Retractable Lower Arm for Pipe Handling Column Racker
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional pipe handling systems, such as column rackers, face limitations in travel height due to interference between arms, requiring complex elevators or mechanisms to pick up tubulars from the rig floor, leading to potential downtime and equipment hazards.
Innovation Solution
A retractable lower arm assembly in the column racker system allows the upper arm to travel below its path, eliminating the need for hanging elevators and enabling secure tubular handling without interference, thus simplifying and securing tubular movement around a drilling rig.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Length of moving object
If a conventional column racker uses two arms for securing and transporting tubulars, then the system can handle tubulars, but the lower arm limits the travel height of the upper arm, preventing it from reaching the rig floor
Solution Approach 1:
The lower arm assembly is made dynamically retractable rather than fixed, allowing it to move between an extended operational position and a retracted clearance position. This dynamic adjustment eliminates the need for complex hanging elevators while enabling the upper arm to reach the rig floor.
Solution Approach 2:
The solution adds a retraction dimension to the lower arm assembly, allowing it to move in and out of the upper arm's travel path. This dimensional change resolves the spatial conflict between the two arms without requiring complex vertical elevation mechanisms.
2Ease of operation
If conventional systems use hanging elevators or mechanisms to increase reach, then the upper arm can pick up tubulars from the rig floor, but the system becomes more complicated and prone to equipment hazards
Solution Approach 1:
The harmful lower arm is extracted from the upper arm's travel path through retraction, eliminating the need for complex hanging elevators. This removes the source of interference while maintaining the ability to pick up tubulars from the rig floor.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of making the upper arm reach down through complex hanging mechanisms, the solution inverts the approach by having the lower arm retract out of the way, allowing the upper arm to travel freely to the rig floor level.
3Device complexity
If the lower arm remains in place during upper arm travel, then the structure is simpler, but the upper arm cannot travel to the rig floor due to interference
Solution Approach 1:
The lower arm assembly transitions from a static fixed position to a dynamic reconfigurable position, retracting when the upper arm needs to travel to the rig floor and extending when needed for tubular handling operations.
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus for moving a tubular may include a column vertically extending from a drill floor, the column defining an axis; a lower carriage connected to the column and configured to carry the column along the drill floor; an upper arm assembly movable along the column, the upper arm assembly being configured to connect with a tubular; and a lower arm assembly having a lower gripper head configured to attach to the tubular, the lower arm assembly being movable to displace the lower gripper head between a position on a first side of the axis and a position on a second side of the axis.