Novel torque test checks steerable well drills 19 April 2012

Well bore drilling accuracy for hydrocarbons has been increased tenfold, using adapted advanced aerospace guidance systems from Gyrodata – while an innovative torque sensor ensures efficiency during the equipment's maintenance.

"We have about 60 Well-Guide RSS [rotary steerable systems] sets here in Barrow-in-Furness and dispatch them to oil field operations, along with our specialist engineers," states Ian Carruthers of Gyrodata.

Carruthers says that, typically, projects last about two weeks, but when the kit comes back there is an intensive two weeks "completely rebuilding it." Part of that is torque testing the rotating parts, which now uses a specialist rig, at the heart of which is a TorqSense, from Sensor Technology in Banbury.

Any variation from tight torque tolerance specifications suggest that there might be something needing attention, perhaps a sticking seal or a failing bearing, explains Carruthers.

"Not even the smallest of faults is allowed," he says. "Failure halfway through a complex rotary steerable or surveying operation in a remote oil field would lead to enormous on-costs – so we don't send out equipment unless we are 110% certain of its performance."

"TorqSense helps with this, because it is a plug and play, non-contact technology that saves the need to faff around setting up slip rings. Basically, we load the well guide into the rig, switch on and run a suite of tests at different speeds. The data is collected on the fly and fed straight into a computer for immediate analysis."

At its heart TorqSense uses tiny piezo-ceramic combs, known as surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices, fixed to the shaft of the equipment under test. These distort in proportion to the instantaneous torque level in the shaft as it rotates, creating RF data that are transmitted via a radio frequency coupling, rather than by slip rings or other mechanical contact.

Carruthers says that Gyrodata originally trialled TorqSense in its UK plant and was so impressed that it bought more and encouraged its American engineering colleagues in Houston, Texas to adopt the technology too.

Brian Tinham

Related Companies
Gyrodata Ltd
Sensor Technology Ltd

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