PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15864203
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-01
Publication Date: 2018-08
Patent Classification: ["166", "291000"]

Abstract:
An improved method and apparatus for dropping a ball, plug or dart during oil and gas well operations (e.g., cementing operations) employs a specially configured valving member with curved and flat portions that alternatively direct fluid flow through a bore or opening in the valving member via an inner channel or around the periphery of the valving member in an outer channel. In one embodiment, the ball(s), dart(s) or plug(s) are contained in a sliding sleeve that shifts position responsive to valve rotation. An optional indicator indicates to a user or operator that a ball or plug has passed a selected one of the valving members.

Claim (Index 11):
A dart and plug dropping head for use in sequentially dropping one or more balls and plugs into a well casing, comprising:\n a) a housing having an inlet at its upper end adapted to be fluidly connected in line with the lower end of a top drive, an outlet generally aligned with the inlet; b) a main flow channel that connects the inlet and the outlet, vertically sliding sleeves dividing the main flow channel into an inner channel and an outer channel; c) one or more valving members spaced between the inlet and the outlet, each valving member having a flow bore, and being movable between open and closed positions; d) the outer channel enabling fluid to bypass a valving member when a valving member is in the closed position; e) wherein fluid flow flows around the valving member via the outer channel when it is in the closed position and through the valving member and inner channel when the valve is in the open position; f) wherein each valving member is configured to support a dart when closed; g) one or more darts in the housing, wherein in the open position each valve flow bore permits a dart to pass therethrough, and circulating fluid to pass downwardly therethrough when a dart is not in the valve flow bore; h) casing having a casing bore and attached to the housing; and i) one or more casing plugs in the casing bore, each casing plug being connectable to one of the darts when a dart is dropped from the house into the casing.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 71.0
- Percentile: 86.0
- Lexical Diversity: 1.69863
- Patent Class: 166.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['15205881', '13603144', '12548577', '14149243', '12956331']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.8254087871871104
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5647039369747707
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.7993383021658764
- Mean Citation Score: 447.904634
- Max Citation Score: 453.79532
- Similarity Product: 439.8524307060361

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 1
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 1
- Combined Label: 1
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test