Maurer Engineering Gmbh

Gratec, Inc.

Dave D Nagel

Thomas Aparicio, Jr

Ron Graham

A turbodrill is disclosed which is connected to a string of drill pipe as a rotating shaft for driving a drill bit which may be a rotary bit or a high speed solid head diamond bit. The turbine section of the turbodrill has rotor and stator blades which are cresent shaped in cross section and are operated by drilling mud flowing therethrough to rotate the shaft. The shaft is provided with radial bearings which carry radial loads and thrust bearings which carry vertical or longitudinal loads. The thrust bearings, which carry the entire thrust load, consist of a pair of annular bearing plates each of which supports a plurality of friction bearing members, highly resistant to wear by the drilling mud flowing through the drill, consisting of cylindrical studs having flat faces with flat disc-shaped diamond bearing members supported thereon. There are preferably one more of the diamond bearing members on one of the annular bearing plates than on the other. This bearing arrangement can be used with sealed or unsealed constructions, since the bearings are lubricated by the flow of mud therethrough. The diamond bearings may be used with other types of downhole motor driven drills such as drills driven by positive displacement motors, and for other applications.

Well drilling tool with diamond thrust bearings

A powered ratchet wrench for turning threaded members, such as nuts or bolt heads, consists of a wrench assembly having a reaction arm adapted to be positioned over a threaded member, viz. nut or bolt, for supporting the same and operating a socket wrench through a ratchet mechanism applying a torque for tightening or loosening the nuts or bolts. The wrench assembly has a box shaped housing with an open end portion supporting a ratchet mechanism and a double-acting fluid operated cylinder having an operating piston extending therefrom for operating the ratchet mechanism. The ratchet mechanism consists of a ratchet wheel supported between two plates on bearing sleeves extending from side to side at the open end portion of the housing. A pair of pawls with driving teeth engage opposite sides of the ratchet wheel and are spring biased toward engagement with the ratchet teeth. The pawls are pivotally supported on each other and on the ratchet wheel supporting plates. The operating cylinder is supported on the housing with its piston secured to one of the pawls for driving the pawls to rotate the ratchet wheel on extension of the piston and to rotate the pawls in a ratcheting movement relative to the ratchet wheel on retraction of the piston.

Powered ratchet wrench

In the manufacture of diamond bearings consisting of a supporting plate/ring having a plurality of recesses equally spaced therearound with insert members consisting of hardmetal or carbide studs, with planar faces of polycrystalline diamond, positioned therein, the diamond bearing faces are made co-planar by placing metal pads, preferably of brazing metal, in the bottom of each recess before insertion of the bearing studs, placing the assembly with the bearing faces on a smooth planar support, heating the assembly to a temperature at which the metal pads soften or melt and allowing the metal pads to extrude around and braze the bearing inserts in place. When the assembly has cooled, the bearing inserts have their diamond bearing faces locked in co-planar relation by the extruded metal from the metal pads.

Manufacture of diamond bearings

A turbodrill is disclosed for connection to a drill string and has a rotating shaft for turning a drill bit. The turbodrill has rotor and stator blades operated by drilling mud flowing therethrough to rotate the shaft. The shaft is provided with radial/thrust bearing consisting of a pair of annular plates, each of which has conical surfaces supporting a plurality of friction bearing members of polycrystalline diamond. The radial and thrust loads are carried by the wear-resistant diamond bearing surfaces. The bearing members are preferably cylindrical studs having flat faces with flat disc-shaped diamond bearing members supported thereon around the adjacent surfaces of the supporting plates. The faces of the diamond bearings will wear into smoothly mating conical bearing surfaces with use. There are two or more pairs of diamond radial/thrust bearings to handle longitudinal as well as radial loads. The use of the diamond radial/thrust bearings makes it possible to eliminate the lubricant-flooded construction of prior art turbodrills and allow the bearings to be cooled and lubricated be drilling fluid flowing therethrough. The diamond radial/thrust bearings may be used with lubricant-flooded turbodrills and with other types of downhole motor driven drills such as drills driven by positive displacement motors.

Well drilling tool with diamond radial/thrust bearings

A downhole drilling motor, e.g. a turbodrill, which is connected to a string of drill pipe has a rotating shaft for driving a drill bit which may be a rotary bit or a high speed solid head diamond bit. The turbine section has rotor and stator blades which are crescent shaped in cross section for maximum turbine efficiency. The drilling motor may alternatively be a positive displacement motor. The bearing shaft is provided with suitable rotary seals positioned below the rotary bearings carrying both radial and vertical thrust. Fluid lubricant fills the space from the rotary seals to a predetermined level above the bearings. A piston seals the lubricant chamber and is pressurized by drilling fluid (i.e. mud) flowing through the tool. The bearing shaft, which conducts drilling mud from the turbine section and exhausts the same at the drill bit, is provided with a radially extending passage which communicates with a labyrinth seal positioned below the lower rotary seal. This passage and labyrinth seal is operable to leak drilling mud past the lower rotary seal to maintain a fluid pressure on the lower seal that is substantially the same as that on the upper rotary seal, thus balancing the pressure on both of the bearing seals to provide substantially extended life thereof.

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Houston, TX, United States of America

Dave D Nagel