US1421004A - Well pump - Google Patents

Description

H. H. HIBBARD.

WELL PUMP. APPLICATION FILED Ams. I92I.

Patented June 27, 1922.

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HOWARD H. HIBBARD, OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA., ASSIGNOR TO -IIIBB ARD PETROLEUM COMPANY, OF LOS ANGELES, CALFORNIA, 'A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE.

WELL PUMP.

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Application filed April 9,

use in wells, or the like, where it is necessary to pump liquid carrying more or less solid material such, for instance, as sand or `earthy matter. An object of the invention is to provide a simple inexpensive apparatus which will effectively handle liquid heavily laden with foreign material, and which. is

sturdy and durable.

For the purpose 'of clearly land accurately setting forth the invention it is herein doscribed as applied to, and is herein shown in a form particularly 'applicable to, oil wells. An oil well is a good example of an instance where the fluid to be pumped is more or less laden with solid material such as sand or earthy matter. In fact, it frequently occurs in pumping an oil wellthat the oil or water, as the case may be, is so heavily laden with solid material that a pump will not handle it or will wear so rapidly that it must be replaced after only a few `hours operation. The greatest difiiculty experienced in cases such -as these are the wearing of working parts, such as the plunger and work barrel, due to the presence of solid material, and the clogging-'of valves and passageways, par ticularly the shoe which carries the standing valve, with solid material. Heretofore attempts have been made to overcome these difficulties, particularly the first mentioned one, by various arrangements of the parts and by various arrangements and forms of packing, etc.

It is an object of the present invention to overcome the difficulties above outlined and other similar difficulties and thereby provide a pump which is effective and dependable and which is durable. By providing a pump which is dependable and which will not clog or fill up with solid material, as an ordinary pump will, a great saving in time `and labor is effected over an ordinary pumping apparatus. In providing a pump which will handle liquid laden with solid material without excessive wearing of its parts, time ySpecification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 2?, 1922.

1921. 'Seriai No. 459,955..

and labor, as well as expense, are saved over the use of ordinary apparatus.

An important feature of the present invention is its simplicity. The invention -may be embodied in practically any ordinary or conventional pump construction and arrangement without adding any complicated or delicate working parts thereto and without materially increasing the Asize or bulk of that apparatus to make it clumsy or diflicult to handle. The various objects and ,features `of 'the invention, including those herein particularly pointed 'out and othersof note and importance will be best and more fully understood from the following detail description 'of a typical embodiment olf the invention, vthroughout which reference is had to the accompanying drawings, in 'which Fig. l is an exterior 'view of the pump provided by the present invention; Fig. 9. is van enlarged detail vertical sectional view of the pump showni'n Fig. l; Fig. 3 isan Aenlarged detail vertical sectional view of a pump provided by the present invention showing the manner in which it is adapted to be arranged in a rwell casing; and Fig. 4 is an enlarged transverse sectional view taken as indicated by line 4 4 on Fig. '2.

rlhroughout the drawings numeral 10 designatesy a well casing and numeral 11 Vthe pump provided by 'the lpresent invention which is adapted to be arranged in the well casing at or in the liquid therein and is adapted to be operated to pump liquid therefrom. For thepurpose of this disclosure .l am illustrating a pump construction and arrangement which is' extremely simple yand which is intended merely to t'ypify the general character of apparatus to which the present invention relates. It is therefore to be understood that the present invention is in no way specically limited or restricted to embodiment 'in a structure or arrangement of the particular character herein set forth but that it may be embodied in 'practically -any structure or arrangement of the general character herein set forth.

` In the particular arrangement and construction shown in the drawings a pump .tubing 12 extends downwardly into the weil casing l() to the vicinity of the liquids standing in the well casing. The pump or working barrel 13 is connected to the lower end of the pump tubing 12 by a suitable coupling 14 and a comparatively short section of tubing 15, preferably slightly larger than the work barrel 13, as will be hereinafter described, is connected to the lower end of the work barrel 13 by a suitable coupling 16. The tubing 15 may be said to form the pump chamber. A hollow plunger 17 is carried in the work barrel 13, being mounted on the lower end of the suckerrod 19 which extends downwardly through a suitable stutling box 20, mounted at the upper end of the pump tubing 12, through the pump tubing 12, and through a suitable stuiiing box 21 at the coupling 14, and into the working barrel 13. An inlet or standing valve 23 is car'ried by a shoe 24 mounted on the lower end of the tube 15 and an outlet or working valve 26 is arranged in the cage 27 which connects the sucker rod 19 and plunger 17. `When the sucker rod 19 is reciprocated vertically in the manner common to pumping apparatus of this general character, liquid is drawn into the tube 15 and the plunger 17 through the shoe 24 and standing valve 23 upon upward movement of the sucker rod and plunger, and is forced upwardly through the sucker rod 19 and out of the well past the working valve 26 upon downward movement of the sucker rod and plunger 19. This tion is that which is common to pumps of thisn general character and needs no further or detailed explanation.

The apparatus thus far described will operate effectively and will not wear excessively if the liquid in the well casing is clear or practically free of sand or other solid matter. However, if the liquid in the well, or in the casing 10, has sand in it, and even though it has only a comparatively small amount of sand in it, this sand will find its way up around the plunger and between the plunger and the working barrel to cause excessive wear between the plunger and working barrel and to ultimately make it necessary to completely replace these parts of the pump. lVhen there is a considerable amount of sand in the liquid in the casing 10 or when slugs of sand are dragged into the presence of the shoe 24, the shoe 24, the standing valve 23, and even other parts of the pump will become completely clogged so that the pump will not operate. The actions just referred to are not at all out of the ordinary or actions which occur only in rare instances but are such as are experienced every day in practically every oil field.

In accordance with the present invention a fluid, and preferably a liquid such as oil or water, is filled into the space A formed .between the'pump tubing 12`and sucker rod 19. A small pipe 30 having an inside diameterof about seven-sixteenths of an inch, is connected in to the pump tubing 12, preferably into the extreme lower end portion of the pump tubing 12, and extends downwardly past the working barrel 15 and connects into the tube 15, preferably into the extreme upper end portion of the tube 15. l prefer to provide a check valve 31 in the pipe 30 so that fluid can only pass downwardly through the pipe 30 as indicated by the arrows throughout the drawings. In practice the couplings 14 and 16 are notched at 33 and the pipe 30 is arranged in these notches so that it will be as close as possible against the other parts of the pump and will thus make the pump as compact as possible. lilith the arrangement just described it will be obvious how the fluid in space A will flow downwardly through the pipe 30, past the check valve 31, and into the tube 15. In the preferred form of the invention the various parts are so proportioned and the plunger 17 is reciprocated so that its lower end portion extends downwardly into the tube 15 to the vicinity of the standing valve 23 when the sucker rod is at the lower end of its stroke and so that the lower end of the plunger 17 is above the point where the pipe 30 vconnects to the tube 15 when the sucker rod 19 is at the upper end of its stroke. The plunger is shown in the first mentioned position in Figs. 2 and 3 of the drawings. The tube 15 being slightly larger than the working barrel 15, as hereinbefore stated, causes the plunger to work freely in the tube 15 and forms a space B between the plunger 17 and tube 15. In practice it has been found that a space of about onesixteenth of an inch between the plunger 17 and the tubing 15 gives good results. As the plunger 19 starts from the position shown in the drawings and moves upwardly in the working barrel and tubing 15, Huid from the space A passes downwardly through the pipe 30 past the check valve 31 into the space B around the plunger. The fluid enters the top portion of the tube 15, the pipe 30 being connected into the top portion of the tube 15` passes or circulates completely around the plunger 17 and washes downwardly around the plunger 17 into the tube 15 below the lower end of the plunger where it unites with the liquid that has just entered the tube 15 to more or less dilute it and to keep it in constant agitation or circulation. space A around the plunger 17 and downwardly around the plunger 17 prevents the liquid entering the tube 15 from washing or circulating up around the plunger 17 to come into the presence of the lower end of the working barrel. l/Vhen the plunger is at the upper end portion of its stroke the fluid from space A enters directly into the tube 15 without engaging or washing around the plunger 17 thus agitating or circulating the liquid in the tube 15 so that it will readily The washing of the fluid from enter the plunger 17 upon downward `1novelwill completely break them up and put their particles into suspension so that they will readily flow out of the pump and up through kthesucker rod. The fluid from space Amay be said to issue `or jet 'into the tube 15 at the mouth or open end of the plunger 17 when the plunger is at the upper end por- I tion of its stroke to wash away or break up any accumulation of sand or solid material such as might tend to clog the plunger. As the plunger 17 moves downwardly causing the liquid in the tube 15 to pass upwardly through the plunger 17 past the working valve 26 and out through the sucker rod 19, fluid from space A no longer enters the space B but the pressure caused by the downward movement of the plunger closes the check valve 31 and holds fluid from space A that was last to enter tube B at the upper end portion of the tube so that no sand carrying liquid will come into engagement with the pump barrel. However, if desired or if it is found necessary pressure may be maintained on the fluid in space A in order that the pressure of the fluid being admitted into space B will at all times be greater than the pressure caused by the downward movement of the plunger or at least equal to that pressure. In the drawings I show a head 40 on the pump tubing through which fluid may be supplied to the space A under pressure. The stuiiing box 21 at the coupling 14 prevents the fluid in space A from passing down onto the top of the plunger 17.

Herein so far I have described the principles of my invention applied to one portion of the pump (to the interior thereof) to keep a certain part, or parts, clean of solid material and to pre-vent choking or clogging of certain parts by solid material. In its broader aspect the invention is not limited to any such specific embodiment or arrangement but is applicable to any part of the apparatus where it is desirable to keep a part clean of foreign solid material or to prevent accumulation or clogging. In Fig. 2 of the drawings I show the invention carried somewhat further than in Fig. 3 and show how it can be applied to parts of the apparatus other than those hereinabove specified. A pipe 42 is connected into the pump tubing 12, in a manner similar to that in which the pipe 30 is connected into the pump tubing 12, and is arranged to eX- tend downwardly from the pump tubing 12 past the working barrel 13, past the coupling 16, past the tub-ing 16, to the shoe 24. In the particular case being illustrated the pipe 30 is comparatively small having an inside diameter of about one-siXteenth of an inch and is therefore conveniently held in piace by beingarraznged through bores 46 and'47"`in the couplings 14 and 16, respectively. The lower end ofthe pipe 42 connects into an opening 47 which extends downwardly -in the shoe 24. The lower of the opening 47 ycommunicates 'with fan ropening '48 which opens inwardly into the shoe 24 'substantially' as shown in Fig. 2.

AIn the particular apparatus 'shownin 'the drawings the opening 47 is about oneesixteenth kof an inch in diameter and the opening 48 'is about one-thirty-second of an inch in diameter. With this arrangement 'when `the-fluid 'in space A is under pressure, or has a head, substantially as above described a continuous jet issues from the opening 48 into the shoe 24 to violently stir or agitate the liquid passing through the shoe and to break up any bodies of solid material, such as bodies of sand, which accumulate or are brought to the lower end of the shoe or tends to form at the shoe. In practice it has been found that the jet which issues from the opening 48 so completely agitates and stirs the liquid entering the pump that solid material, such as sand, which are carried in it remain well in suspension as up through the pump. Further it has been found that the jet issuing from the opening 48 posi tively prevents clogging or accumulation of sand in the shoe and breaks up any shelves of sand such as are occasionally forced against the shoe by gas or water. The pipe 42 being very small, as hereinbefore specilied, does not pass enough fluid to interfere at all with the amount of liquid pumpedl from the casing 10.

The above description deals entirely with the action when there is fluid in space A to be supplied to pipes 30 and 42. When it is not necessary or desirable to allow fluid from space A to jet into the tube 15 around the plunger or to jet into the shoe 24 from the opening 48 the supply to the space A can be cut off whereupon the space A will soon become practically empty. This will not interfere in any way with the action of the pump as far as pumping liquid from casing 10 is concerned as the check valve 31 in pipe 30 will positively prevent pumping of liquid upwardly through the pipe into the space A and the opening 42 being below the standing valve 23 prevents any fluid whatever from being pumped or passed through it.

Having described only a preferred form of my invention I do not wish to limit myself to the particular details hereinabove set forth but wish to reserve to myself any changes or variations that may appear to those skilled in the art and that may fall within the scope of the following claim.

Having described a preferred form of my invention, I claim:

In combination, a tube adapted to extend linto a well, a barrel Carried at the lower end of the tube, a pump ehamberconneoted `with the lower end of the barrel, a hollowr rod extending into the tube, a, plunger oonneoted to the lower end of said rod and slid- `:ably carried inthe barrel so that itslower parts yextends into the pump Chamber with working clearance, valve means whereby reeiproeatlon of the plunger causes pumping -offluid rom'the well through the pump chamber and up through the rod, and a uid :conduit connected with the tube above the barrel to receive fluid therefrom and ex- *tending` to and opening into the space be-

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