Ball Catcher Annular Storage Spiral Guide
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing ball catchers in tubular strings often obstruct the main bore, fail to capture all sizes of balls, and allow balls to escape during flow reversals, limiting the passage of other tools and tools like wireline or coiled tubing.
Innovation Solution
A ball catcher with an annular storage space and a spiral guide slot that captures balls of varying sizes by using a movable biased sleeve to displace them into the annular space, ensuring they cannot escape, while keeping the central passage open for other tools.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a central tube is used to catch ejected balls, then balls are captured, but the central passage becomes obstructed preventing other tools from passing
Solution Approach 1:
The ball catcher is divided into two functional zones: a central passage for tool access and an annular storage space for ball retention. This segmentation allows the device to simultaneously provide unobstructed central access while capturing balls in the surrounding annular region, resolving the contradiction between ball capture reliability and passage accessibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention transitions from a single-dimensional central tube design to a two-dimensional annular storage space surrounding the central passage. By utilizing the annular dimension around the central axis, the device captures balls without blocking the central passage, enabling both functions to coexist.
2Reliability
If balls are captured in a central tube, then ball retention is achieved, but flow direction reversals can still cause balls to escape
Solution Approach 1:
The annular storage space provides a curved, circumferential path for ball retention that naturally resists reverse flow forces. The annular geometry distributes balls around the central passage, preventing them from being pushed back up the central axis during flow reversals, thereby enhancing retention reliability under varying flow conditions.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the ball catcher captures all ball sizes, then comprehensive ball retention is achieved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The annular storage space serves as a universal retention zone that can accommodate balls of various sizes without requiring size-specific compartments or mechanisms. The simple annular geometry provides adaptable retention for different ball diameters, achieving versatility without increasing structural complexity.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Efficiently captures all ball sizes in an annular space, preventing them from escaping during flow reversals and maintaining an open central passage for other tools to pass through, maximizing storage capacity and operational efficiency.
Implementation Method 1
a movable biased sleeve to displace them into the annular space
Implementation Method 2
the flow around them displaces a seat that originally stopped the ball
Data Source
AI summary
A ball catcher is designed to stop balls that are the same size or different sizes at an inlet on a seat that is connected to a movable biased sleeve. Once the ball or other shaped object lands at the seat the flow around it increases differential pressure on the seat and sleeve and displaces them against the bias. The ball goes into a surrounding annular space and cannot exit. A preferably spiral sleeve guide the movement of the balls in the annular space so that efficient use of the annular space is made to maximize the number of balls that can be captured per unit length of the annular space. As soon as the ball enters the annular space the sleeve shifts back to the original position to stop the next ball at the inlet. Once in the annular space, the balls cannot escape if there is a flow reversal. The central passage remains open to pass other tools and flow.