Radial ball injecting apparatus for wellbore operations
AssigneeIsolation Equipment Services Inc.
InventorBoris (Bruce) P Cherewyk
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus for successively releasing balls into a wellbore during wellbore operations is disclosed. The apparatus has a radial housing having at least one radial ball array having two or more radial bores. Each radial bore houses a ball cartridge adapted to receive and release balls and an actuator for operably aligning or misaligning the ball cartridge with an axial bore in fluid communication with the wellbore. The ball cartridge is moveable along the radial bore and is operable between an aligned position, for releasing a ball and a misaligned position for storing the ball.
Claims18
A ball injecting apparatus for releasing balls into a wellhead having a wellbore comprising:
- a housing adapted to be supported by the wellhead, the housing having an axial bore therethrough and at least one radial ball array having two or more radial bores extending radially away from the axial bore and in fluid communication therewith, the axial bore being in fluid communication and aligned with the wellbore;
- and
- each of the two or more radial bores having,
- a ball cartridge for storing a ball;
- and
- an actuator for moving the ball cartridge along the radial bore for operably aligning with the axial bore for releasing the stored ball and operably misaligning from the axial bore for clearing the axial bore.
A method of successively dropping balls into a wellbore comprising:
- providing a radial ball injector for connection to the wellbore, the ball injector having at least one radial ball array having two or more radial bores extending radially away from the axial bore and in fluid communication therewith, the axial bore being in fluid communication and aligned with the wellbore;
- storing a ball in each of two or more of the radial bores with the ball operably misaligned from the axial bore, each ball being stored in a ball cartridge movable along its respective radial bore;
- actuating a ball from one of the two or more radial bores for operably aligning the cartridge and the stored ball with the axial bore for release into the wellbore;
- and
- repeating the actuating of a successive ball from each other of the two of more radial bores.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.