Patent ID: 8336645

Claim:
A rotating drill string sub to redistribute wellbore drill cuttings into the drilling fluid flowstream, comprising: an agitator, having a plurality of alternating blades standing radially outward from the axis of said sub and arranged helically about the axis of said sub, and having a plurality of alternating grooves, each groove located between a pair of adjacent said blades, and each groove comprising a flow channel that is open at both ends of said agitator; at least two standoff elements each containing abutment surfaces, one standoff element spaced on each side of said agitator, and each standoff element connected to said agitator by a section of drill pipe, each standoff element comprising: alternating blades standing radially outward from the axis of the sub, arranged helically about the axis of the sub, wherein the outer diameter of each of two said standoff elements is greater than the outer diameter of said agitator and prevents said agitator from contacting the wellbore, wherein at least a portion of each of the blades of a standoff element is arranged in a left-hand wrap orientation, wherein at least a portion of each of the blades of another standoff element is arranged in a right-hand wrap orientation, and wherein the helical blades in at least one of the at least two standoff elements are arranged such that at one end of said blades, said blades are arranged in a left-hand wrap orientation, while at the other end of said blades, said blades are arranged in a right-hand wrap orientation.