Tubular friction welding joining method without rotation of the tubulars
AssigneeBaker Hughes Incorporated
InventorJoerg Lehr
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Tubulars are joined to each other without rotation of the tubulars. A coupling is placed between the aligned tubulars and is supported for rotation or oscillating about its longitudinal axis. The tubulars are clamped in a manner that allows a compressive force to be transmitted to the coupling as the coupling is rotated. An induction device can preheat each connection site before friction welding and/or provide heat as the connection is made and is allowed to cool down. The process can continuously create a string of casing or liner that can be run in or drilled into a wellbore.
Claims21
A method of joining tubulars with friction welding for forming a tubular string to be delivered to a subterranean location, comprising:
- aligning end walls ends of tubulars to be welded, each said end wall defined by an inner edge and an outer edge;
- introducing a tubular segment between said tubulars, said tubular segment having opposed end walls having an inner edge and an outer edge;
- bringing said tubular end walls together against opposing end walls of said segment to put said end walls ends under axial compressive stress;
- and
- joining said tubular end walls ends to said opposing end walls of said segment using combined movement patterns of said tubular segment, wherein the combined movement comprises opposed oscillating movement at one frequency and a linear movement at a different frequency in a direction perpendicular to an axis of said aligned tubulars.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.