Patent Grant
9784056
Field of the Disclosure
Embodiments disclosed herein generally relate to methods and apparatuses to sense wear for a pipe guide. More specifically, embodiments disclosed herein relate to an apparatus that is used to sense wear for a pipe guide, such as a pipe guide disposed adjacent to a pipe handling apparatus.
Background Art
Wells are drilled into the earth's crust and completed to establish a fluid conduit between the surface and a targeted geologic feature, such as a formation bearing oil or gas. Pipe strings used to drill or complete a well may be made-up and run into a drilled borehole. A casing string may be cemented into a targeted interval of a drilled borehole to prevent borehole collapse, to prevent formation fluid cross-flow, and/or to isolate the interior of the well from corrosive geologic fluids.
Generally, a pipe string may be disposed and suspended within a borehole from a drilling rig using a pipe handling apparatus, such as a spider, in which the pipe string may be lengthened step-wise by threadably joining a tubular segment to the proximal end of the pipe string at the rig. The pipe string may be suspended within the drilling rig using a second type of pipe handling apparatus, such as an elevator, that is movably supported from a draw works and a derrick above the spider. As the load of the pipe string is transferred between the spider and the elevator, the spider may be unloaded and then disengaged from the pipe string by retraction of the slips within the spider. The lengthened pipe string may then be lowered further into the borehole using the draw works controlling the elevator. The spider may then again engage and support the pipe string within the borehole and an additional tubular segment may be joined to the new proximal end of the pipe string to further lengthen the pipe string.
As such, lengthening a pipe string generally involves adding one tubular segment at a time to an existing pipe string. Similarly, reducing the length of a pipe string generally involves a reverse process in which one tubular segment at a time is removed from the existing pipe string. Accordingly, each tubular member disposed downhole and returned back uphole from the well may pass through and be handled by one or more pipe handling apparatuses, such as the spider and/or the elevator. However, after handling a large number of tubular segments and supporting the weight of the pipe string, one or more components of the pipe handling apparatuses may require maintenance to ensure that the pipe handling apparatuses are working properly and will continue to work properly.
As such, to reduce the wear on a pipe handling apparatus, a pipe guide may be disposed adjacent to one or both of the openings of the pipe handling apparatus to ensure that the tubular members being received within the pipe handling apparatus are in proper alignment and position. While, the pipe guides themselves may be subject to wear, such as from hard-banding, misalignments, hang-ups while disposed tubular members downhole or pulling them back uphole, etc, it may be easier to inspect and replace a pipe guide, as compared to inspecting and replacing the entire pipe handling apparatus.
For example, a pipe guide may be disposed adjacent to the top opening and/or the bottom opening of a spider, in which the pipe guides may be replaced as needed. For the top pipe guide of the spider, a visual inspection of the pipe guide may be enough to determine if the top pipe guide needs replacing. However, it may be more complicated to determine if the bottom pipe guide requires replacing, as the bottom pipe guide may be disposed below the rig floor such that visual inspection may be difficult, or impossible for that matter. Accordingly, there exists a need that may address these concerns, such as to more adeptly accommodate the need to replace a pipe guide and/or other components of a pipe handling apparatus when visual inspection may be otherwise impaired.
In one aspect, embodiments disclosed herein relate to a system to grip a tubular member. The system includes a pipe handling apparatus having a bore formed therein with an axis defined therethrough, a pipe guide disposed adjacent to an opening of the bore of the pipe handling apparatus, and a wear sensor coupled to the pipe guide.
In another aspect, embodiments disclosed herein relate to a method to manufacture an apparatus to sense wear for a pipe handling apparatus. The method includes connecting a pipe guide to a base, the base configured to be connected to the pipe handling apparatus, and coupling a wear sensor to the pipe guide, the wear sensor configured to determine a predetermined amount of wear for the pipe guide.
In another aspect, embodiments disclosed herein relate to a method to sense wear within a pipe guide disposed adjacent to a pipe handling apparatus. The method includes guiding a tubular member into the pipe handling apparatus with the pipe guide, and sensing with a wear sensor coupled to the pipe guide that the pipe guide has received a predetermined amount of wear.
In yet another aspect, embodiments disclosed herein relate to a system to grip a tubular member. The system includes means for handling the tubular member, means for guiding the tubular member into the handling means, the guiding means disposed adjacent to an opening of the handling means, and means for sensing wear of the guiding means, the sensing means coupled to the guiding means.
Other aspects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description and the appended claims.
Specific embodiments of the present disclosure will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying Figures. Like elements in the various figures may be denoted by like reference numerals for consistency. Further, in the following detailed description of embodiments of the present disclosure, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a more thorough understanding of the invention. However, it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that the embodiments disclosed herein may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known features have not been described in detail to avoid unnecessarily complicating the description.
Furthermore, those having ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that when describing connecting a first element to a second element, it is understood that connecting may be either directly connecting the first element to the second element, or indirectly connecting the first element to the second element. For example, a first element may be directly connected to a second element, such as by having the first element and the second element in direct contact with each other, or a first element may be indirectly connected to a second element, such as by having a third element, and/or additional elements, connected between the first and second elements.
Additionally, directional terms, such as “above,” “below,” “upper,” “lower,” “top,” “bottom,” etc., are used for convenience in referring to the accompanying drawings. In general, “above,” “upper,” “upward,” “top,” and similar terms refer to a direction toward the earth's surface from below the surface along a borehole, and “below,” “lower,” “downward,” “bottom,” and similar terms refer to a direction away from the surface along the borehole, i.e., into the borehole, but is meant for illustrative purposes only, and the terms are not meant to limit the disclosure.
In one aspect, embodiments disclosed herein relate to a system, an apparatus, and/or a method to sense wear within a pipe guide and/or within a pipe handling apparatus. The apparatus includes a pipe guide that has a wear sensor coupled thereto. The pipe guide may be disposed adjacent to an opening of a pipe handling apparatus, in which the pipe guide with the wear sensor may be disposed adjacent to an opening of the pipe handling apparatus. The wear sensor may be any sensor known in the art, such as a mechanical sensor, a pneumatic sensor, a hydraulic sensor, and/or an electrical sensor. However, as shown below, the wear sensor may be a pneumatic sensor, in which the sensor may include flexible tubing having pressurized gas therein. As such, the wear sensor may be disposed within a groove of the pipe guide, in which wear sensor may indicate that a predetermined level of wear has been reached within the pipe guide when the wear sensor has been punctured and has loss of pressure for the pressurized gas.
Referring now to
Accordingly, the pipe handling apparatus 170 may include a bore 180 formed therein about an axis 190, in which the bore 180 defines a first opening 182 (e.g., a top opening) and a second opening 184 (e.g., a bottom opening) for the pipe handling apparatus 170. As such, the axis 190 for the pipe handling apparatus 170 may substantially align with an axis 162 for the tubular member 160, such as when the slip assemblies 174 are in the closed position to handle and grip the tubular member 160. Those having ordinary skill in the art, however, will appreciate that the present disclosure contemplates that other pipe handling apparatuses may be used besides a spider, such as an elevator, without departing from the present disclosure.
Referring still to
Further, an additional, second pipe guide 192 may be disposed adjacent to the first opening 182 of the pipe handling apparatus 170. The second pipe guide 192 may be movable between an open position, as shown in
As the pipe guide 102 is formed from a wearable material, the pipe guide 102 may include a wear sensor 120 coupled thereto. A wear sensor in accordance with the present disclosure may be used to measure an amount of wear that has occurred within a pipe guide, such as particularly indicating when a predetermined amount of wear for the pipe guide has been reached. As such, and as shown in
Referring still to
Referring now to
The first pipe guide section 208A and/or the second pipe guide section 208B may be connected, such as removably connected, to the base 230, in which the base 230 may then be connected to a pipe handling apparatus. As shown in
As mentioned above, the pipe guide 202 includes a wear sensor 220 coupled thereto, in which the wear sensor 220 may be used to sense wear in the pipe guide 202. As such, in this embodiment, as the pipe guide 202 may include the first pipe guide section 208A and the second pipe guide section 208B, a first wear sensor 220A may be coupled to the first pipe guide section 208A, and a second wear sensor 220B may be coupled to the second pipe guide section 208B.
As shown in
Accordingly, as the pipe guide 202 wears from guiding tubular members 260 into a pipe handling apparatus, the wear may eventually erode the first pipe guide section 208A from the bore 204 towards the groove 210A and/or erode the second pipe guide section 208B from the bore 204 towards the groove 210B. Once the pipe guide sections 208A and 208B erode to the grooves 210A and 210B, the tubular member 260 may then be in direct contact with the first wear sensor 220A and/or the second wear sensor 220B.
As the tubular member 260 contacts the wear sensors 220A and/or 220B, the tubular member 260 may wear the wear sensors 220A and/or 220B such that the flexible tubing may rupture. As the flexible tubing may have pressurized gas therein, the pressure of the gas within the wear sensors 220A and/or 220B may be monitored, such as having the wear sensors 220A and/or 220B coupled to a control panel, to determine that the flexible tubing has ruptured and pressurized gas is leaking therefrom, and therefore the pipe guide 202 may need replacing. Specifically, in the embodiment shown in
As shown and discussed above, the wear sensor may be a pneumatic sensor, such that the gas pressure in the sensor is monitored to determine and sense the wear that has occurred within the pipe guide. However, those having ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the wear sensor may be any sensor known in the art, such as a mechanical sensor, a magnetic sensor, a different pneumatic sensor, a hydraulic sensor, and/or an electrical sensor.
For example, in one embodiment, an electrical sensor may be disposed and/or included within the pipe guide, in which the electrical wear sensor may similarly indicate when a tubular member has made contact with the electrical wear sensor. In such an embodiment, the electrical wear sensor may be monitored, and when the wear sensor contacts the tubular member, such as if an electrical current passes from the electrical wear sensor to the tubular member, the wear sensor may indicate that the pipe guide needs to be replaced. As such, the present disclosure contemplates other arrangement and configurations for a wear sensor to measure and/or otherwise indicate that a predetermined amount of wear has occurred within the pipe guide.
Those having ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that
Referring now to
In one or more embodiments, the first pipe handling section 370A may include a first hinge portion 376A of the first hinge 376 and a first hinge portion 378A of the second hinge 378, which are disposed at opposite ends of the 180° swept angle of the first pipe handling section 370A. Further, the second pipe handling section 370B may include a second hinge portion 376B of the first hinge 376 and a second hinge portion 378B of the second hinge 378, which are disposed at opposite ends of the 180° swept angle of the second pipe handling section 370B such that the second hinge portion 376B of the first hinge 376 may be coupled to the first hinge portion 376A of the first hinge 376. In addition, the second hinge portion 378B of the second hinge 378 may be coupled to the first hinge portion 378A of the second hinge 378. In other words, in one or more embodiments, the first hinge portion 376A of the first hinge 376 and the second hinge portion 376B of the first hinge 376 are complimentary hinge portions that form the first hinge 376. Further, the first hinge portion 378A of the second hinge 378 and the second hinge portion 378B of the second hinge 378 are complimentary hinge portions of the second hinge 378.
In one or more embodiments, each of the hinge portions of the first hinge 376 and the second hinge 378 may include a plurality of extension portions 379A that extend from the ends of the 180° swept angles and include hole portions 379B that align with each other. The extension portions 379A of complimentary hinge portions of each hinge may be offset from each other such that the complimentary hinge portions may be meshed together and the hole portions 379B of the complimentary hinge portions may be aligned.
In one or more embodiments, when the first hinge portion 378A of the second hinge 378 and the second hinge portion 378B of the second hinge 378 are meshed together, they form aligned hole portions 379B. A pin 377 may be inserted into the aligned hole portions 379B such that the first pipe handling section 370A and the second pipe handling section 370B may rotate about the second hinge 378 between a first open position and the closed position. Further, when the first hinge portion 376A of the first hinge 376 and the second hinge portion 376B of the first hinge 376 are meshed together, the pin 377 may be inserted into the aligned hole portions 379B such that the first pipe handling section 370A and the second pipe handling section 370B may rotate about the first hinge 376 between the second open position and the closed position. While two hinges are shown in
Referring still to
Accordingly, the pipe handling apparatus 370 may include a bore 380 formed therein about an axis 381, in which the bore 380 defines a first opening 382 (e.g., a top opening) and a second opening 384 (e.g., a bottom opening) for the pipe handling apparatus 370. Further, when the slip assemblies 374 are in the closed position to handle and grip a tubular member (not shown), the axis 381 for the pipe handling apparatus 370 may substantially align with an axis for the tubular member.
Referring still to
In one or more embodiments, the base 330 may include a first base section 330A and a second base section 330B. The first base section 330A may be directly coupled to the first pipe handling section 370A, and the second base section 330B may be directly coupled to the second pipe handling section 370B. For example, in one or more embodiments, the first base section 330A of the base 330 may be directly connected to a first end surface 368A of the first pipe handling section 370A, and the second base section 330B of the base 330 may be directly connected to a second end surface 368B of the second pipe handling section 370B. Further, in one or more embodiments, the base 330 may have a bore 333 formed therein about an axis 335, and the axis 335 for the base 330 may substantially align with the axis 381 for the pipe handling apparatus 370. Each of the first base section 330A and the second base section 330B may be continuous through a swept angle of about 180°, such that when the pipe handling apparatus 370 is in the closed position, the base 330 is continuous through a swept angle of 360°. Alternatively, more than two base sections may be used to form the base 330. Also, the base sections need not each sweep through 180°.
Further, in one or more embodiments, the first pipe guide 302 may include a first section 302A and a second section 302B, which may be coupled directly to the first base section 330A and the second base section 330B, respectively. Each of the first section 302A and the second section 302B of the first pipe guide 302 may be continuous through a swept angle of about 180°, such that when the pipe handling apparatus 370 is in the closed position, the first pipe guide 302 is continuous through a swept angle of 360°. Alternatively, more than two sections may be used to form the first pipe guide 302. Also, the sections of the first pipe guide 302 need not each sweep through 180°.
In one or more embodiments, the first pipe guide 302 may have a bore 304 formed therein about an axis 305, and the axis 305 for the first pipe guide 302 may substantially align with the axis 381 for the pipe handling apparatus 370. In one or more embodiments, the first pipe guide 302 may be formed from a wearable material, including any metal or metal alloy known in the art. As such, the first pipe guide 302 may be used to guide a tubular member (not shown) into the pipe handling apparatus 370.
Since the first pipe guide 302 is formed of a wearable material, a first wear sensor 320A and a second wear sensor 320B may be coupled thereto. The first wear sensor 320A may be disposed within a groove 310A formed in the first section 302A of the first pipe guide 302, and the second wear sensor 320B may be disposed within a groove 310B formed in the second section 302B of the first pipe guide 302. The wear sensors 320A, 320B in accordance with the present disclosure may be used to measure an amount of wear that has occurred within the first section 302A and the second section 302B of the first pipe guide 302, such as particularly indicating when a predetermined amount of wear for the first pipe guide 302 has been reached, at which point the first pipe guide 302 may need to be refurbished and/or replaced. The wear sensors 320A, 320B of the present embodiment may work similarly to the wear sensors 220A, 220B described above.
In one or more embodiments, a second pipe guide 392 may be disposed adjacent to the first opening 382 of the pipe handling apparatus 370. The second pipe guide 392 may include a first section 392A and a second section 392B. The first section 392A and the second section 392B of the second pipe guide 392 may removably coupled to a first plate 393A and a second plate 393B, respectively. The first plate 393A and the second plate 393B may be hingedly connected to the first pipe handling section 370A and the second pipe handling section 370B, respectively, such that the first section 392A and the second section 392B of the second pipe guide 392 may be rotated between an open position and a closed position, as shown in
Further referring to
An apparatus in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure may be useful in multiple areas of drilling. For example, as the apparatus may be disposed adjacent to a pipe handling apparatus, the apparatus may be used to sense wear within a pipe guide and indicate when the pipe guide may need to be replaced. In one embodiment, the apparatus may be disposed adjacent to a bottom side and a bottom opening of a pipe handling apparatus, as the bottom opening of a pipe handling apparatus having a pipe guide may be difficult to visually inspect and verify that the pipe guide is in proper working condition. As such, an apparatus in accordance with the present disclosure may be used and disposed adjacent to the bottom side of the pipe handling apparatus to sense and indicate to a user when a pipe guide may need to be replaced. Further, as the pipe guide includes sections that are removably connected within the apparatus, the sections may be replaced at a desired rate and/or as needed. For example, as the pipe guide sections include a wearable material, the sections may need to be removed and replaced regularly, depending on use.
While the present disclosure has been described with respect to a limited number of embodiments, those skilled in the art, having benefit of this disclosure, will appreciate that other embodiments may be devised which do not depart from the scope of the disclosure as described herein. Accordingly, the scope of the disclosure should be limited only by the attached claims.
The present application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/331,790, filed Dec. 20, 2011, and claims the benefit, pursuant to 35 U.S.C. §120. The '790 application is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
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| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20150226022 A1 | Aug 2015 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 13331790 | Dec 2011 | US |
| Child | 14692493 | US |
