Oil Exploration

Well Drilling
All over the world, ServoCon ALPHA products are being used every day to find and refine the oil and gas the world depends on, to generate the power that industry needs, and to manufacture the chemicals and petrochemicals that are essential components of a multitude of items we take for granted.

Established in 1979, ServoCon ALPHA designs and manufactures high quality, reliable, state-of-the-art control systems for Gas and Steam Turbines, as well as control systems for plant, station and process applications, and Emergency Shutdown Systems.

Drilling applications using high-powered drilling motors for every formation and bit type utilize an adaptation of the Moineau principle in their power sections to convert hydraulic power from the drilling fluid into mechanical power, which drives the bit. Motors are available in a wide variety of sizes and power sections to provide the right combination of torque, speed and flow capabilities for every formation and bit type.

Sub-assemblies of each motor include a dump valve which is a hydraulically actuated valve assembly at the top of each tool allowing the drill string to fill or drain when tools are tripping in or out of the hole. When pumps are on, the valve automatically closes to direct all mud flow through the motor.

Moineau principle
In 1930, the worlds very first Progressing Cavity Pump (PCP) was designed by René Moineau, the founder and original inventor. A PCP consists of a single helical rotor which rotates inside a double internal helical stator. The rotor is precisely machined from high strength steel the stator is molded of resilient elastomer. This makes the unit pump viscous fluids. Completion for oil production, the stator is fixed to the tubing and the rotor is attached to a sucker rod string. The pump is driven by rotation of the sucker rod string. Large particle handling : The rotors are plated with a hard material to resist abrasion. Abrasive particles which are caught between the rotor and the stator are pressed into the elastic wall of the stator and then expelled into the next cavity when the rotor has passed. The flow rate is proportional to pump speed as the PCP is a volumetric pump, the flow rate depends only on the rotor speed. Therefore the pump can be exactly matched to the well inflow rate for optimum production.

Vibrasize Equipment
The process utilizes Seismic reflection profiling, successfully used by Cornell researchers elsewhere in the world. It is a technique to image the Earth by sending energy waves into the ground and having them reflect back to monitors on the surface. The energy can be from explosive charges or large vibrating trucks, equipped with Vibrasize machines.

Vibrasize machines have servovalves and large hydraulic cylinders or actuating rams that tamp the earth as the machine rides over a test site. The result is an acoustic map that computers transform into a two-dimensional image showing structures deep within the earth. Cornell scientists pioneered the use of this technique to systematically explore the continents.

[ < back to control systems ]