Patent ID: 8402996

Claim:
A choke for the oil and gas industry, comprising: a choke housing comprising an inlet and an outlet, and a seat disposed therein fluidly coupled to the inlet and the outlet; a bonnet nut coupled to the choke housing; an actuator adapter coupled to the bonnet nut; an actuator coupled to the actuator adapter, the actuator comprising an actuator housing; a lift shaft coupled to the actuator housing, the lift shaft having threads formed thereon; a worm gear coupled to the actuator housing and having inner threads and outer teeth, the inner threads configured to engage the lift shaft threads; a worm shaft coupled transverse to the worm gear, the worm shaft having threads configured to engage and turn the outer teeth of the worm gear; and the choke being configured to axially move the lift shaft with the worm shaft and vary a location of a trim plug relative to the seat to adjust a flow through the choke; wherein the actuator housing comprises an axially-oriented threaded portion and the actuator adapter comprises a corresponding axially-oriented threaded portion so that the actuator housing is axially threadably coupled with the actuator adapter, wherein a force resulting from fluid pressure inside the actuator housing from the choke is restrained from separating the actuator housing from the actuator adapter by a strength of the threads in an axially-oriented shear direction across the threads.