US1162787A - Grabbing device. - Google Patents

Description

J. R. KIRLEY.

GRABBING DEVICE. APPLICATION FILED DEc.24. 1914.

Patented Dec. 7, 1915.

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JOHN R. KIRLEY, OF NEW STRAITSVILLE, OHIO.

GRABBING DEVICE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. "7,1915.

Application filed December 24, 1914. Serial No. 878,929.

The present invention relates to improve- I ments in grabbing devices for use in recovering lost parts of pumps in oil or similar wells.

In connection with the operations of pumping oil from wells the parts of the pumping tool at the bottom of the well frequently become displaced or lost and special tools are then required to fish for the lost parts. In using pumping devices utilizing a ball valve system at the bottom of the well, the usual custom is to recover the lost ball valve by one set of grabbing tools, and then a second set of tools, as a spear or hook is brought into use to recover and raise the valve proper, thus requiring two separate operations and much time and labor, especially when working in conjunction with deep wells.

By the utilization of my improved tool, the ball valve is lifted from its seat and the lost part of the pumping tool is recovered by the same operation, and this action ofremoving the ball from its seat opens the passage through the recovered tool so that the oil may fall therethrough as the recovered tool is lifted. In this manner, the necessity of lifting a column of oil above the recovered tool is obviated.

The invention consists in certain novel combinations and arrangements of parts as will be hereinafter more fully pointed out and specifically set forth in my appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings I have illustrated one complete example of the physical embodiment of my invention constructed according to the best model I have so far devised for the practical application of the principles of my invention.

Figure 1 is a front elevation of a grabbing tool involving the principles of my invention. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the tool of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a transverse vertical sectional view of the tool, showing in dotted lines, the ball valve lifted from its seat leaving a space for the oil to pass through the recovered tool as it is withdrawn from the well. Fig. 4; illustrates the type of pumping tool, in the well tubing or piping, to which this improved grabbing device is applied. Fig. 5 illustrates the parts of Fig. l as detached or lost from the sinker, the cage of the valve having been carried away by the sinker as the latter was lifted from the Well.

I have illustrated, as a preferred embodiment, the invention in connection with the well known type of reciprocable pumping device vertically movable in the well tubing or piping indicated by the numeral 1. The pumping device in the tubing includes a sinker or weight 2, which is suitably connected to actuating parts not shown, the valve cage 3 secured to the sinker, the ball valve & within the cage, and the valve seat 5 for the valve having the exterior screw threads 6 to which the cage is screwed. The remainder of the pumping tool below the valve seat is of suitable construction to perform the functions of this type of pumping tool and need not be described in detail herein.

The two figures of drawing, Figs. 1 and 5, which show the pumping tool, illustrate the tool in operative position in Fig. 4E and with the valve portion lost in Fig. 5 waiting to be recovered by the use of the grabbing device of my invention.

The grabbing device or tool, as clearly illustrated in Figs. 1 2 and 3 is fashioned of the usual sleeve or bushing 7, cylindrical in shape and of size suitable to pass freely through the well tubing. At its sides the sleeve is cut away as indicated at 8 and 9, leaving the lower cylindrical end 10 of complete circular shape except for the presence of the two vertical slits or slots 11, 11. These slots of course permit the grabbing tool to expander spread at its lower end in order that it may grab the threaded portion 6 of the pumping tool. To insure a perfect or secure grasp or grab of the portion 6 by the grabbing tool, the interior of the end 10 is threaded as at 12, so that these threads 12 will closely embrace and lit about the threads 6 of the pumping tool.

As best shown in Fig. 3, the open mouth of the cylindrical portion 10 of the grab tool is fashioned with a tapered or flared wall or ring 13 which forms an annular shoulder 14 at the lower end of the threaded part 12, and it will be apparent that this.

shoulder or annular ring is designed to fit up under the lowermost of the threads 6 on the pumping tool when the pumping tool is grabbed by the grabbing tool as in Fig. 3. It will be understood of course that there is 'suflicient resiliency in the metal of the grabbing tool to permit the desired spread of the lower end of the grabbing tool when in action.

For removing the ball valve 4: from its seat I emnloy a metallic spring tongue which is secured to the body of the grabbing tool by means of a pair of screws 16, and

projects downwardly into one of the cutdown over the threaded part 6 away spaces or openings as 9 at the sides of the grabbing tool. At its free end the tongue is slightly curved as indicated at 17, and this curved lower end of the tongue is situated just above the interiorly threaded end 10 ofthe grabbing tool, in position to encounter the ball valve and remove it from its seat.

In use the grabbing device is attached to the sinker or weight 2 by means of the threaded stud or stem 18, and when, for instance, it is desired to recover the parts illustrated in Figs. 3 and 5, the grabbing tool'is carried to the bottom of the well by the weights or sinkers as 2. As the grabbing tool encounters the lost pumping tool, the flaring lower end 13 of the cylindrical sleeve contacts with the top of the part 6 and spreads the sleeve so that it will pass and the threads 12 then close in on and grasp the threads 6 of the pumping tool. \Vhile this action is taking place, the curved end of the spring tongue has encountered the ball 3 valve 4 and lifted itfrom its seat as in Fig.

through the tool as the latter rises.

3. The recovered pumping toolis now ready to be lifted out of the well, and as the valve seat is uncovered, it will be evident that the oil. above. the tool will flow In this manner the load to be lifted is greatly reduced, as it will be understood in a very deep well the column of oil above the tool will be of considerable weight, and the tool is thus relieved of this weight of oil.

In some dry wells the tubing becomes empty below the valve portion of the pumping tool, and the ball is thus held to its seat by suction or the load above it. In such case the pumping tool should be operated sufliciently to draw oil, if possible to the tubing, so that the ball valve may be lifted from its seat as the vacuum beneath the valve is overcome, and then the recovered tool may be lifted out of the well with the valve seat uncovered.

One of the specially meritorious features of the invention is the use of the spring tongue on the grabbing tool or socket. which, when the tool is lowered over the lost part, automatically lifts the ball valve from its seat and holds it there while the pumping tool is lifted up. This attached tongue may be removed, renewed, or replaced with facility, if it should become necessary, and of course may be made of any suitable material. lVhat I claim is:

l. A resilient openable slotted sleeve having interior grabbing threads, inner tapering walls at its open mouth, and formed with an annular shoulder of less diameter than the threads at the upper edges of 'said walls below the threads.

' 2. The combination with a grabbing tool comprising an openable sleeve with interior threads, of a detachable tongue fixed to the sleeve and located therein in operative position with relation to said threads.

3. The combination with a grabbing tool including its openable sleeve, of a spring tongue attached to said sleeve and projecting therein in prsition to remove a ball valve from its seat as described.

4. The combination with a resilient openable slotted sleeve having interior threads. tapering walls at its open mouth and formed with an annular shoulder, of a spring tongue attached to said sleeve with its end in operative position with relation to said threads.

In testimony whereof I atiix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

JOHN R. KIRLE Y.

E. S. MArrriN.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C.

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