Drilling fluid system
AssigneeThe Charles Machine Works, Inc.
InventorsVirgil H. Taylor, III, Carlo Salas, Jacob Harman, Brant D. Kukuk, Brian McRae
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A control system for an offboard fluid supply system. The fluid supply system has mud supply pump which may be controlled by a local control system disposed at the fluid supply system. The mud supply pump may also be controlled by a remote control system disposed on a drilling rig. The mud supply pump provides fluid through a conduit to a drill string on the drilling rig. The local control system and the remote control system are paired such that only one of each is connected at one time. While paired, information from both the fluid supply system and drilling rig may be displayed by either control system.
Claims18
A system, comprising;
- a horizontal directional drilling system, comprising:
- a horizontal directional drilling machine having a drill string, comprising;
- an onboard drill fluid supply system comprising an onboard fluid container and an onboard pump;
- and
- a drill control system for the horizontal directional drilling machine;
- and
- a fluid supply system separated from the horizontal directional drilling machine, comprising:
- a fluid container;
- a fluid link between the container and the drill string;
- a pump interposed in the fluid link;
- and
- a fluid supply control system in communication with the drill control system;
- in which the system is characterized by a local mode, in which operation of the fluid supply system is directed solely by the fluid supply control system, and a remote mode, in which operation of the fluid supply system is directed solely by the drill control system, and in which each of the control systems is configured to switch the system between local and remote mode in response to user input;
- and
- in which the drill control system is configured to control operation of the onboard drill fluid supply system and in which the system is configured to disable operation of one fluid supply system when the other fluid supply system is operating.
The system of claim r in which each control system is configured to disable operation of the remote fluid system in response to any failure of communication between the remote and local systems.
A method comprising:
- drilling an underground bore using a first drill string attached to a first drilling rig;
- providing a fluid link between the first drill string and a fluid supply system,
- wherein the fluid supply system comprises a container having drilling fluid disposed therein;
- operating controls at the fluid supply system, thereby directing the fluid supply system to provide drilling fluid through the fluid link to the first drill string;
- subsequently, operating controls at the first drilling rig through a remote control system to provide drilling fluid through the fluid link to the first drill string;
- and
- with the controls at the first drilling rig, operating the controls to provide drilling fluid to the drill string from a fluid pump disposed onboard the drilling rig.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.