Electrically insulated wedge thread connection
AssigneeHydril Company
InventorHarris A. Reynolds, Jr.
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An electrically-insulative threaded connection includes a pin member having a pin thread and a box member having a box thread. An insulating composite layer is disposed between the pin thread and the box thread. The insulating composite layer includes an insulating fiber and insulating resin. The pin thread and the box thread are wedge threads. A method of making an electrically-insulative threaded connection includes forming a pin wedge thread on a pin member and winding a filament over the pin wedge thread. The filament is wetted with a resin, thereby forming a composite layer. The composite layer is cured and machined to mate with a box wedge thread.
Claims6
A method of designing an electrically-insulative threaded connection, comprising:
- designing an insulating composite layer comprised of an insulating fiber and an insulating resin, wherein the insulating composite layer has a selected dielectric strength when cured;
- designing a wedge thread connection with a selected gap between male and female thread surfaces at a selected makeup, such that the selected gap has a desired dielectric strength when the insulating composite layer is disposed in the gap;
- forming a pin member having the male thread surface and a box member having the female thread surface;
- applying the insulating composite layer to at least one of the male thread surface and the female thread surface;
- arranging the insulating fiber substantially parallel to at least one of a flank, a root, and a crest of the wedge thread surfaces;
- and
- making up the pin member and the box member such that the selected gap is formed between the male and female thread surfaces.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.