Patent ID: 8119047

Claim:
An in situ method of forming a non-rotating drill pipe protector assembly on a downhole tubing for use in a wellbore, the method comprising: placing a mold around the downhole tubing; sealing the mold at its ends against the tubing, leaving a first mold space within the mold around the tubing; placing a preformed annular sleeve liner in the first mold space adjacent the surface of the tubing, the sleeve liner having a tubing-contacting portion thereof made from a fluid bearing material having a hardness less than the hardness of a resinous molding material to be inserted in the first mold space, the sleeve liner having an inner surface formed by spaced apart, axially extending parallel grooves positioned between axially extending parallel substantially flat surface regions for contacting the outer surface of the tubing, the axial grooves providing a flow path to circulate fluid therethrough to form a non-rotating fluid bearing between the tubing and the liner, in which the sleeve liner comprises a mold insert formed by having bonded a rubber/elastomeric material to a flexible fiber, mesh or fabric reinforcing element adapted to encompass the tubing, and in which the flat surface regions of the fluid bearing-shaped inner surface of the liner are formed by parallel spaced apart axial sections of the rubber/elastomeric material bonded to the reinforcing element of the mold insert, inserting a resinous molding material in the mold space to fill the first mold space and bond the molding material to at least a portion of the sleeve liner; providing a mold release material in the mold space that inhibits bonding of the sleeve liner to the tubing; curing the resinous molding material in the first mold space to form a drill pipe protector sleeve in situ around the tubing; and removing the mold from its position around the tubing to thereby provide a molded non-rotating drill pipe protector sleeve having an inner surface providing a circumferentially-reinforced non-rotating fluid bearing formed by the liner to which the sleeve has been molded and bonded.