GB2292268A - Lockable connector for down-well use - Google Patents

Abstract

A connector has a male and a female half each formed as a tubular body 1, 2 in which runs a conductor insulated from the body, the connector halves being releasable locked together after mating. The mechanical connection and locking mechanism may comprise shoulders 9 on the male half 1, which engage recesses 10 in the female half upon rotation of the male half relative to the female half. Mating of the connector halves causes a spring-biassed polygonal ring 3 of the female half to engage a polygonal surface 11 of the male half thereby preventing rotation and release of the connector halves. The ring may be moved by a tool 8 against the spring bias to allow rotation of the connector halves for their release. The connector may be formed by providing a drill string coupling with electrical contacts. <IMAGE>

Description

ELECTRIC LINE OUICK RELEASE CONNECTORS Field of the Invention The invention relates to electric line quick release connectors, particularly, though not exclusively, used to couple pieces of apparatus of the kind lowered down or raised from oil and gas wells.

Background to the Invention Various tools can be lowered down or raised from oil and gas wells by jointed tubulars e.g drill pipe or continuous coiled tubing or by wireline. A wide variety of tools and measuring devices are used in these down-hole situations and they are commonly strung together in the form of a tool string using quick release connectors. Where the tools transmit or receive electrical signals then electrical connectors must be used. Currently this type of connection is achieved by means of a screw-threaded connection. However, these require valuable time to screw together and in addition they must be assembled to the correct torque to prevent accidental loosening off and loss down-hole.When produced in durable stainless steel alloys, the threads are prone to instantaneous seizure and subsequent damage on movement called galling, due to the high stresses imposed on the material in intimate contact with the threads. To date no electrical quick release connectors are available on the market. It is the object of the present invention to provide a quick release electrical connector which avoids some or all of the disadvantages outlined above.

Summary of the Invention According to a first aspect of the present invention, in its broadest sense there is provided an electric line quick release connector comprising the following combination of features; i) A male member having a hollow tubular body; ii) A female member having a hollow tubular body and being adapted at one end to receive the male member; iii) Engagement means for cooperatively engaging the male and female members; iv) A locking mechanism for releasably securing the male member and the female member in cooperated engagement; characterised in that the hollow tubular bodies in both the male and female members incorporate an electrical conductor which in combination form an electrically conducted route extending substantially the whole length of the connector, the electrical conductor being electrically insulated from the main body of the connector.

It is thus possible to convert a range of hollow quick release connectors into electric line connectors by inserting down the hollow core an electrically conducting member which naturally is insulated from the main body. The main body itself can act as a return conductor.

Preferably the locking member comprises a polygonal-shaped sleeve adapted to cooperatively engage with a correspondingly polygonal-shaped portion of one or both of the said members, said sleeve being movable between a first, engaged position wherein the male and female members are locked together and a second, disengaged position in which the male and female members are free to rotate with respect to each other.

Preferably the polygonal-shaped sleeve incorporates polygonal faces on both the exterior and interior surfaces of the sleeve, said sleeve being adapted to fit within a correspondingly shaped polygonal aperture in the female member, the sleeve and aperture being so sized and shaped that the sleeve cannot rotate within the said aperture.

Preferably the polygonal sleeve can engage with the male and/or female members in only one configuration such that in use the male and female members always cooperatively engage in the same spatial relationship.

Preferably the locking mechanism incorporates a biasing means to resiliently bias the sleeve into the so-called engaged position.

Preferably the male member incorporates within a portion of its circumference a series of shoulders adapted to cooperatively engage with the corresponding shoulders in the female member.

In a particular preferred embodiment the electrical connection between the male and female members is made using a so-called banana plug and socket arrangement.

Preferably a plurality of electrical conductors are incorporated down the hollow body of the connector, the electrical conductors being insulated one from another.

Where a plurality of electrical conductors are provided the electrical connection between male and female members is preferably made using a multi-element jack-plug type connector.

Brief Description of the Drawings Preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be more particularly described by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein; Figures 1-4 show cut away schematic diagrams of a mono-conductor electric line quick release connector in assembled and component form; Figures 5-6 show a version of the mono-conductor electric line quick release connector as shown in Figures 14 but where the shoulders are helically formed; Figure 7 shows cut away perspective and cross-sectional diagrams of a hollow quick release connector according to a preferred embodiment; for clarity the electrical conductor is not shown in Figures 7-18; Figures 8 shows two cross-sections of a sleeve; Figure 9 shows a coil spring biasing means; Figure 10 shows a male end of a male connector; Figures 11-13 show various cross-sectional views of a male member as illustrated in Figure 10; Figures 14-17 show various cross-sectional views of a female member; Figure 18 shows an end view of the female connector illustrated in Figures 14-17.

Description of the Preferred Embodiments The present embodiments represent currently the best ways known to the applicant of putting the invention into practice. But they are not the only ways in which this could be achieved. They are illustrated, and will now be described, by way of example only.

It has been discovered that wireline and hollow quick release connectors can be converted into electric line quick release connectors, and this conversion will be described below. Wireline and hollow connectors are known per se, for example as described in EPO 437 084, Well-Equip Limited; EPO 263 671 Petroline Wireline Services Limited and EPO 574 246, Reid. A novel form of locking mechanism for this type of connector has already been described by the applicant in GB95 01628.3. The complete text of these specifications is hereby imported by reference but especially the text of GB95 01628.3 since this is the currently preferred locking mechanism for this type of tool.

This locking mechanism is illustrated in Figures 7-18 inclusive.

Figure 7 illustrates the general arrangement of this locking mechanism applied to a hollow quick release connector. A male member 1 is adapted to fit into a female member 2. The portion of the male member which fits within the female member is substantially circular in cross-section and incorporates into its external surface a series of longitudinally spaced radial flanges or shoulders 9. These shoulders do not extend to the same depth around the whole circumference of the member 1, being instead asymmetrically disposed about the longitudinal axis. This is more clearly shown in Figures 10,11 and 12.

A corresponding series of recesses 10, also termed shoulders, are formed around the internal circumference of the female member 1. The bilateral arrangement of shoulders means that in a particular configuration the male member can be fully inserted into the female member. Rotation of the male member through 90" with respect to the female member fully engaging the two sets of shoulders to provide maximum tensile strength. It is the function of the locking mechanism to hold the two members in this so-called "locked" position, to provide torsional strength and to prevent the connector separating inadvertently.

In this example the locking mechanism comprises an anti-rotational sleeve 3, spring 4 and octagonal-shaped section 11 on the male member 1. A release tool 8 is also provided. The sleeve 3 is illustrated in Figure 8. The external and internal faces of the sleeve are octagonal and the sleeve fits within an octagonal-shaped housing or recess in the female member as shown in Figure 2. If required, it can be held in place with a retaining ring 5. Thus the sleeve cannot rotate within its housing but can be moved backwards and forwards along the longitudinal axis against the force of spring 4. This movement is achieved by the release tool 8 which is in effect a pair of modified circlip pliers. One point of the tool engages in a first recess 12 in the body 2, the other point engages in a second recess 14 in the sleeve itself.A slot 13 extending through the wall of the female member 2 gives access to the recess 14 and allows movement of the sleeve within pre-determined limits.

The octagonal shape 11 and internal octagonal sleeve surface both have one face of a different size to the rest. This means that the male member 2 will only fit into the sleeve in one of the eight possible configurations. In assembly for use the arrow 30 on the male member 1 (see Figure 10) is aligned with the slot 13 in the female member 2. In this position the male 14 can be fully inserted into the female portion but the octagon 11 cannot fit into the sleeve.

The male portion is pushed fully into the female portion against the pressure of the spring 4 and the two members rotated through 90" with respect to each other. The octagon 11 and sleeve surface 20 now correspond and the sleeve springs back to its original position, locking the two members as it does so.

The release is a simply matter of depressing spring 4 with tool 8 whilst rotating the male portion in relation to the female. Once the arrow and slot line up the two parts of the coupling come apart because the shoulders 9 and 10 no longer engage.

A fluid-tight seal between the members 1, 2 is achieved by using a double ring seal 6, 7.

Although developed for hollow connectors, this type of locking mechanism is equally applicable to all forms of quick release couplings, referred to in this context as couplings of the type in question, including those for wireline and electric line use. The multiple shoulder version illustrated needs to be made with extreme accuracy in order to achieve proper load sharing between the shoulders without them deforming. This is best achieved using a computer numerical controlled machining centre.

Alternatively the shoulders can be formed from a single screw thread as illustrated in figures 5 and 6. This has the advantages that all the shoulders are formed in a single machining operation thus ensuring accurate load sharing.

An example of a mono-conductor electric line quick release connector is illustrated in Figures 1-4. Figures 1 and 2 show a male component 53 and female 54 in their assembled, in use configuration. The locking mechanism is as described above and consists of an octagonal anti-rotational sleeve 55 held in place in a correspondingly shaped recess by a return spring 57. A release slot 56 is provided to enable the sleeve 55 to be withdrawn from its recess to allow relative movement of the male and female components. Flanges 61 prevent the male member separating from.the female member in use.

A hollow cavity is formed which extends substantially the whole length of the tool. This cavity incorporates a series of conducting components 51, 59. In this example a banana plug 50 protrudes from the end of the female component 54. The banana plug is connected to conducting component 51, in this case formed from brass, which makes contact with a second banana plug 60 at the end of the male component 53. This in turn connects with conducting components 59 and as such provides an electrical connection which runs the entire length of the quick release connector. The two parts of the connector can still rotate relative to one another during assembly/disassembly.

Other types of push fit connectors such as jack-plugs can also be used.

The conducting components 51 and 59 are insulated from the body of the connector by insulating components 52 and 58, the body of the connector acting as the return line. Most conveniently this insulation can be formed from a resin introduced into the cavity during construction. Alternatively it can be formed from machined insulating components inserted and secured in place during construction.

A wide variety of materials can be used for constructing the insulating and conducting components. Metal conductors such as brass or copper can be used as well as electrically conductive coatings on a non-conductive base.

This choice would fall within the normal remit of a materials specialist.

It will be apparent that this technology can be applied to any wireline or hollow quick release tool. The electrical conductor is fully protected along its length by the tool body. It is under no mechanical tension and is shielded to some extent from the inhospitable down-hole conditions.

This technology can also be applied to multi-conductor electric line quick release connections (not illustrated). In this case the conducting components must also be multi-filament and rather than a central banana plug a push fit multiple pin plug e.g of the DIN-type can be used. In this case wire connections in the body of the quick release connector allow for the rotation necessary to engage/disengage the connector components. Alternatively a multi-element jack-plug type connector could be used.

Figures 5 and 6 illustrate a helical shoulder version of the electric line quick release connector based on a hollow connector described in GB94 015 36.9.

For the avoidance of doubt the entire text of GB94 015 36.9 is imported into this document by reference. The components have been numbered using a similar numbering system to that in Figure 2.

Claims (10)

CLAIMS:

1. An electric line quick release connector comprising the following combination of features: (i) a male member having a hollow tubular body; (ii) a female member having a hollow tubular body and being adapted at one end to receive the male member; (iii) engagement means for cooperatively engaging the male and female members; (iv) a locking mechanism for releasably securing the male member and the female member in cooperative engagement; characterised in that the hollow tubular bodies in both the male and female members incorporate an electrical conductor which in combination form an electrically conductive route extending substantially the whole length of the connector, the electrical conductor being electrically insulated from the main body of the connector.

2. A connector as claimed in Claim 1.

characterised in that the locking member comprises a polygonal shaped sleeve adapted to cooperatively engage with a correspondingly polygonal-shaped portion on one or both of the said members, said sleeve being movable between a first, engaged position wherein the male and female members are locked together and a second, disengaged position in which the male and female members are free to rotate with respect to each other.

3. A connector as claimed in Claim 2 wherein the polygonal-shaped sleeve incorporates polygonal faces on both the exterior and interior surfaces of the sleeve, said sleeve being adapted to fit within a correspondingly shaped polygonal aperture in the female member, the sleeve and aperture being so sized and shaped that the sleeve cannot rotate within the said aperture.

4. A connector as claimed in Claim 2 or Claim 3 wherein the polygonal sleeve can engage with the male and/or female members in only one configuration such that in use the male and female members always cooperatively engage in the same spatial relationship.

5. A connector according to any preceding Claim wherein the locking mechanism incorporates a biasing means to resiliently bias the sleeve into the so-called engaged position.

6. A connector according to any preceding Claim wherein the male member incorporates within a portion of its circumference a series of shoulders adapted to cooperatively engage with corresponding shoulders in the female member.

7. A connector according to any preceding claim wherein an electrical connection is made between the male and female members using a so called banana plug and socket arrangement.

8. A connector according to any preceding claim wherein a plurality of electrical conductors are incorporated down the hollow body of the connector, the electrical conductors being insulated one from another.

9. A connector according to Claim 8 wherein the electrical connection between male and female members is made during a multi-element jack-plug type connector.

10. An electric line quick release connector substantially as herein described with reference to and as illustrated in any combination of the accompanying drawings.