EP0397875B1 - Pipe roller-expanding device - Google Patents

Abstract

The device is intended for roller-expanding the profiled pipes which are mounted to close off well drilling complication zones, as well as to straighten distorted casing pipes. The device comprises a casing (1) and a roller-expanding element (3) mounted in bearings (4, 5) on a pivot journal (2) located on the casing (1) at an angle to the longitudinal axis of the latter. The roller-expanding element (3) consists of a spherical segment (9) whose external surface consists of interchanging sections of spherical surfaces (10) and lateral cylindrical surfaces (11), whose geometrical axes are located in a plane perpendicular to the axis (13) of the pivot journal (2).

Description

The invention relates to drilling technology and relates in particular to a device for rolling pipes.

This invention is best suited for the rolling in of profiled tubes which are used for covering complication zones in the drilling process, which are characterized by an intensive loss of flushing and cement slurry, by a flow of liquid or gas from the drilled layer into the bore and the caused by an accident.

When drilling down deep wells for oil or gas production, you will often find layers that are incompatible with one another, i.e. layers with abnormally high or low layer pressure, as well as layers with a fall.

So far, such layers have been covered by running in additional shorter and intermediate pipe tours. However, these measures require a large amount of material, due to an indispensable cementation of the pipe tours within the bore, as well as a high amount of metal, cement and working time. In addition, the hole diameter decreases after the installation of a further pipe tour, which worsens the operating conditions.

In order to ensure further drilling without decreasing the predetermined borehole diameter, the borehole section is currently being expanded in the zone of the open-ended layer, which has become more complicated according to the drilling conditions, and in the expanded borehole section, for example, a profiled tube tour is set which runs through the wall of the enlarged borehole section the generation therein of a pressure with subsequent calibration of its inner passage channel is pressed to the predetermined borehole diameter using a pipe rolling apparatus.

A device for rolling in casing pipes (SU, A, 371340) is already known, which has a housing which is rigidly connected to a tapered guide with grooves in which rolling-in elements in the form of cylindrical rollers are movably arranged. The grooves run at an angle to the housing axis, their lower part being offset relative to the upper part in the direction of rotation of the device.

On the drill pipes, the device is inserted into the bore up to the crushed section of the casing and begins to rotate by maintaining a certain load, the rollers rolling over the crushed casing section and smoothing it.

A disadvantage of this device is its low operational reliability because the rollers arranged in the grooves of the taper guide of the housing are wedged into these grooves and quickly worn out due to the penetration of the suspended particles, including grinding particles, from the liquid contained in the borehole.

Another disadvantage of the device is the low rolling speed of pipes due to the high frictional forces of the rollers in the grooves of the taper guide of the housing.

There is also known a device for rolling in casing after it has been crushed in the borehole (SU, A, 467994), which has a housing in the form of a straight and a retrograde tapered guide with grooves in which rolling elements in bearings are at an angle to the geometric longitudinal axis of the housing in the form of tapered rollers, the larger bases of which face the center of the housing, are mounted.

The operation of this device is similar to that described above.

The main disadvantage of the known device is the low strength of the bearings, their rollers, whereby these must not be exposed to the high loads required for rolling in the profiled tubes and consequently the effect of rolling in the said tubes is reduced.

Another disadvantage is the poor functionality, caused by floating and grinding particles from the liquid in the borehole penetrating into the grooves with the rollers therein, which also entails wedging and rapid wear of the rollers.

A disadvantage of the known device is also its low efficiency, caused by high frictional forces of the rollers in the grooves of the tapered guides, especially at the moment of their wedging in the grooves of these guides.

A device for rolling in pipes is known which contains a housing and a rolling-in element arranged thereon at an angle to its geometric longitudinal axis and which is mounted in bearings on a pin (SU, A, 394133).

This device is complicated in terms of its design, has a low efficiency due to high frictional forces in the machining area, as a result of which the load to be transmitted from the rolling element to the pipe is reduced, and is used solely for rolling in the pipe ends. A device according to the preamble of claim 1 is known from US-A-2237538.

This invention aims to improve the operational safety of the pipe rolling apparatus.

Another purpose of the invention is also to extend the life of the device.

Another purpose of the invention is to accelerate the rolling process of profile or squeezed pipes.

The invention has for its object to provide a device for rolling pipes, the rolling element is designed so that the friction in the area of its contact with the pipe is substantially reduced and, at the same time, the load to be transmitted is increased.

This object is achieved in that the roll-in element is designed as a spherical segment, the outer surface of which is formed by mutually alternating sections of a spherical surface and side surfaces of cylinders, the geometrical longitudinal axes of which extend in a plane perpendicular to the journal axis.

The device according to the invention makes it possible, thanks to the aerodynamic shape of the active surface of the rolling element mentioned, to significantly reduce the friction in the region of its contact with the pipe to be processed and to increase the load to be transferred considerably, so that the rolling speed increases and the quality is remarkable be improved.

Brief description of the drawings

• Fig. 1 die Gesamtansicht einer Vorrichtung beim Einwalzen eines Profilrohres im Bohrloch,
• Fig. 2 dito mit einem Einwalzelement, das in einem Schnitt dargestellt ist,
• Fig. 3 eine Ansicht in Pfeiflichtung A der Fig. 1,
• Fig. 4 einen Schnitt nach der Linie IV-IV der Fig. 2 und
• Fig. 5 einen Schnitt nach der Linie V-V der Fig. 2.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be better understood from the following detailed description of the embodiment thereof and the accompanying drawings, in which:

• 1 shows the overall view of a device when rolling in a profile tube in the borehole,
• 2 ditto with a roll-in element, which is shown in a section,
• 3 is a view in whistle clearing A of FIG. 1,
• Fig. 4 is a section along the line IV-IV of Fig. 2 and
• 5 shows a section along the line VV of FIG. 2nd

The device for rolling pipes has a housing 1 (FIG. 1) with a pin 2 (FIG. 2), to which a rolling element 3 is attached. The pin 2 lies at an angle to the geometric longitudinal axis of the housing 1, the rolling-in element 3 being mounted on the pin 2 in ball bearings 4 and 5. For pressing a lubricant into the bearings 4, 5, the rolling element 3 has a bore 6 which is closed with a screw 7. The contact surface of the pin 2 with the roll-in element 3 is sealed by means of a seal 8.

The roll-in element 3 has the shape of a spherical segment 9 (FIG. 1), the outer surface of which is formed by mutually alternating sections of the spherical surface 10 (FIGS. 1, 3) and side surfaces of cylinders 11, the geometrical axes 12 of which in a to the geometrical longitudinal axis 13 of the Pin 2 vertical plane (ie, below 90 °) and pass through the center 0, from which the ball segment 9 is formed. The common intersection 14 (FIG. 3) of the side surfaces of the cylinders 11 lies at the tip of the rolling element 3.

There are several variants (not shown) for the implementation of the rolling element 3: with an offset of the axes 12 by a certain distance from the axis 13 of the rolling element 3 in a plane running perpendicular thereto; with a displacement of the plane with the axes 12 running therein below the center 0 of the rolling element 3; Execution of concave (hyperbolic) rotating surfaces instead of the cylindrical surfaces 11.

The device operates as follows.

After the profile tubes 15 have been driven into the borehole or into the casing tour 16 (to cover the complication area), as can be seen in FIG. 1, and after the tubes 15 have been repaired by an inner one Liquid pressure remains longitudinal folds 17 (Fig. 4) on their circumference. The device is screwed together with the drill pipes 18 (FIGS. 1 and 2) and inserted into the borehole or the casing tour 16. The roll-in element 3 penetrates into the interior of the profile tubes 15 thanks to the aerodynamic shape of its active surface and smoothes the folds 17 not smoothed by the liquid pressure during the rotation of the drill tubes 18, the entire inner surface of the profile tubes 15 being calibrated at the same time and these being pressed against the borehole wall or the casing tour are pressed firmly (Fig. 5).

This invention is suitable for the rolling in of profile tubes, which are used for covering complication areas in the drilling process, and for the smoothing of crushed casing tubes.

Claims (1)

1. Device for rolling in tubes, comprising a housing (1) and a roll-in element (3) which is arranged on the latter at an angle to its geometric longitudinal axis and is mounted in bearings (4, 5) on a spigot (2), characterized in that the roll-in element (3) is designed as a spherical segment (9), the outer surface of which is formed by alternating sections of a spherical surface (10) and lateral surfaces of cylinders (11), the geometrical longitudinal axes (12) of which extend in a plane perpendicular to the spigot axis (13).

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