Arrangement to prevent premature expansion of expandable seal means

Abstract

A tubular member is provided with expandable seals which are expanded into sealing engagement with a surrounding surface by a sleeve actuating member on the tubular member. A releasable retaining member is secured to the tubular member and has shoulder means adjacent one end interlocked with shoulder means adjacent an end of the sleeve actuating member to retain the sleeve actuating member in nonexpanding seal position as the tubular member is lowered into position in the well bore. The shoulder means on the releasable retaining member is on a longitudinally extending, radially flexible portion of the retaining member. An annular shoulder intermediate the ends of the flexible portion engages the upper end of a liner in the well bore, and moves the flexible portion radially inwardly to disengage the interlocked shoulder means, thus releasing the sleeve actuating means to expand the expandable seals.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.