Drill Pipe Gripper Central Thrust Claw Rotary Drive
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing drill pipe grippers have limited suitability for grasping drill pipe elements from a magazine due to protruding rotary drives that can be damaged and require a large distance between elements, leading to reduced storage capacity and increased size, which is undesirable for compact and lightweight designs.
Innovation Solution
A drill pipe gripper with a central thrust claw featuring rotatably mounted drive rollers and a rotary drive, arranged in a protected position within a fork-shaped tong housing, allowing for compact design and protection of the pivoting claws, enabling the gripper to operate in close-packed drill pipe magazines and providing rotational driving capability for tensioned drill pipe elements.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If rotary drives are mounted on the swivel claws for rotating drill pipe elements, then the gripper can perform screwing operations, but the protruding rotary drives are vulnerable to damage and require larger spacing between magazine elements
Solution Approach 1:
The rotary drive is extracted from the swivel claw and relocated to the thrust claw, which has a protected position within the tong housing. This separation allows the swivel claw to maintain its gripping function while the rotary drive operates from a secure location, eliminating the vulnerability of protruding rotary drives during magazine operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The thrust claw acts as an intermediary carrier for the rotary drive. Instead of mounting the rotary drive directly on the swivel claw, it is mounted on the thrust claw which can extend and retract. This intermediary position allows the rotary drive to remain protected within the housing structure while still being able to contact and rotate the drill pipe element when needed.
2Adaptability or versatility
If rotary drives are mounted on the swivel claws, then rotational driving capability is provided, but the distance between drill pipe elements in the magazine must be increased
Solution Approach 1:
The rotary drive mechanism is extracted from the lateral swivel claw position and relocated to the central thrust claw position. This repositioning reduces the lateral envelope required for the rotary drive, allowing the gripper to operate in compact magazine configurations with reduced spacing between stored drill pipe elements.
Solution Approach 2:
The rotary drive is repositioned from a lateral mounting on the swivel claw to a central mounting on the thrust claw, utilizing the longitudinal dimension of the gripper structure. This dimensional reorganization allows the rotary drive to be positioned within the existing housing volume rather than protruding laterally, reducing the required magazine spacing.
3Quantity of substance
If the gripper is designed for compact operation in magazines, then storage capacity increases, but the rotary drive becomes vulnerable to damage
Solution Approach 1:
The rotary drive is extracted from the vulnerable lateral position on the swivel claw and relocated to the protected central position on the thrust claw within the tong housing. This allows the gripper to be designed for compact magazine operation with high storage capacity while the rotary drive remains shielded from damage during insertion and retrieval operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The rotary drive is nested within the tong housing structure, positioned inside the protected volume of the gripper body. This nested arrangement allows the rotary drive to be contained within the compact gripper design for high storage capacity while being protected from external damage, similar to how smaller components are nested within larger protective structures.
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to a drill string gripper with at least one collet (20) for gripping a drill string element (5), with a fork-shaped gripper housing (22) with two gripper prongs (23) for engaging a drill string magazine, two pivoting claws (30), one of which is pivotably mounted in a receiving space (24) in the gripper prongs (23) of the gripper housing, a central push claw (45) which is arranged between the two pivoting claws and is linearly displaceable in the gripper housing, a lever mechanism by which the pivoting claws are coupled to the push claw, and a clamping cylinder (26) for linearly displacing the push claw, wherein the push claw and the two pivoting claws are movable between a retraction position, in which the pivoting claws are pivoted into their receiving space, and a clamping position.in which the pivoting claws are pivoted out of their receiving spaces and, together with the push claw, are applied to a drill string element to be clamped. According to the invention, it is provided that at least one drive roller (46) for rotatingly driving a drill string element is rotatably mounted on the push claw, that at least one rotary drive (47) is arranged on the push claw, and that the rotary drive is designed to rotate the drive roller and is connected to the drive roller.