US2643095A - Apparatus for drilling deep wells - Google Patents

Description

June 23, 1953 Original Fi A. ARUTUNOFF APPARATUS FOR DRILLING DEEP WELLS led Nov. 18, 1949 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR. Armani Andy/702") ilg'bu m ro EV.

Patented June 23, 1953 APPARATUS FOR DRILLING DEEP WELLS Armais Arutunofi', Bartlesville, Okla.

Original application November 18, 1949, Serial No. 60,709. Divided and this application May 16, 1951, Serial No. 226,578

2 Claims.

My invention relates to apparatus for drilling deep wells, and the present application is a division of my copending application Serial No. 60,709, filed November 18, 1949, which in turn was a continuation-in-part of my application Serial No. 711,959, filed November 23, 1946, now Patent No. 2,609,182.

In general, my invention relates to apparatus for drilling deep oil and gas wells, and it deals more particularly with a drilling unit suspended on a cable, the upper end of the cable being connected to a suitable derrick or hoist at the surface so that it can be payed out as drilling progresses. The drilling unit comprises a rotar drill and means for rotating the same, all suspended from said cable (the means for rotating the drill comprising an electric motor), and the present invention refers more particularly to a receptacle located at the lower end of the cable and above the drilling unit to catch refuse or debris that may fall into the well bore from above the point at which the drilling operation is taking place.

It is a principal object of the invention to provide a receptacle of this type which surrounds the connection of the cable with the drilling unit and yet is easily displaced with respect thereto to permit access to the connection.

A further object is to provide a receptacle in which the upper or open end is of large area to promote more efficient collection of debris, or, as

it is known to the oil drilling industry, junk. In this connection, it is another object to provide means for reinforcing the upper edge of the receptacle to resist accidental deformation under the impact of falling rocks and the like.

With the above objects in view as well as others which will appear as the description proceeds, my invention consists in the novel features herein set forth, illustrated in the accompanying drawings and more particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of my drilling apparatus, partly broken away, showing the same located in a well bore,

Fig. 2 is an enlarged longitudinal sectional view of the upper portion of the means for suspending the drilling unit from the cable,

Fig. 2a is a similar view of the lower portion thereof, the lower gripping means being shown in elevation and being partly broken away,

Fig. 3 is a section taken on the line 33 of Fig. 2 in the direction of the arrows,

Fig. 4 is a similar view taken on the line 4-4 of Fig. 2,

Fig. 5 is a similar view taken on the line 5-5 of Fig. 2a, and

Fig. 6 is a similar view, taken on the line 6-6 of Fig. 2a.

Referring more particularly to Fig. 1 of the drawings, the reference numeral indicates a well bore in which my drilling unit is located. The drilling unit comprises an upper section I I, a section I 2 swiveled thereto, and a section l3 connected to the lower end of the section i2 which contains the motor l for driving the drill I 6 through suitable reduction gearing, not shown. In the drawings, the drill is shown as being a core drill, although any other suitable drill may be utilized.

The upper section I l of the drilling tool is suspended from a weight supporting cable ill. The cable I! is connected with the section II in the manner illustrated in Figs. 2 and 3 of the drawings, said section II comprising an open ended tubular portion l8, which is internally screwthreaded at l9 and is engaged at said threaded end portion by a nut 20. The upper end of said tubular member 18 has a tubular guide member 2| mounted centrally thereof, which is connected with the tubular member I8 by means of cars 22. The member 2| is what is commonly referred to as a fishing neck. The cable I! extends through the member 2| and is secured to a bolt 23 by means of cable clamps 24 and 25, by means of which said cable I! is formed into a loop 26 embracing the bolt 23. The bolt 23 is mounted in a pair of upstanding ears 21 on an inner tubular member 28 provided in the section I l, the tubular member 28 being fixed to the nut by means of a key 29 and a nut 30 screw-threadedly engaging with the end thereof and seated against a shoulder 3| on the nut 20, said tubular member 28 also having an annular shoulder 32 thereon so that said tubular member 28 is fixed by key 29 in position relative to the tubular member l8 by means of the nut 30 clamping the shoulder 32 against the nut 20.

A sleeve 33 surrounds the bolt 23 and a sheet metal guard member 35 is mounted between the sleeve 33 and the loop 26 formed in the cable [1. The cable I! is made in a similar manner to that shown in my above referred to copending application, in that it has an outer weight sustaining sheath, and mounted within said sheath is an insulated electrical cable 36. The cable 36 is connected with an insulated cable 31 by a suitable splice 38. The electrical cable 3'! extends into the central passage 39 in the tubular member 28 and into the tubular swivel member 40 carried by the tubular member 28. It will be noted that the tubular member 18 is removable from the member 20 and thus from the member 28 so as to provide ready access to the cable clamps and the electrical connections within the same by merely unscrewing the same from the nut-like member 20 and sliding the sleeve-like member 2| upwardly on the cable l1. Also it will be noted that when the tubular member 18 is in position as shown in Fig. 2 it is open at the top thereof so that any debris that may be loosened above the location of the drilling apparatus will-drop into the container provided by said tubularmember 8, said container having a large chamber" 4| therein'that constitutes a debris or junk; basket.

The tubular member 28 is provided'with a cylindrical outer surface that extends from the shoulder 32 to the portion 42 thereof. Thesnrface 44 is provided with an annular groove 43 and a stop collar or ring 45 is seated in the groove 43. A pair of rings 45 and 41 aremountedfor relative rotation thereto .on the cylindrical outer face of the member'28. The rings 45 and 41 are the same in construction, except for the'factthat these are reversed. Each of said; rings. has a plurality of radial slots .48 therein, as shown in Fig. 4, and each has the ends of a pair of bowed out springs 49 fixed theretolsee Figs. 2 and 4).

.The springs 49 are of such a curvature thatthese 46 and against rotation in said well bore.

"The springs? and the rings 45 and. constitute part of. a grippingmeans for holding the upper section H, which. constitutes the upper member of a swivel connection, against rotation in the well bore. Said gripping means further comprises a plurality of shoes'lSB that may be referred to as torque shoes, in that theseshoes engage the wall of the well bore to prevent rotation of the tubular member 28 and thus of the upper section I I. of the well drilling device which might otherwise occur due to the torque developed by the motor. IS in rotating the drill bit [6. The memberi28 is provided with a plurality of longitudinally extending grooves- 53, which have a pair, of side-wallsv 52 and 53, the side w'alls53 being inclined much more to theradial than the side walls 52. Each of the grooves furthermore has a partly cylindrical bottom wall 54, which serves as a socket for receiving the integral hinge pin portion 55 on each ofthe shoes" 50. Each of said. shoes-50 alsohas a pair of longitudinally elongated openings 56 therein adjacent the hinge pin portions'55 thereof and has athickened outer,end. 57, which .has faces 58. and. 59 .thereon that meet at a sharp, corner. 60, soas. to provide a gripping surface on each outerend .of said ..shoes adapted .to, engage the wall. of .the bore. .to

prevent rotation. of themember 28in a counterclockwise direction as viewedin Fig.4.

.The shoes 50 aremoved into gripping position .upon. .any slight counter-clockwise. rotation. of

the .member,28,relative to the rings 46 and 41 .by. means of the projecting lugs or fingers 6 l .pro-

vided on,.each end of. each of the shoes. 50, which .operate in the radial slots 48. in .the rings 46. and

41. It will be obvious that .ifthe member: 28 is rotated. in. counter-clockwise direction" relative .to'the rings 45 or 41, as viewed in" Figs. 1 and 4,

. the gripping members 58.0utwardly into engagement with the wall of the bore.

As the forces that will be acting on the shoes 50 are very great, the construction of the mounting of the shoes must be quite rugged. For that reason the pivot members of the shoes are mounted in the grooves in the thick tubular member 28 and are provided with strong retaining members-comprising the arcuate bars 62 that ..have,fiat end faces thatare welded face to face to the faces 52 and 53 of the grooves at 63 and 64, respectively, said arcuate bars 62 passing through the openings 56 in the members 50.

The tubular swivel member 40 is provided with .an. upper screw-threaded end portion 65 that is threaded into the internally threaded end portion 66 of the member 28, and a stuffing box is -provided in: the upper end of said swivel member 40 comprising the compressible packing 61 and. the; gland member 68 that compresses the packing 61 between itself and the annular shoulden 69 providing a reducedneck portion in the swivel member .40 within which the cable 31 fits.

,Thepacking' 61 is. thus compressed around'the cable so as to provide a liquid tight joint around more clearly in Big. 5, comprise a centrarsubstantially circular contactlfi anda pair. of flat ring-like contacts 11 .and 18. -The' contact .16 is mounted on the axis. of the cylindrical'member. 1 l. and thus on the axis of thexswivel member 40 andthe ring. contacts 11 and .18 are concentric therewith. .The conductor T4 'is' connected with .the central contact 16, the conductor I3 with the ring contact 11 and the conductor 15 with the ring contact 18.

The member [2, which is swiveled on the member H, comprises an outer tubular housing 19, with which. an upper head 80 is screw-threaded- .ly. connected at .oneend thereof, and a lower head',8l' is screw-threadedly.connected at the other end thereof. .Thehead 80 has a bearing portion 82 fitting the outer periphery of the tubular member 40, and said bearing portion is provided with .a plurality of. grooves 83, in which compressible sealing rings 84 are mounted. The

...head member 80.has an upwardly extending end .portionl85 thatis'slightly reduced indiameter and .is provided with a cylindrical outer surface,

' the sealing ring 9| while the swivel member 40 has a'flanged collar '86 keyed thereto by means of a key 81 so as to rotate therewith, said collar having a depending annular flange, 88. overlapping '.the reducedupper end portion 85. of the head 80 ofthe member. l2

and having a groove therein, in which the com- 7 pressible. sealing ring 89. is mounted. The. re-

taining ring 90, mountedin a groove inthe swivel member 45 holds. the collar. 86:" from endwise .movement and..the"joint between the collar 86 and the swivel member 40 is sealed by means of Anupper. ball thrustbearing 92 is'mounted'between the members Bland vided on the tubular housing I9 and thus rotating with the member I2 and grounded to said member 80 and thus to the metallic parts of the drilling apparatus and the outer sheath of the cable A spring pressed contact 94 is mounted in a recess in the collar 86 and a conductor 95 extends to said contact through the passage 96 in the collar 06, said conductor 95 being contained within the cable 91 and passing therefrom in the passage 39, as will be obvious from Fig. 2, a side passage 96 being provided from the passage 39 for the conductor 95 so as to bring the same out of the member 28. It will be seen that as the member 8 rotates relative to the member 80 and thus as the member I2 rotates or swivels on the member I I, the contacts 93 and 94 will engage once during each rotation of said parts. This is utilized as an indicating means or signal means to indicate by means of any suitable signal above the ground surface connected with the proper conductor within the cable I1 and grounded to the outer sheath of said cable II to indicate as to whether the upper and lower members of the swivel are rotating relative to each other and thus whether the apparatus is functioning properly. In fact the frequency of the signals will indicate the conditions in the Well bore as, if any slippage of the gripping means 50 occurs, the relative rotation of the members 80 and 86 will either be retarded or will cease entirely. If in any case the gripping means 5 is not functioning perfectly, then the rotation induced in the upper section II due to the slight frictional resistance in bearing I and seals 84 and 9| will result in an undesirable twist in the cable I1.

The collar '80 is provided with a longitudinal passage 98 therein, which leads to the space between the lower end of the member 86 and the upper end of the member 00, and a valve 99 is provided thereon through which oil under pressure, which is an electrical insulator, is inserted in the passage 98 and all spaces in communication therewith. As the apparatus will be in a body of water in the well bore when the drilling operation is taking place, there will be water surrounding the members 80 and 00 and accordingly there will be water on the lower side of the seal 89 and oil on the upper side of said seal when the apparatus is in operation. However, it has been found that there will be no contamination of the oil and thus of its insulating and lubricating properties by upward passage of the moisture through the seal 09 into the body of oil, because, when the body of oil is above the body of water in the seal, no such intermingling of the moisture with the oil as would cause the same to deteriorate, will take place.

A ball thrust bearing I00 is mounted between a shoulder on the lower end of the member 8 and a shoulder IOI provided at the enlargement I0 on the swivel member 90. The section I2 further comprises a tubular member I02, which is screwthreadedly connected with the head 0|, which thus serves as a coupling means between the tubular members I9 and I02. The member 8| has a seat at its upper end for an insulating block I03 and has an inner tubular member I04 secured in an opening I 05 in the lowerend thereof, which communicates with the chamber I06 within the member 8|. The tubular member I02 serves as a piston chamber in which a piston I0'I is mounted, which slides on the tubular member I04, serving as a guide for said piston, and within the bore of the tubular member I02. The piston has a rearward extension I08 having an additional guide opening I09 therein cooperating with the tubular member I02. Sealing rings I I0 and III are provided in suitable grooves in the piston cooperating with the walls of the tubular members I02 and I04, respectively. A coupling I I2 is screwthreadedly connected with the tubular member I02 and a compression coil spring I I3 is mounted between the rear wall 4 of the piston I01 and the end wall I I5 of the coupling I I2. A series of openings H6 is provided in the tubular member I 02.

Spring biased contact members III, H8 and I I9 are mounted in the insulating block I02, there being two of the contacts I I8 and two of the contacts II9 arranged substantially diametrically opposite each other. Thus there are two contacts II9 engaging with the contact ring I 8 and two contacts II8 engaging with the contact ring I1, and the single contact III, which is on the axis of the swivel member 40, engaging with the contact 16. With this arrangement of contacts there will be assurance that there will always be a connection between the conductors I20, I2I and I22, and the conductors I4, I3 and I5, respectively, through said contacts, the conductor I2I having branch conductors I23 leading to the contacts I I8 and the conductor I 22 having branch conductors I24 leading to the contacts I I9. The conductors I2, I2I and I22. extend from the cable I25, which extends through the passage in the tubular member I04 and leads to the motor I5. The motor I5 is a three phase motor and the electrical energy is thus supplied to said motor from the cable 36 in the supporting cable I! through the cable 31 and the cooperating contacts to the cable I25 having the conductors that'are connected with said motor.

The coupling II2 has a passage I26 therein, which leads to a suitable passage in the threaded end portion I2! of a member I28, which is connected with the coupling I I2 and which is in turn connected with the section I3. The passage I26 is provided with a stufiing box comprising the packing gland I29 and the layers of compressible packing I30, which provide a liquidtight joint around the cable I25 in said passage I20.

A chamber is thus provided that is sealed so as to retain a body of liquid therein, which chamber includes the passage within the tubular member I94 and the chamber between the piston I01 and the bottom end wall of the member 8I. In order to provide communication between this chamber and the chamber I06 in the member 8|, a liquid passage I3I is provided in said member BI. The liquid chamber I 06 communicates with the space between the tubular members II and I9 and also with the space within the tubular member II and thus with the passage in the swivel member 40. There being no seal between the member 40 and the tubular member. I9, the space between the tubular swivel member 40 and the members I9 and 8 up to the sealing rings 89 will also be in communication with the other above referred to spaces. An insulating oil is injected into the spaces under pressure through the valve I33 in the member 8i and the air released through the valve l 32 in the member 80. The insulating oil is indicated by the numeral I34 in Figs. 2 and 2a.

As the drilling apparatus will be in a body of liquid containing water when in operative position in the well bore the column of water above the openings I I6 will cause the liquid in the well bore under pressure to fill the chamber I35 back of the piston I01. However, the spring II3 will further urge the piston upwardly and thus the .-pressure,-.onithe oilv I34 will be greater than the pressure. of the liquid in the chamber I35 and, accordingly, at all seals the outward pressure exerted: by the body of -oil will be greater than the pressure of the liquid containing water on i-the-outside of" the seals. Thus if there is any i leakage or seepage through the seals, it will be an outward seepage or outwardleakage of oil rather 2.;than an inward passage of the liquid containing =-water.

The member I28 has gripping means provided T thereon thatare. of identical construction to the rgripping means that comprise the shoes 50 above .described, except that said gripping means are of ;;greater, length. However, .the shoes 50 of said gripping-means operate in the same manner as the shoes 50. above described, and are mounted in.a; similar manner on the member I28 so as to wcause the: same to be thrown outwardly into -.eng agement with the well wall uponanytend- -..ency of reverse rotation of the member I28 due to the rotation of the drill. I6. Instead of pro- *yiding a-pair of openings in the shoes for the Kretaining'means, three openings 56' are provided in each of said shoes, and it is obvious that any desired number of such openings and retaining bars *or hands 62, which are the same in construction as the members 62 above described, can .be; provided, dependent upon-the length of the 1 gripping means and of the shoes. .are provided with lugs GI corresponding to the lugs-6i of the shoes 50, which operate in radial :slots in ring members 467 and 21' corresponding "to. the ring members 45; and 4'! previously described. The operation of the lower gripping means comprising the shoes 50' is exactly the same as that of the upper gripping means having the shoes 59.

. It will accordingly be seen that the torque exerted on theapparatus by the rotary drilling operation will thus be resisted first by the shoes 50' to thus reduce rotation of the section I2 to a .minimum. Furthermore the tendency of this rotationto betransferred to the section II will be entirely eliminated due to the cooperation of the upper gripping means 50 holding the section stationary and the swivel connection between ..the section I I, and the section I2. Thus any -tendencyof the cable I! to twist will be entirely avoided by the combination of gripping devices ,-and swivel connection between thesame provided inthis drilling apparatus.

It will be notedalso that the. seals that are .provided between two moving. parts, where the only possibilities of leakage of liquidmight occur, are so arranged that the outer body of liquid econtaining water is on thelower side of the seal and the insulating oil comprising the inner body of liquid-is on the upper side of the seal. This is true of the seals I I0, I I I and 89.

,By the particular mounting of the pivoted shoes 50 and 50 by means of the bar-like member 62, a very strong connection is provided between these pivoted shoes and the members on The shoes ..near' its upper end and extending :toward the cable, and a fishing neck centrally .disposedin the upper end of said casing and car- ":ried by said legs, said neck being of substantially :lesser diameter than the inside diameter of said casing and having an axial bore through which said cable is freely threaded.

which the same are:.mounted. .The electrical connections and'contacts are all inthe bodyof insulating oil and the contacts are so constructed and arranged that there will always -be a good contact between the cooperating contact mem- 'bers for any position of the parts of the swivel connection-relative. to each other. In addition to that, meansis provided by means of the cooperating contacts 93 and 94 to give an instant indication or signal at the surface as to the performance of the gripping means and of the swivel I connection.

J The tubular member I8 serves as a housing for the cable clamping means so as to prevent any damage thereto andat the same time provides a' basket for catching anything that might otherwise drop down to a point where it would inter- .iere with the operation of the gripping shoes or other moving parts of the apparatus.

-Having thus describedmy invention, I claim: 1. In, combination with a well drilling :unit adapted to be suspended from a cable, a tube-like ;casing adapted to be removably mounted on the fishing neck being spacedinwardly a substantial distance from the inner wall of :said casing, and

a plurality of outwardlyextending earsspaced around said neck and, secured to the inner wall of said casing to reinforce the upperv margin of the receptacle and yet provide openings through which debris-can enter the receptacle.

'2. In combination with a well drilling unit pha'ving cable clamping means at its upper end .and adapted to. be suspended from a supporting .cable secured to said unit by said clamping nmeans; a tube-like casing adapted to be threaded .to the upper end of said unit and surrounding :said clamping means, the upper end of said -casingbeing open and the inside of the casing iiorming with the upper end of the drilling unit a closed bottom receptacle, a plurality of spokelike: legs secured to the inside wall of the casing inwardly ARMAIS ARUTUN OFF.

References Cited. inthe file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,624,948 Hinderliter Apr. 19,1927 2,325,503 Goble July,27, 1943

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