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AssigneeLufkin Industries, Inc.
InventorsRODDY W. SIMPSON, DAVID W. DOYLE, MARTIN E. MORALES, BRADY D. ROMANO
Estimating the term…
A method and pumping unit for use with an inclined wellhead. Proper address of the wellhead is accomplished through incorporation of an elbow-shaped walking beam. The forward section of the walking beam is fabricated such that its longitudinal axis is angled to address the inclination of the wellhead. The rearward section of the walking beam and the four-bar linkage system remains unchanged relative to a prior art pump jack intended for vertical wells. This modification is a simple and effective means of addressing an angled wellhead while preserving the well-known operating characteristics of a prior art pumping unit. Torque factors, polished rod position, speed, acceleration, stroke length, and effective counterbalance remain unchanged.
In a surface pumping unit (10) for reciprocating a downhole pump located in a well having a substantially vertical wellhead (9), the pumping unit (10) including a walking beam (24) pivotally mounted and supported by a saddle bearing (15) atop a frame (13, 11, 17), said walking beam (24) pivotally coupled to a pitman arm (26) by an equalizer bearing (25), said pitman arm (26) pivotally coupled to a crank arm (20) by a crank pin bearing (19), said crank arm connected to a crankshaft (22) for rotation about a centerline of said crankshaft (22), said crankshaft (22) being rotatively mounted to said frame, whereby said crank arm (20), said pitman arm (26), said walking beam and said frame collectively define a four-bar linkage mechanism operable to cause said walking beam (24) to seesaw about said saddle bearing (15) upon rotation of crank arm (20), said four-bar linkage mechanism characterized by a predetermined linkage geometry defined by distances between a centerline of said saddle bearing (15), a centerline of said equalizer bearing (25), a centerline of said crank pin bearing (19) and the centerline of said crankshaft (22), a front end of said walking beam terminating with an arcuate horse head (28) that is coupled to said downhole pump by a rod string (36) that passes through said wellhead (9), the improvement comprising:
In a surface pumping unit (10) for reciprocating a downhole pump located in a well, the pumping unit (10) including a base (11), a walking beam (24) pivotally mounted at a fulcrum point (15) and coupled to a prime mover (12) so as to cause said walking beam to pivotally oscillate about said fulcrum point such that the medial position of said walking beam is substantially parallel to said base, and an arcuate horse head (28′) that is connected to a front end of said walking beam and coupled to said downhole pump by a rod string (36) that passes through a wellhead (9), the improvement comprising:
In a surface pumping unit (10) for reciprocating a downhole pump located in a well, the pumping unit (10) including a walking beam (24) pivotally mounted at a fulcrum point and coupled to a prime mover (12) so as to cause said walking beam to seesaw about said fulcrum point, a front end of said walking beam terminating with an arcuate horse head that is coupled to said downhole pump by a rod string (36) that passes through a wellhead (9), the improvement comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.