US 4,069,879 AGranted

Pipe handler

OwnerCicero C. Brown, deceased, by Joe R. Brown, executorinventors

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Abstract

Disclosed are apparatus for manipulating pipe members in operating on a well, including a frame that is movable along the floor of the drilling derrick and which is equipped with a clamp for guiding pipe members toward and away from the well bore, guides for vertically orienting pipe members and aligning them with the well bore, and powered tongs for making and breaking threaded joints between pipe members and the drill string located in the well bore. In a method of manipulating pipe members in operating on a well with a mast-supported elevator, pipe members supported by the elevator are guided toward and away from the well bore area by a pipe manipulator movable along the working floor, aligned by the pipe manipulator, and threadedly joined to, or disengaged from, the drill string in the well bore by powered tongs carried by the pipe manipulator.

Claims41

Dependent claims

Apparatus for manipulating elongate tubular members comprising:

a. guide means, selectively engagable with said tubular members, for substantially constraining motion of said tubular members, relative to said guide means, to longitudinal motion and rotation about their axes of cylindrical symmetry;
b. first power means for selectively moving said guide means into and out of engagement with said tubular members;
c. way means, oriented generally perpendicular to said guide means when said guide means is so engaging one said tubular member;
d. clamp means, selectively engagable with a said tubular member, constrained to movement along said way means, for selectively engaging a said tubular member and moving said tubular member between a first position, wherein said tubular member may be engaged and substantially constrained by said guide means, and a second position, wherein saib tubular member is clear of said guide means;
e. second power means for selectively moving said clamp means, and any said tubular member engaged thereby, along said way means between said first position and said second position;
f. torque means, selectively engagable with said tubular member in said first position, for selectively applying torque to said tubular member about its axis of cylindrical symmetry;
and
g. third power means for selectively activating said torque means to apply said torque to said tubular member.

5 more elements

Apparatus for manipulating pipe members comprising:

a. frame means, movable along a path in a substantially horizontal first direction;
b. way means, as part of said frame means, oriented in a substantially horizontal second direction, generally perpendicular to said first direction;
c. clamp means, mounted on slide means, and constrained thereby to movement along said way means to positions from a first extreme position to a second extreme position, and including an alignment position, for selectively engaging a pipe member and controlling movement of said pipe member by movement of said clamp means along said way means;
d. guide means, mounted on said frame means, for engaging a pipe member at said alignment position and orienting said pipe member, so engaged by said guide means, in a substantially vertical direction;
e. tong means joined to said frame means, selectively engagable with pipe members oriented in said substantially vertical direction in said alignment position for applying torque thereto;
and
f. first power means for actuating said tong means to so apply said torque.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.