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US 11,814,906 B2Granted
Onshore drilling rig and method for moving a top drive in a drill mast of an onshore drilling rig
AssigneeBentec GmbH Drilling & Oilfield Systems
InventorsAchim Nordbeck, Arend Lödden
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The invention is a land drilling rig (10) having a drilling mast (12), a top drive (14) movable in the drilling mast (12) along the vertical axis of the drilling mast (12), and a crown bearing (18) at an upper end (16) of the drilling mast (12), the crown bearing (18) being movable by means of a positioning device (24), and a method of operating such a drilling rig (10) and a method of operating a top drive (14) in the drilling mast (12) of such a drilling rig (10).
Claims11
A land drilling rig (10), comprising:
- a drilling mast (12),
- a top drive (14) movable in the drilling mast (12) along the vertical axis of the drilling mast (12) and
- a crown bearing (18) at an upper end (16) of the drilling mast (12),
- wherein the crown bearing (18) is movable by means of a positioning device (24) in a first direction, and
- wherein the top drive (14) is vertically movable in the drilling mast (12) along a guide (38), characterized in that:
- the top drive (14) is movable by means of an expander device (36) in the same first direction as the positioning device (24) at least into a first plane and into a second plane each parallel to a plane defined by the guide (38),
- the expander device (36) engages the guide (38) directly or indirectly and the top drive (14) is located at the opposite end of the expander device (36),
- the expander device (36) moves with the top drive (14) along the guide (38) in the mast (12), and
- the positioning device (24) and the expander device (36) are activated substantially synchronously to move the crown bearing (18) and the top drive (14) in the first direction.
6 more elements
A method of moving a top drive (14) in a drilling mast (12) of a land drilling rig (10),
- wherein the drilling mast (12) has a crown bearing (18) at a head end (16),
- wherein the top drive (14) is suspended from a pulley system (20) below a crown bearing (18),
- wherein the top drive (14) is movable vertically in the drilling mast (12) by means of the pulley system (20) and along a guide (38),
- wherein the crown bearing (18) is movable back and forth by means of a positioning device (24) in a first direction at least between a first position above a borehole centre (26) and a second position remote from the position above the borehole centre (26),
- wherein the top drive (14) is movable by means of an expander device (36) in the same first direction as the positioning device (24) at least into a first plane and into a second plane each parallel to a plane defined by the guide (38),
- wherein the crown bearing (18) is movable for a load run of the top drive (14) to the first position above the borehole centre (26),
- wherein the crown bearing (18) is movable for an idle run of the top drive (14) to the second position remote from the position above the borehole centre (26), and
- wherein the method comprises moving the top drive (14) by means of an expander device (36) between the first and the second position, for a load run to the first position over the borehole centre (26) and for an idle run to the second position remote from the position over the borehole centre (26), wherein moving the top drive (14) comprises activating the positioning device (24) and the expander device (36) substantially synchronously to move the crown bearing (18) and the top drive (14) in the first direction.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.