Down-hole drilling apparatus
AssigneeAdvanced Drilling Corporation
InventorsRobert J. Horstmeyer, Larry J. Weick
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A down-hole drilling apparatus having a drill tool assembly with a cutting head at one end connected to an umbilical which extends to a retrieval reel on the surface. The umbilical provides electrical power, drilling fluid and means for instrumentation and control signals to be transmitted between the drill tool assembly and a processing device on the surface. The drill tool assembly can propel itself into or out of a bore hole by the cyclical actuation of anchor and ram units or change the direction of drilling by actuation of thruster assemblies in response to control signals sent manually by an operator or automatically by the processing device.
Claims10
A down-hole drilling apparatus comprising, in combination:
- a deployment/retrieval reel means;
- an umbilical wound about said reel;
- a drill tool assembly connected to a first terminal end of said umbilical;
- a hydraulic reservoir contained in the drill tool assembly;
- a hydraulic distribution system supplied by said reservoir;
- an electric motor contained in said drill tool assembly;
- a hydraulic pump contained in said drill tool assembly and driven by the electric motor such that the output of the pump supplies high pressure hydraulic fluid to the hydraulic distribution system;
- a plurality of hydraulic anchor means contained in said drill tool assembly and supplied by said hydraulic distribution system;
- a plurality of hydraulic thruster means contained in said drill tool assembly and supplied by said hydraulic distribution system;
- a plurality of hydraulic ram means contained in said drill tool assembly and supplied by said hydraulic distribution system;
- a hydraulic system control means contained in said drill tool assembly and connected electrically to said umbilical;
- a means for sensing tool location, tool orientation, drill bit rpm, formation temperature and formation pressure contained in the drill tool assembly and said means being electrically connected to said umbilical;
- a drill rotation contained in said drill tool assembly;
- a cutter head coupled to said drill rotation means and located at the end of said drill tool assembly opposite the umbilical connection;
- a means for supplying drilling fluid to the cutter head through the drill tool assembly;
- a plurality of position sensing devices for each moving component of the anchor, thruster and ram means;
- a processing device electrically connected to a second terminal end of said umbilical for receiving and analyzing data and generating control signals based on the analysis of said data and comparison of said data with preset instructions;
- and
- whereby drill tool assembly location and orientation, drill bit rpm and formation temperature and pressure along with positions and pressures associated with said anchor, ram and thruster means are transmitted via the umbilical to the processing device on the surface which generates control signals which are transmitted to the hydraulic system control means within the drill tool assembly via the control awires in the umbilical such that the anchor, ram and thruster means are activated in a manner consistent with preset instructions to cause the drill tool assembly to be moved forward, backward and change the direction of drilling as desired.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.