Seal

Well pipe suspension apparatus, comprising:

• a wellhead having a bore with a tapered annular support shoulder in the bore,
• a pipe hanger in said bore having a substantially cylindrical portion,
• an annular frusto-conical supporting shoulder on said pipe hanger positioned above said wellhead shoulder, and above said cylindrical portion,
• an annular retainer ring slidably mounted on said cylindrical portion having an outer tapered surface corresponding with and resting upon a lower portion of said tapered support shoulder, and an upper frusto-conical surface tapering in the same direction and at substantially the same angle as said pipe hanger supporting shoulder, and
• an annular metal gasket having an inner and outer periphery positioned between said frusto-conical surface and said pipe hanger supporting shoulder, said gasket tapering in the same direction as said surface and said supporting shoulder but having a smaller cone angle, whereby when there is no load on the gasket, one periphery of said gasket bears against said pipe hanger supporting shoulder and said other periphery bears against said retainer ring frusto-conical surface,
• the lower edges of the peripheries of said gasket being rounded, and said gasket having a width sufficient that said inner and outer peripheries respectively interferingly engage said cylindrical portion of said pipe hanger and said tapered support shoulder of said wellhead when said pipe hanger is lowered into said wellhead with sufficient load that said gasket is deformed to the same cone angle as said frusto-conical surface and said pipe hanger supporting shoulder.

Well pipe suspension apparatus, comprising:

• a wellhead,
• pipe hanger means carried within said wellhead,
• said pipe hanger means having a flange portion having first and second support shoulders,
• a support shoulder on said wellhead opposing said flange portion first support shoulder,
• an annular gasket sealing means carried by said flange portion second support shoulder,
• said gasket sealing means sealingly engaging said pipe hanger means and said wellhead,
• said flange support second shoulder having a downwardly tapering portion and an upwardly tapering portion,
• said gasket sealing means including a frusto-conical metal gasket having inner and outer circumferential edges and a retainer ring, one edge of said gasket sealingly engaging one of said one of said tapering portions and said wellhead and the other edge sealingly engaging the other of said one of said tapering portions and said wellhead.

In joint structure comprising

• a first member having a main bore, a concentric smaller bore and an annular shoulder between the bores,
• a second member telescopically received in said bores of the first member and having a main diameter, a reduced diameter and an annular shoulder facing and spaced away from the first member shoulder,
• cooperative annular sealing surfaces in said main bore and on said reduced diameter, and
• an annular, resilient, frusto-conical gasket between said shoulders with its outer periphery engageable by the shoulder of the first member and its inner periphery engageable by the shoulder of the second member,
• the inner and outer diameters of said gasket being such that when the shoulders are moved toward each other to compress the gasket the inner and outer diameters move into sealing engagement with said sealing surfaces,
• the improvement wherein one of said sealing surfaces is tapered.