Patent GB-851097-A (GB)
Title: Locking means for well tools
Inventor: SCHRAMM HARRY BOSE
IPC: E21B23/02
Filed: 1959-06-16
Abstract: 851,097. Oil wells. OTIS ENGINEERING CORPORATION. June 16,1959, No. 20643/59. Class 85. A well tool, particularly a packer, is locked in a landing nipple by resilient tongues each having a shouldered configuration to spring into a complementary configuration in the wall of the nipple, the tongues being subsequently engaged by an expanding member to lock them in the nipple configuration. In Fig. 1, a mandrel 11 having packing 19, 22 to seal off parts 26 in the nipple 16 is screwed to a collet 25 which at its lower end, is provided with slits 27, the tongues 28 so formed being resilient. The tongues have a cam configuration 29, 34, 35 to mate with the recess 30 in the nipple, and the expander 39 has cam surfaces 40, 44 to permit it to be moved upwardly into recesses at the backs of the tongues 28 whereby the collet and packer are locked to the nipple. The expander 39 is carried by a sleeve 36 slidable through the mandrel 11 and body 12 screwed thereto, a collar 37 at the top sleeve having opposed recesses 38 to receive shear pins by which a running tool is connected to the packer. When the shoulder 14 lands on the shoulder 15, the tongues 28 spring into the recess 30, upward jars on the sleeve bring the expander into locking position and further upward jars shear the shear pins allowing the running tool to be removed. When the packer is to be removed, a running tool delivers blows on the collar 37 and forces the expander out of locking position; the running tool then engages under the shoulder 18 and pulls the packer out of the nipple. Instead of providing a recess 30 the tongues may be arranged to spring into the space between the ends of a nipple and the next tubing section to which it is connected by a screwed coupling. The recess 30 may have no lower shoulder, the shoulders 14, 15 being sufficient to prevent downward movement of the packer. The shoulder 14 may be absent, the recess 30 being relied upon to lock the packer against upward and downward movement. In this case, nipples having recesses 30 of different configuration are located at various levels in the string, and the tongues also have corresponding different configurations so that a packer may be locked in any selected nipple. In Fig. 6, the tongues have in addition the locking configurations 64, corresponding to the configurations 29, 34, 35 of Fig. 1, selector portions 65, 71 which will home only in the corresponding formation in in the selected nipple. In a modification, the collet 25 is arranged with the spring fingers 28 directed upwardly, and the expander is jarred downwardly into locking position. In Fig. 10, the landing nipple 139 is provided with springs 140 which are welded to the housing 141 forming a part of the tubing string. The nipple has ports 142, communicating with ports 143 in the housing 141, leading to an annular space around the packer mandel 144 which is sealed at 147, 148. Smaller parts 145 in the mandrel 144 lead to the bore in the mandrel in which an expander rod 149 is slidable, the rod having sealing rings 156, 157 in annular grooves so that when the expander 152 is in locking position, as in Fig. 10, the seals 156, 157 are above and below the ports 145 and no flow occurs. When the rod 149 is pushed down to disengage the tongues, flow may occur from the annular space outside the housing 141, through the ports 143, 142 and 145 and up longitudinal grooves 187 in the rod 149. This arrangement permits the admission of chemicals fluids previously injected into the annular space outside the housing, into the upward flow of well fluids through the housing.