaded pipe 6 is moved to a higher storage slot 12 in the magazine 3. This allows the pipe lifting unit 5 to be designed for reaching the lowermost slot only for delivery or retrieval of pipes to or from the magazine 3.
The belt 15 is rotatable by an actuator (not shown) so that the storage slots 12 are vertically movable and the pipe lifting unit 5 only needs to supply a pipe 6 to, or to retrieve a pipe 6 from, the lowermost slot.
A support rail 10 (see also
The lifting unit 5 is thus operable to lift the pipe 6 from, for example, a stored position on a pipe deck to the lowermost slot in the magazine 3. As can be seen in
Although the above described embodiments have been shown with movable storage slots 12, it is also possible to use fixed slots and arrange the lifting member to be able to place the pipe in the respective slot. The pipe clamp 60 of
In use, the yoke 2 according to embodiments described herein, thereby allows the pipe handling crane to pick up a plurality of pipes from, for example, a pipe deck, and to transport the plurality of pipes to, for example, a pipe handling machine associated with a drilling plant. An arrangement according to some embodiments may improve safety and operational flexibility on a drilling rig in that personnel will, for example, have greater freedom to work on the pipe deck without the pipe handling crane repeatedly returning to pick up a new pipe. A longer period may be available between each trip by the pipe handling crane with the arrangement described herein. A reduced number of trips may also extend the working lifetime of the crane and associated systems, thereby reducing maintenance requirements.
The present invention is not limited by the embodiments described above; reference should be had to the appended claims.
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20180545 | Apr 2018 | NO | national |
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PCT/NO2019/050069 | 4/4/2019 | WO |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
WO2019/203655 | 10/24/2019 | WO | A |
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20210180415 A1 | Jun 2021 | US |