Control apparatus and method for an oil-well pump assembly

A method for controlling pounding in an operating oil-well pump assembly without shutting down the oil well comprising:

• sensing shock pulses generated by the oil-well pump assembly picked up by a vibration-sensor means and converting said shock pulses into equivalent electrical signals;
• transmitting said equivalent electrical signals to a control means, determining at the control means the number of said equivalent signals received in a predetermined period of time by at least a divide by integrated circuit, converting said equivalent electrical signals to an electrical pulse of predetermined magnitude to step increase or step decrease an electrical signal and control the rate of the pump stroke by increasing or decreasing the speed of a fluid-drive means operatively coupled to said oil-well pump, and maintaining continuous and optimum oil output without an oil-well pump shutdown while reducing pounding to an acceptable level wherein subsequent damage to said oil well and oil-well pump assembly due to pounding is substantially eliminated.

A fluid-drive control system for driving an oil-well pump assembly having a reciprocating member to pump oil from an oil well comprising:

• a control means, a vibration sensor means operably connected to said control means, said control means being operable in response to shock pulses generated by said oil-well pump assembly due to pounding to sense the frequency of the shock pulses and transform said shock pulses into step increase or step decrease signals, said control means sending said signals to an actuator means operably mounted on a fluid drive means, said fluid-drive means being responsive to said actuator means and said fluid drive means being operably connected to said reciprocating member whereby the rate of reciprocation of said reciprocating member is either increased or decreased, so that the pounding is reduced to about a maximum acceptable degree without shutting down the oil well, thereby maintaining optimum oil output.