Pad plunger assembly with concave pad subassembly

A pad plunger assembly for use in gas well tubing, comprising:

• (a) an elongated central mandrel having opposite ends;
• (b) a pair of opposite end members attached to said opposite ends of said mandrel;
• and
• (c) at least one pad subassembly of a plurality of interlocking pad sections disposed about said mandrel and between said opposite end members thereon, said pad sections being spring-loaded and thus biased to move radially outward from said mandrel by a plurality of coil springs being circumferentially spaced apart from one another about said mandrel and disposed between said mandrel and said pad sections such that said pad subassembly can expand outwardly from and contract inwardly toward said mandrel;
• (d) wherein each of said pad sections has an outer exterior surface segment and thus said pad subassembly formed by said pad sections has an outer exterior surface of annular concave configuration formed by said outer exterior surface segments of said pad sections such that only opposite end portions of said outer exterior surface, being disposed in opposite directions from an intermediate portion of said outer exterior surface, provide a frictional seal on the interior wall surface of the gas well tubing which frictional seal creates less friction than would be created by an outer exterior surface of cylindrical configuration on said pad subassembly.

A pad plunger assembly for use in gas well tubing, comprising:

• (a) an elongated rigid non-flexible central mandrel having opposite ends;
• (b) a pair of opposite end members removably attached to said opposite ends of said mandrel;
• and
• (c) a plurality of pad subassemblies each having a plurality interlocking pad sections disposed about said mandrel and between said opposite end members thereon, said pad sections of each pad subassembly being spring-loaded and thus biased to move radially outward from said mandrel by a plurality of coil springs circumferentially spaced apart from one another about said mandrel and disposed between said mandrel and said pad sections such that said pad subassembly can expand outwardly from and contract inwardly toward said mandrel;
• (d) wherein each of said pad sections has an outer exterior surface segment and thus each of said pad subassemblies formed by said pad sections has an outer exterior surface of annular concave configuration formed by said outer exterior surface segments of said pad sections such that only opposite end portions of said outer exterior surface of each of said pad subassemblies, being disposed in opposite directions from an intermediate portion of said outer exterior surface, provide a frictional seal on the interior wall surface of the gas well tubing which frictional seal creates less friction than would be created by an outer exterior surface of cylindrical configuration on each of said pad subassemblies.