Ball dropping assembly

Abstract

A ball dropping assembly for dropping a plurality of objects, such as spherical balls, into a wellbore. The assembly first comprises a seat for retaining a ball before it is released. The assembly also comprises a ball-feeding channel for feeding additional balls onto the seat. A ball-retaining lever is provided to selectively receive and retain balls onto the seat, and then to release the balls individually into the wellbore. In one embodiment, the assembly is attached to a side bore in fluid communication with a main bore in a cementing head. The ball-retaining lever rotates into the bore when releasing a ball. When a plug is released into the bore from a cementing head, the plug will trip the lever, causing the ball-retaining lever to rotate back towards the ball-retained position. Thus, the ball dropping assembly also serves as a plug release indicator.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.