Utex Industries, Inc.

Derek L Carter

Mark Henry Naedler

Eddy J Landry, Iii

Thomas A Goedrich

Timothy Vincent Burns

Patrick Lawrence Prosser

Wesley P Michalcik

Shock absorber systems include a drive plate having a plurality of removable lugs. The drive plate is connectable to a rotary drive shaft. The shock absorber further includes a driven plate connectable to a rotary driven shaft. A housing may be fixedly secured to either or both of the drive plate and the driven plate. The housing may have an outer wall forming a hollow center portion and a plurality of openings extending through the outer wall to the hollow center portion. Each opening of the plurality of openings may have first and second positive stops formed thereon. The shock absorber further comprises an elastomeric member disposed in the housing between the drive plate and the driven plate. The elastomeric member is configured to absorb vibration from the driven plate. Each removable lug of the plurality of removable lugs has first and second striking faces at a radially distal edge and on circumferentially opposing sides.

Vibrational damper with removable lugs

An annular seat structure, for use in subterranean well stimulation operations, is operative in conjunction with associated expansion control structure to permit a predetermined number of fracture plug members to axially pass therethrough. In an illustrated embodiment thereof, the annular seat structure is movable between a retracted position having a first interior diameter, and a resiliently expanded position having a second, larger interior diameter. The seat structure has an annular array of rigid ring segments interdigitated with annular gaps that receive radially outwardly projecting portions of an annular resilient liner secured to radially inner surfaces of the rigid ring segments, the outwardly projecting liner portions being secured to circumferentially facing surfaces of the rigid ring segments. An annular spring member coaxially circumscribes the rigid ring segment array, is received in notches formed in the rigid segments, and resiliently biases the seat structure toward its retracted position.

Expandable fracture plug seat apparatus

A tubular downhole tool, representatively a sliding sleeve valve, coaxially supports within its interior an annular plug ball seat formed from a series of rigid, arcuate segments that circumferentially overlap one another in various representatively disclosed manners. The seat is expandable from a diametrically compressed orientation, toward which it is resiliently biased, to a diametrically expanded orientation by a plug ball pumped through the seat. Due to the circumferential segment-to-segment overlap, each segment is blocked by its two circumferentially adjacent segments from being axially separated from the overall seat assembly by operational pressure forces.

Downhole tool with expandable annular plug seat assembly having circumferentially overlapping seat segment joints

A fracture plug seat assembly used in well stimulation for engaging and creating a seal when a plug, such as a ball, is dropped into a wellbore and landed on the fracture plug seat assembly for isolating fracture zones in a well. The fracture plug seat assembly has a fracture plug seat that includes elastomeric material and reinforcing material.

Seat assembly for isolating fracture zones in a well

A specially designed rotary indexing system and associated operational methods are incorporated in a downhole control device, representatively a sliding sleeve valve, having an outer tubular member in which an annular plug seat is coaxially disposed. The plug seat is resiliently expandable between a first diameter and a larger second diameter and is illustratively of a circumferentially segmented construction. The rotary indexing system is operative to detect the number of plug members that pass through and diametrically expand the plug seat, and responsively preclude passage of further plug members therethrough when such number reaches a predetermined magnitude. Such predetermined magnitude is correlated to the total rotation of an indexing system counter ring portion rotationally driven by axial camming forces transmitted to the rotary indexing system by successive plug member passage-generated diametrical expansions of the plug seat.

Seat assembly with counter for isolating fracture zones in a well

An expandable fracture ball seat assembly for use in wellbore zone fracturing operations functions to permit passage therethrough and exit therefrom of fracture ball plugs of only diameters less than a predetermined magnitude. In a representative form, the seat assembly includes a ring stack disposed within a tubular member and formed from a first expandable ring coaxially sandwiched between a setting ring and a second expandable ring. When an oversized fracture ball plug is forced into the seat assembly it axially compresses the ring stack and reduces the diameter of the first expandable ring and telescopes it into the second expandable ring, with the first expandable ring and the setting ring blocking passage through and exit from the seat. A reverse passage of a suitably large diameter fracture ball plug through the seat assembly axially returns the setting ring and first expandable ring to their original positions.

Growing community of inventors

Houston, TX, United States of America

Derek L Carter