|
Clay Whip Reamer -- Patent Pending
This
design prevents "clay balling". The reamer spins relative to the clay
cuttings. The clay cuttings are blended into the fluid and are
therefore carried out of the hole in the resulting slurry.
Features and Benefits that
prevent "clay balling"
High Velocity Fluid Jets - Drilling fluid is jetted at high velocity radially from
several locations along the length of the shaft.
Minimal Surface Area — Using only two wings having a slender silhouette, the
surface area of the reamer is minimized to reduce the number of square inches
to which the clay can adhere.
Knives - The “knives” on the forward end of the shaft rotate
with the shaft to continuously slice virgin clay into cuttings that are exposed
to the jetted fluid.
Unmatched Mixers - The mixer wings at the rear of the shaft rotate with
the shaft and are unmatched in profile and therefore swipe different profiles
through the mixture of cuttings and fluid during rotation. The differing
profiles cause the mixture to shear, smear, separate and rejoin, thereby
exposing the microscopic clay platelets to the drilling fluid all along the
way. This action whips the mixture into a slurry just as a baker’s mixer turns
dry flour and milk into batter. We want “batter”.
Wobble - The 2-wing design is not fully supported in the tunnel
radially and when the wings approach the 3 and 9 o’clock positions, gravity pulls the
shaft off-center. As the wings approach the 6 o’clock position, they slap hard
into the tunnel wall and throw the shaft back toward center. This abrupt
wobbling action helps the mixer wings shake free from the sticky grasp of the
clay.
|
