Plastic well screen and method of forming same
AssigneeUop LLC
InventorWalter R. Wagner
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Economical plastic well screens having good hydraulic performance can be produced by the method of the present invention wherein a sheet having a large plurality of V-shaped slots is injection molded, is roll-formed into a cylindrical shape, and then has its longitudinal edges bonded to each other. The resistance of the screen to collapse and tensile forces can be enhanced by the addition of ribs in one or two directions. Also, the sheet can be rolled in one direction or another to vary the slot direction or to permit flow from inside to outside as well as the conventional outside to inside.
Claims6
A method of forming a cylindrical plastic well screen having V-shaped slots comprising the steps of integrally molding a quantity of thermoplastic material into the form of a sheet having a continuous peripheral edge portion and a large plurality of closely spaced elongated slot-like openings inwardly of the peripheral edge portion which have a uniform width and a generally V-shaped cross-section;
- forming the molded sheet into a cylindrical shape so that the slot cross-section increases in the direction of flow and bonding the longitudinal edges of the sheet to each other.
A cylindrical thermoplastic well screen formed from a unitary molded sheet having flanged side edges and comprising a single, radially inwardly extending, longitudinal seam portion thereon wherein said opposed flanged edges of the molded sheet are bonded together, said unitary molded sheet from which said well screen is made having one of its inner and outer surfaces smooth and the other ribbed and having a plurality of integrally molded screen slots therein which are oriented after forming so as to extend between said surfaces and are spaced from each other in both a longitudinal and circumferential direction, said screen slots being tapered in a radial direction so that they are of increasing width in the direction that extends from the smooth surface to the ribbed surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.