Abstract:
A method of supporting an elongated member in a bowl without marking the surface of the elongated member by providing a pair of intermediate surfaces between the tapered surface of the bowl and the contact surface with the elongated member which are approximately perpendicular to each other in order to amplify the force against the pipe in comparison to the force from the bowl.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS: N/A  
       STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT:  
         [0001]    N/A  
         INCORPORATION-BY-REFERENCE OF MATERIAL SUBMITTED ON A COMPACT DISK:  
         [0002]    N/A  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0003]    Friction support means in the oilfield are typically called “slips” and are a combination of a sharp toothed front profile for engaging a cylindrical pipe and a tapered back for engaging a tapered bowl. The more load the cylindrical pipe pulls down on the slips, the more they slip down the bowl and wedge more tightly against the pipe. It is inherent that in normal slips, the coefficient of friction against the pipe must be greater than the coefficient of friction against the tapered bowl, because the bowl angle provides a vertical component of force on the slip segments. The slip segment has the choice of slipping against the pipe or down the bowl, but the bowl has a tapered face looking up. With a similar coefficient of friction, the friction of the bowl wall plus the upwardly facing bowl exceeds the friction against the pipe.  
           [0004]    The conventional means of providing the higher friction between the slip segments and the pipe is to provide sharp teeth which dig into the pipe wall, giving the equivalent of high friction with the wall. In many applications this is acceptable. In the case of laying of subsea pipelines with corrosion resistant coatings, the sharp teeth are not acceptable. The sharp teeth cut into and destroy the coatings.  
         BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0005]    The object of this invention is to provide slip segments which will support pipe without defacing the exterior surface of the pipe.  
           [0006]    A second object of the present invention is to provide slip segments which effectively provide a greater force against the supported pipe member than is provided (reacted) against the supporting bowl.  
           [0007]    A third object of the present invention is to provide a mechanical advantage between the rear of a slip segment and the front of the slip to make the slip act as if the force on the front of the slip segments is greater than the force on the rear of the slip segments.  
         BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS  
         [0008]    [0008]FIG. 1 is a half section of a slip of this invention taken along lines “ 1 - 1 ” of FIG. 2.  
           [0009]    [0009]FIG. 2 is a section thru the slip assembly taken along lines “ 2 - 2 ” of FIG. 1.  
           [0010]    [0010]FIG. 3 is a simplified 2 dimensional model of a conventional slip assembly.  
           [0011]    [0011]FIG. 4 is a simplified diagrammatic model of the slip of this invention to show why it works.  
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0012]    Referring now to FIG. 1, 10 is a slip assembly with two split bowl halves  12  and  14  sitting in a support ring  16 . Split bowl half  12  has a sloping bowl surface  18  and split bowl half  14  has a bowl sloping surface  20 .  
         [0013]    Slip carrier  22  has a sloping surface which engages sloping surface  18  and slip carrier  24  has a sloping surface which engages surface  20 . Pipe  26  is supported by the slip assembly  10 .  
         [0014]    Referring now to FIG. 2, the slip carrier  22  is seen to have two internal profiles at  30  and  32  which support slips  34  and  36  respectively. The slips  34  and  36  engage the outer surface of the pipe  26  at slip front surfaces  37  and  38 . In the figure the pipe is shown as round, however, other shapes such as square or hexagonal can be beneficially used.  
         [0015]    Referring again to FIG. 1, internal profile  32  is shown supporting the slip  36  against vertical movement, except as slip carrier  22  moves vertically.  
         [0016]    If internal profiles  30  and  32  were at 90 degrees and the system was frictionless, and a force of 100 lbs was exerted by the slip carrier against the split bowl half  12 , the two internal profiles would exert a force of 70.7 (cosine 45 deg.) against the pipe, or a total of 141.4 lbs against the pipe due to the wedging effect of the angle.  
         [0017]    Referring now to FIG. 3, a simple 2D model of a conventional slip assembly which was tested is shown. Basically a round pipe  100  is supported by having two wedges  102  and  104  going down sloping surfaces  106  and  108 . As the pipe is pushed down (or pulled down by weight), there is a natural friction force  110  against the pipe, a combination of a normal force 112 times the coefficient of friction. The exact same force  114  is transmitted out against surfaces  106  and  108 . However, because of the taper of surfaces  106  and  108 , there is a resultant vertical component  116  of the force which is a combination of the friction force plus a trigonometric component. Basically, the force  116  urging the wedge up is greater than the force  110  urging the wedge down. This means that the pipe will not be supported by these wedges, but will rather slip under load.  
         [0018]    The conventional solution to this is to put sharp teeth on the surface  120  which bite into the external surface of the pipe and effectively give a higher coefficient of friction to compensate for the problem with the angle on the back side of the wedge. This 2 dimensional example is shown for simplicity, but typical circular slips work in this exact same way.  
         [0019]    Referring now to FIG. 4, another tested configuration is shown. The tapered surfaces  202  and  204  are the same, and the pipe  204  is the same. However, instead of flat wedges, angle iron was used to make a wedging insert. As is shown, a 100 lbs. load on the center back of wedging insert  206  yields a 70.7 lbs. load on the two 90 degree surfaces for a total pipe loading of 141.4 lbs. Basically the back of the wedging insert is seeing only 100 lbs., but the pipe is acting as if it is seeing 141.4 lbs. As greater force is seen against the pipe than the back of the wedging insert, if the coefficient of frictions are the same on the front and the back, pushing the pipe down will cause the wedging insert to move down for increased wedging and therefore more wedging support.  
         [0020]    Referring back now to FIG. 2, the wedging profile can be seen on profiles  30  and  32  of the slip carrier  22 . The slips  34  and  36  engage the slip profiles  30  and  32 , and provide an opposing face to engage the pipe  26 . Profiles  30  and  32  provide a slip face such that when increasing wedging occurs due to increased loads, the front faces can always remain in good contact with the pipe. As profiles  30  and  32  have their own friction coefficients, the 90 degree wedging angle can be increased slightly to compensate for that friction and deliver loads directly into the pipe.  
         [0021]    The particular embodiments disclosed above are illustrative only, as the invention may be modified and practiced in different but equivalent manners apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of the teachings herein. Furthermore, no limitations are intended to the details of construction or design herein shown, other than as described in the claims below. It is therefore evident that the particular embodiments disclosed above may be altered or modified and all such variations are considered within the scope and spirit of the invention. Accordingly, the protection sought herein is as set forth in the claims below.