US595205A - Device for operating series of pumps - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

M. W. QUICK. DEVICE POR OPERATING SERIES 0F PUMPS.

N40. 595,205. Patented D50. 7, 1897.

F I G 2 Umts@ Sintes `n'rnNr Fricke,

DEVICE FOR OPERATING SERIES OF PUMPS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 595,205, dated December 7, 1897. Application filed August 19, 1895. Serial No. 559,795. (No modelli To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, MILES W. QUICK, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Titusville, in the county of Crawford and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Device for Operating a Series of Pumps, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates more particularly to the operation of deep-well pumps, and generally applied where two or more of those pumps are situated in proximity to each other and where for reasons of economy it is designed to furnish the power for operating the pumps from a central station; but it maybe used to operate a single pump. It is peculiarly applicable to the pumps at wells producing petroleum or carbon oils, but may also be applied to other purposes.

It is well known that oil-wells are deep borings, generally from five hundred to twentyfive hundred feet in depth, and that in the operation of pumping tubing is placed in the well, reaching from the surface to the bottom, with what is called a working barrel, which is the pump proper, at or near the lower end, and with pump or, as they are called, sucker rods inside the tubing from the surface and connecting with the valve-stem in the working barrel.

It has heretofore been customary to connect each well with a central power and so arrange the connecting machinery that the operation alternates at the differentv wells. So far as I am aware, this has heretofore been done by placing somewhere near the center of the cluster of wells a power plant, consisting of an engine driving a crank-shaft having one or more cranks or eccentrics,with rods leading off from those cranks to the different wells, the connection being so arranged that the wells balance each other. In practice some of the wells so operated are located four thousand feet or more from the central power. This method of operating the well-pumps has shown a great saving of power over the old way of having an engine at each well, but is open to several objections: First, to secure good results the central power must be placed near the center of the field irrespective of the convenience of access; second, the rods must be supported above the surface of the ground,

thus interfering with the cultivation or other use of the fields over which the connectingrods pass; third, the rods being above the surface are exposed to all the variations of temperature and to storms, which cause them to vary in length, either contracting so as to break or expanding so that the stroke is materially reduced or entirely lost at the distant wells; also, being above the surface and exposed they are very liable to injury from storms and their effects, as falling trees or similar accidents; fourth, all the wells in the cluster must move with the same rapidity of motion, although the length of the stroke may be somewhat varied in the crank at the well; fifth, in a long line of rods the time required to overcome the inertia of the rods twice in each stroke is too much to allow of a quick motion, which is necessary in some wells to exhaust the iluid, and, sixth, in the operation `of the necessary engines, band-wheels, crankshafts, pull-wheels, rbc., alarge percentage of the power is lost in friction before it reaches the well.

The object of the present invention is to provide for the independent operation of the pumps at each-well, thereby rendering it possible to adjust the stroke and speed of the pump at each well in accordance with the requirements as to efficient pumping Vat such well.

In general terms, the invention consists of a` central duid-compressing plant connected by pipes to a fluid-pressure cylinder at each well, the piston of such cylinder being connected directly or indirectly to the pump-rod. By the compressor any fluid, either inelastic, as water, oil, benzin, &c., or elastic, as air or gas, is driven through the pipes and delivered under pressure to the cylinder at each well.

In order to utilize the power developed by the descending pump-rods, which weigh approximately ninety pounds per hundred feet, a similar system of pipes receives the Huid from the cylinder after it has done its work and delivers it to the central compressor under a less pressure, the result being that the weight of the rods at the wells forces the fluid into the return-pipes under a pressure less than working,but above normal pressure, and it is returned with such pressure to the IOO central pump, 'which is thus relieved of a portion of the work otherwise required to maintain the necessary working pressure in the outgoing pipes. The fluid in the pipes is thus kept in continuous circulation, the weight of the descending rods being utilized in forcing it back under pressure to the central pump or compressor. In this way the objections mentioned above to the mechanism now in use are overcome: First, the central pump or compressor may be located at any convenient point near to or distant from the Wells, Where it is accessible for fuel, water, &c.; second, the pipes may, and preferably should, be buried below the surface, leaving the ground free for cultivation; third, being thus buried they are not exposed to the elements and to variations in temperature 5 fourth, the rate of motion at each well can be regulated at pleasure by a proper valve mechanism at the well-cylinder, as would be the case if steam were conveyed from a central boiler to an engine at the well, and the length of stroke can also be regulated by the valve at the wellengine; fifth, distant pumps can be operated as rapidly as if immediately adjacent to the central power by the use of an air-chamber at the well.

In the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, Figure 1 is a diagrammatic View illustrating the manner of distributing fluid under pressure to a series of widely-separated wells. Fig. 2 is a sectional elevation showing the construction of apparatus employed at each well for operating the pumps.

In the practice of my invention a fluid-compressing apparatus A is arranged at any suitable point, but preferably ata point approximately central t'o thc wells to be pumped. A line of pipe 1, with branches 2, extends from the compressor to the several wells, where the branches 2 are connected to the valve-chambers 3 of the cylinders 4. The valve-chambers 3 are also connected by branch pipes 5 and line-pipe G with the inlet-ports of the compressor.

The cylinder at each of the wells is. provided with a piston 7, connected in any suitable manner to the pump-rod 8-as, for eX- ample, by means of a lever 9, as shown in Fig. 2. A valve 10 in the chamber 3 is provided with a stem having` an arm or lever 11 secured thereto in such manner as to be adapted to be moved to shift the Valve by -stops 12 and 13 on the rod 14, which is secured to arm 15, attached to or operated by the piston. In order to effect a quick movement of the valve as the piston reaches the limits of its movement, an arm 16 is secured on the stem of the valve 10 in such manner that its end will bear against a spring 17', so

In operating my improved plant the pipes forming the supply or high-pressure line are charged by the compressor with fluid under a sufficient pressure to operate the pistons at each well. This pressure, which will depend upon the weight of the pump-rods and of the column of fluid to be raised, may be considered, for the purposes of explanation, to b e about one hundred pounds per square inch. The opening of the valve 10 when the piston is at the lower limits of its movement will permit the fluid-pressure to flow into the cylinder and raise the piston and pump rods.

As the piston reaches the lupper limit of its movement the valve is shifted, cuttingoff the supply of fluid-pressure and opening the port communicating with the low-pressure line of pipe, into which the fluid in the cylinder is forced by the weight of the pump-rods, &c.

The low-pressure pipes are made of such a size compared with the capacity of the compressor and the number of cylinders connected to such lines that a pressure will be maintained therein by the descending pump-rods, but sufficiently lower than the pressure in the high-pressure line as not to interfere with or materially retard the descent of the pumprods-asn for example one, when the working pressure in the supply-lines is about one hundred pounds per square inch a pressure of forty pounds, more or less,dependent upon the depth of the Well, can be maintained by the descending pump-rods, &c., in .the low-pressure lines, so that the compressor is relieved of a considerable amount of work represented by the pressure at which the fluid is delivered to the compressor. In other words, the low-pressure line acts as a reservoir or supply of duid-pressure for compressor, and this reservoir is supplied by the power generated by the descending pump-rods.

Changes in many respects in the form or construction of parts of the apparatus may be made without departure from the invention as specified in iheclaims.

I claim herein as my invention- 1. Ina plant for operatingpumps, dac., the combination of a Huid-compresso@acylinder, pipes connecting the cylinder to the discharge and inlet ports of the compressor, valve mechanism controlling the flow of fluid-pressure to and from the cylinder, and a pump-rod or other load connected to the piston. of the cylinder and adapted to be raised by Huid-pressure and in its descent to deliver the fluid to the compressor at a pressure higher than atmospheric pressure, substantially as setforth.

2. In a plant for operating pumps, &c.,the combination of a fluid-compressor, a singleacting cylinder, pipes connecting the closed end of the cylinder with the discharge and inlet ports of the compressor, valve mechanism controlling the flow of duid-pressure to and.v from the cylinder and a pump-rod or other load connected to the piston of the cylinder, whereby the pump-rod or other load may be raised by fluid-pressure in the cylinder and- IOO IIO

pump-rods connected to the pistons of the cylinders and adapted to be raised by fluidpressure in the cylinders and in their descent to deliver the Huid to the compressor at a pressure higher than atmospheric pressure, substantially as set forth. v

MILES W. QUICK.

l/Vitnesses: y

DAVID WEED, J os. T. CHAsE.

nii.

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