Drill Pipe Protector With Uniform Wall Thickness
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current protectors for oil extraction tubes fail to meet multiple requirements such as maintaining position during transport and handling, ensuring tightness, and withstanding varying temperatures without excessive production costs, while also facing issues with non-degradation of lubricants and quality of injected protectors.
Innovation Solution
A thread protector design featuring a connecting segment with a bumper segment and equal wall thickness, produced by injection molding using polycarbonate, which includes a polymer film for sealing and a capsule for easy inspection, and a specific geometry that allows for efficient production and improved mechanical resistance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If protectors are made by injection molding to reduce production costs, then manufacturing cost decreases, but the quality and mechanical resistance of the protectors deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the geometric parameters of the protector, specifically making all walls have substantially equal thickness. This parameter optimization enables successful injection molding by ensuring uniform material flow and cooling, thereby producing high-quality protectors with good mechanical resistance through an cost-effective injection process
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses polycarbonate as the material for the protector, which provides the necessary mechanical strength and temperature resistance. This material selection allows injection molding to produce protectors that meet quality requirements while maintaining cost effectiveness
2Reliability
If protectors are designed to remain in place during transport and handling, then stability improves, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses a tapered conical shape for the connecting segment that transitions into a cylindrical bumper segment. This curved, streamlined geometry provides mechanical interlocking and friction-based retention, enabling the protector to remain stable during transport and handling without requiring complex fastening mechanisms
Solution Approach 2:
The patent combines the connecting segment and bumper segment into a single integrated protector body with uniform wall thickness. This merging of functions into one simple structure achieves both stability during handling and ease of manufacture through injection molding
3Temperature
If protectors are designed to withstand temperature variations from -46°C to 66°C, then temperature resistance improves, but material selection becomes more restricted
Solution Approach 1:
The patent selects polycarbonate as the material and optimizes the wall thickness parameter to be substantially uniform throughout. This parameter control ensures even thermal distribution and resistance to temperature variations from -46°C to 66°C while maintaining manufacturing simplicity
4Loss of time
If solid lubrication is applied to threads, then lubrication frequency decreases, but the risk of lubricant degradation during protector positioning increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the lubrication function from the protector by applying solid lubrication directly to the threads of the tube before protector installation. This separates the lubrication system from the protector, eliminating the risk of lubricant degradation during protector positioning while maintaining the time-saving benefits of solid lubrication
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3~4
Figure 5~6
AI summary
The invention relates to a protector (1, 7) for an oil extraction pipe. The invention comprises: a hollow, substantially frustoconical connecting segment (2) having a proximal end (21), a distal end (22) and a thread (42) complementary to that of the pipe; and a bumper segment (3) having a connecting end (31) in the extension of the connecting segment (2) and a free end (32), said bumper segment including an internal ring (33) extending in the extension of the connecting segment (2) and an external ring (34) extending coaxially from the connecting segment, defining an internal space between the internal (33) and external (34) rings and increasing the outer diameter of the protector (1, 7). The protector (1, 7) is characterised in that all of the walls thereof having a substantially equal thickness, such that the shape is suitable for production by means of injection, and in that it is produced by means of injection.