Rogers Oil Tools, LLC

John William Trahan

Tommie L Rogers

A power tong assembly has a power tong and a backup for making up and breaking out of threaded tubular connections in tubulars such as drill pipe. The power tong assembly has an overall geometry, including but not limited to a jaw die shape, which reduces contact forces on the tubular, and on the tong body. Preferably, the dies have teeth which are angled to enhance engagement on the tubular. Crush zones or pockets may be provided on the dies, to permit deformation against hard banding on tubulars. In some embodiments, the tong jaws permit mounting the dies in different longitudinal (vertical) positions. In some embodiments, the fixed jaw within the backup has angled sidewalls which accommodate a broader tubular OD range. A cutout in the power tong cage lower plate permits a thicker tong rotary for a given overall tong assembly height.

Power tong assembly

A power tong positioner has one or more eddy current probes mounted in association with a power tong/backup unit. An electric current runs through the probe, and with the probe positioned close to a tubular connection, movement of the probe along the length of the connection, with the electric field encompassing surface features on the tubular, will cause a change in the electrical impedance (conductivity) which enable identification of the connection seam or other defined attributes (the 'target' attributes). The power tong/backup unit can be positioned accordingly. A portfolio of profiles of non-connection seam surface features of different tubular connections may be generated, stored in a database, and accessed by the system, which enables identifying the connection seam/face with greater accuracy. Other attributes of the invention include storing profile information on RFID tags, and storing and accessing tubular information from a cloud server or other form of remote database.

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Lafayette, LA, United States of America

John William Trahan