Linear Selective Profile Actuation for Resource Recovery Tools
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing resource recovery tools in boreholes require activation through resilient action, which can be unreliable at high speeds due to the need for profiles to expand and snap back, potentially leading to missed engagements and incomplete actuation.
Innovation Solution
A linear selective profile actuation system featuring a traveling actuation member with a selective profile that automatically engages or rejects tool profiles based on complementary configurations without initial resilient action, allowing the tool profile to seat without expansion, ensuring reliable actuation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If resilient profiles are used for tool actuation, then the tool can be activated through expansion and snap-back action, but the actuation becomes unreliable at high speeds due to missed engagements
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the resilient action requirement from the actuation mechanism. By designing the tool profile and selective profile to engage directly through geometric complementarity rather than relying on resilient expansion and snap-back, the system eliminates the timing-critical resilient action that causes failures at high speeds.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of using resilient expansion to create engagement force, the invention inverts the approach by using geometric constraint - the complementary profiles are designed so that engagement occurs through direct contact and mechanical interference, reversing the traditional resilient-first approach.
2Productivity
If resilient expansion is required for profile engagement, then the tool profile can be activated, but the process takes longer and may result in incomplete actuation
Solution Approach 1:
The complementary profiles are pre-configured in their engagement-ready positions. The tool profile and selective profile are designed with matching geometries that enable immediate engagement upon contact, eliminating the need for preliminary expansion actions and reducing engagement time.
3Reliability
If profiles are designed to engage through resilient action, then actuation can occur, but missed engagements lead to incomplete tool activation
Solution Approach 1:
The invention uses asymmetric, complementary profile geometries where the tool profile and selective profile are specifically shaped to fit together like puzzle pieces. This asymmetric design ensures that only the correct complementary profile can engage, providing inherent selectivity and consistent engagement without complex control mechanisms.
Data Source
AI summary
A linear selective profile actuation system including a traveling actuation member having a selective profile, the selective profile being resilient or rigid and possessed of a shoulder, a resource recovery tool having a tool profile, the tool profile being resilient or rigid, providing at least one of the selective profile or the tool profile is resilient, the tool profile being possessed of a seat, the tool profile and selective profile being configured to engage the shoulder and seat without resilient action from either the tool profile or selective profile if the selective profile is complementary to the tool profile or to resiliently pass the traveling actuation member if the selective profile is not complementary to the tool profile. A method for actuating a resource recovery tool. A resource recovery system including a borehole, a tubular string in the borehole, a resource recovery tool having a tool profile.