Patent Application
20200070320
The present invention relates generally to conduit unions for connecting sections of conduit and to a tool for attaching and removing such unions from conduit connections.
Threaded unions, sometimes referred to as “hammer unions”, are used in a variety of industries. In the area of petroleum exploration and production, they are used to join conduits together, for example, conduits containing high-pressure fluids, such as the pipelines used to convey drilling mud, fracturing fluids, and oil and gas produced as a result of drilling activities. Hammer unions have generally been considered to be economical, simple, reliable and robust. A typical example of the traditional hammer union is the WECO™ brand of hammer unions available from FMC Technologies of Houston, Tex. This particular hammer union is merely used to illustrate an example of the type of devices under consideration, there being many other similar commercially available devices at the present time. Typically, hammer unions are used in more temporary situations, for example, for joining together sections of pipe used for pumping fracturing fluids into a well bore under high pressure. However, hammer unions may also be used in certain long-term applications for their ease of make-up and break-out, especially, for example, for equipment that may need to be replaced quickly and efficiently (e.g., rotary hoses for conveying drilling mud between a stand pipe manifold and a rotary swivel or top drive, or components of a choke manifold, such as valves, chokes and spools which may fail unexpectedly due to erosive flows, etc.).
Inevitably, in industrial piping systems, plumbing and flow lines systems, the lugs or tangs of the “wing nut” portion of the hammer union will receive variable degrees of visible external damage because of the repeated blows of a sledgehammer that is used against the hammer union to tighten the union. A wing nut with one or more deformed lugs may not be reliably mated with another piece of piping equipment. The piping equipment, however, would generally still be usable if the wing nut is replaced. Currently, when a wing nut becomes deformed due to damaged or deformed lugs, the end of the wing nut pipe segment on which the wing nut is installed is cut off, the deformed wing nut is replaced with a new wing nut, and the pipe is machined and welded together. Unfortunately, this repair approach often has quality problems. These quality problems lead to safety issues. A misaligned wing nut on a hammer union joint may hold pressure for a period of time, but may ultimately fail as the pressure pushes against the joint.
An attempted field repair of a wing nut using common cutting and welding techniques creates a significant risk for misaligned or poorly welded joints. In typical field situations, there may be few or no field personnel qualified to perform the highly skilled welding and machining operations required for a safe repair. Since field repairs may result in significant down time, there is also an economic impact when removing a pipe section to replace a deformed wing nut. In manufacturing and drilling operations, down time directly impacts a company's cost of operations.
The primary reason for wing nut damage is repeated blows from a sledgehammer during the act of tightening the wing nut. As mentioned, connections are made up and broken down by causing the wing nut to turn by repeated blows of heavy hammers, such as sledgehammers with hardened steel heads weighing as much as 20 lbs. that are wielded by hand. This can create a situation where the powerful sledgehammer swings are not correctly directed to the wing nut lugs or tangs, as the user may miss-swing or partially deflect the wing nut tang on a particular swing. This can result in strikes to a lower extremity of the sledgehammer user and can cause potential severe injury to the user. Additionally, the relatively small tangs of the union wing nuts can cause the sledgehammer user to miss the hammer tangs and cause strikes to undesired external surfaces, such as the conduits or surrounding piping. Furthermore, repeated striking of the lugs, tangs or the like of the wing nut can result in metal fatigue, causing the lug to break off and effectively become a dangerous missile. The use of sledgehammers is among the top causes of job injuries in the oilfield industry. Swinging a hammer or striking or dropping a hammer against one's self or others can cause muscle strains, pinch points, or other physical harm to a worker. Further, conduit, hose, or pipe unions are often assembled or broken down in areas or locations where flammable fumes may permeate the air. Striking the surface of a wing or lug of a union connector, may create sparks which could ignite such flammable fumes creating the potential for explosions and fires that may expose the worker to severe burns or even death as well as extensive property damage to the location.
Another disadvantage of the standard hammer union is the fact that when making such connections with these hammers it is generally impossible to achieve or verify the torque required or desired for effectively mating the components of the threaded portions of the hammer unions. The general forceful over-tightening of the conduit union can inherently create a situation where the user is unable to fully disconnect the connected conduit because of the over-rated force applied during the assembly. This can make the fully-assembled conduit union nearly impossible to remove or to disassemble for common replacement or repositioning purposes. There is also the general lack of quality control considerations, since the user really has no definite idea how much torque has been applied to the connection at hand.
One alternative used in the past for the hammer union was the use of manually operable tongs. These tongs typically have a handle and jaw members that are used grip and turn a nut, swivel, or another threaded connection component of the threaded union. The torque or moment force used to turn the threaded connection components of the threaded union to make up or break out of the threaded joint is created by the force applied to the jaws by tong handle. When the union connection joint is completed, the jaws of the tongs are opened to permit their removal from around the conduit pipe and the threaded union creating the connection joint. Often the moment force or torque applied to the threaded union by the tong jaws is not sufficient to adequately seal the conduit ends together which may result in leaks or cause the conduit to decouple under pressure. Alternatively, the manual tongs may overtighten the connection. Again, the amount of torque applied by the tongs was not typically tracked or recorded.
Consequently, a need exists for an improved fluid conduit union connection and method that will reliably make-up and break-out such a union connection, reduce conduit sealing problems, and reduce the risk of harm for the workers and the risk of damage to the work site location and equipment. The use of such a device will correspondingly enhance worksite safety and reduce the cost and expenses typically associated with the conduit connecting devices and methods currently utilized.
A need also exists for an improved conduit union and associated make-up and break-out tool which will have improved capabilities for monitoring and recording the torque applied to each union connection in the pipe line.
Additional objects, features and advantages will be apparent in the written description which follows.
In one aspect, the present invention provides a torque style, or “hammerless” union for connecting fluid conduits.
In a further aspect, the present invention provides a union nut and wrench system for use in a hammerless union for connecting first and second conduits.
In a further aspect, the present invention provides a torque style union for connecting first and second conduits wherein the torque applied to make-up the connection can be determined.
In accordance with the above objects, a torque operable union nut is provided, comprising:
a union nut body having an upper peripheral planar face, a lower peripheral planar face and a circumferential side wall connecting the front and rear planar faces, and wherein the circumferential side wall has a series of protuberances extending outwardly therefrom which define at least two circumferentially spaced wrench receiving formations; and
each of said wrench receiving formations comprising a generally arcuate slot portion which communicates with a transverse opening portion of the formation, the slot portions and transverse opening portions of the formations forming a series of radially extending T-shaped beam members when viewed in a plan view.
Preferably, each of the slot portions of the receiving formations forms a pair of oppositely arranged, circumferentially spaced nooks formed at opposite ends of each slot. The receiving formations are selectively sized to receive engaging surfaces of a mating wrench tool, the tool being used to apply torque to the union nut by rotating the union nut. A preferred wrench can be provided wherein the same wrench is engageable with the receiving formations for both making-up and breaking-out the nut from a pipe connection. The preferred union nut is thus hand tightenable with a suitable wrench, without requiring power tongs, or the like.
In one embodiment of the invention, a planar backup ring is located on the circumferential side wall which connects the upper and lower planar faces of the union nut, the planar backup ring encircling the side wall at a position adjacent the rear side surfaces of the circumferentially extending beam members, thereby closing off the slot portions in one direction to prevent the mating wrench tool from sliding out of the slot portions and off the union nut when torque is being applied to the union nut.
The present invention also encompasses the combination of a previously described torque operable union nut together with a special spanner wrench for turning the union nut. In one embodiment, the preferred spanner wrench has a wrench body having a generally arcuate outer periphery and an interior bridge region, the bridge region terminating at either of two opposite ends with an engagement tang for engaging selected ones of the wrench receiving formations in the union nut body.
This version of the spanner wrench is sized to span at least two of the receiving formations in the union nut body with the engagement tangs of the wrench body being received in selected receiving formations of the union nut body. At least one of the engagement tangs has a foot region which is engaged within one of the pair of oppositely arranged, circumferentially spaced nooks formed at opposite ends of the receiving formation slots.
In one embodiment of the invention, the combination torque operable union nut and spanner wrench further includes an electronic torque wrench engageable with the polygonally shaped opening in the spanner wrench body for providing an electronic indication of the relative torque being applied by the torque wrench. The preferred electronic torque wrench includes a data storage module which can be used to store and retrieve a history of the torque applied at each pipe connection being made with the union nut and spanner wrench. In some cases, the data storage module is an electronic storage disk which can be removed from the electronic torque wrench and read by a remotely located computer. In other cases, the electronic torque wrench can store and transmit data wirelessly to a remote location for establishing a history of the torque applied at each pipe connection being made with the union nut and spanner wrench.
An improved method is also shown for tightening a torque operable union nut. In the method of the invention, the previously described union nut is threadedly engaged with one of a respective pair of pipe components to be joined in a pipeline, whereby rotating the union nut tightens the pipeline connection. The previously described spanner wrench is then engaged with the selected receiving formations in the union nut body. A suitable torque handle is then engaged with the spanner wrench body and torque is applied to the spanner wrench and, in turn, to the union nut body to turn the union nut body and tighten the union nut. Preferably, the same spanner wrench is used to engage the union nut for both tightening and untightening the union nut.
These and further features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, wherein reference is made to the figures in the accompanying drawings.
While the invention will be described primarily with reference to the union nut and a tool (wrench) for turning the nut, it will be understood that the hammerless connection of the present invention encompasses not only the union nut and wrench system but suitable male and female subs, e.g. such as described with respect to the prior art assembly shown in
With reference to
Turning then to
The union connection of the invention also includes a female sub shown generally as 22 which can comprise a tubular portion 24 and an upset portion 26, the upset portion 26 having external threads 28. Upset portion 26 is recessed to form a concave annular seating surface 30 which is complementary in shape to spherical surface 18 such that when surfaces 30 and 18 are in engagement, a metal-to-metal seal can be formed.
Connecting the subs 12 and 22 together is a torque style (hammerless) union nut shown generally as 40 in
As perhaps can be best appreciated from
It can thus be seen from
In order to thread nut 40 onto female sub 22, a wrench shown generally as “W” in
The spanner wrench body has an upper planar surface 78, a lower planar surface 79 and a thickness “t” therebetween (see
With reference again to
It will be appreciated that in the position shown in
Several other features of the union nut/wrench combination of the present invention are important. For one, wrench W can only engage nut 40 by movement of the bridge region 72 and tangs 74, 76 into the receiving formations by insertion from an axial direction with respect to the pipe. In other words, engagement by wrench W of nut 40 cannot be accomplished by relative movement of wrench W and nut 40 in a straight-in radial direction, as viewed in
Another important feature of the nut/wrench combination of the present invention, is that when the nut 40 is being moved, whether it be to tighten or loosen nut 40, there are significant circumferential force vectors being applied by wrench W to nut 40.
With regard to the type of torque wrench used to engage the polygonally shaped opening 90 of the wrench to apply torque, any of a variety of types of commercially available wrenches can be employed. For example, beam and dial systems can be employed. However, easier to use mechanical systems such as click or toggle torque wrench measuring devices are more preferred. In addition to purely mechanical torque measuring systems, electronic torque determinations based on strain gauges, and the like, can also be employed. Many of these systems can include electronic read-out either via a tethered connection to a portable controller or wirelessly to a remote unit.
Thus, in a further embodiment, the wrench W1 of the present invention can be provided with an electronic torque measuring device, shown in simplified fashion as 92 in
With an electronic torque measuring device of this type, an on-board data module can be used to store and retrieve a history of the torque applied at each pipe connection being made with the union nut and spanner wrench. In some instances it is envisioned that the data storage module will incorporate an electronic storage disk (Scandisk™ or the like) which can be removed from the electronic torque wrench and read by a remotely located computer. In another embodiment, the electronic torque wrench can store and transmit data wirelessly to a remote location for establishing a history of the torque applied at each pipe connection being made with the union nut and spanner wrench.
As has been previously described with respect to
The union nut shown in
In the same manner as the wrench of
Once again, the spanner wrench 119 of
Although specific embodiments of the invention have been described herein in some detail, this has been done solely for the purposes of explaining the various aspects of the invention, and is not intended to limit the scope of the invention as defined in the claims which follow. Those skilled in the art will understand that the embodiment shown and described is exemplary, and various other substitutions, alterations and modifications, including but not limited to those design alternatives specifically discussed herein, may be made in the practice of the invention without departing from its scope.
Thus, while the invention has been shown in several of its forms, it is not thus limited but is susceptible to various changes and modifications without departing from the spirit thereof.
The present application is a continuation-in-part application of earlier filed Ser. No. 15/271,921, filed Sep. 21, 2016, entitled “Torque Styled Union For Joining Conduit and Tool For Use Therewith”, by Howard N. Varnado, which in turn claimed priority from a provisional application, Ser. No. 62/352,250, filed Jun. 20, 2016, entitled “Hammerless Union Connection”, by Howard N. Varnado.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62352250 | Jun 2016 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 15271921 | Sep 2016 | US |
| Child | 16676624 | US |
