A pipe handling method to move the tubulars used from a horizontal position on a piperack adjacent the well bore to a vertical position over the wall centre or a mousehole which utilizes bicep and forearm assemblies and a gripper head for attachment to a tubular. The path of the tubular being moved is close to the conventional path of the tubular utilizing known cable transfer techniques so as to allow access to the drill floor through the V-door of the drill rig.
An apparatus for taking out laundry articles from a laundry pile by a pull gripper which is arranged for seizing one or more laundry articles in the laundry pile, and a lifting mechanism arranged for lifting the pull gripper and the minor batch of laundry articles clear above the pile. The lifting mechanism is arranged for conveying the pull gripper and the laundry articles to a position above a support, and the pull gripper is arranged for releasing the laundry articles above the support whereby the laundry articles are deposited on the support. The laundry articles are loosened from each other which facilitates the separation of the individual laundry articles from the pile. According to the invention the pull gripper is moved by the lifting mechanism as a restricted, guided movement by a combined vertical and horizontal movement whereby a more efficient loosening of the laundry articles is obtained as well as a higher degree of repetitive accuracy.
An apparatus for loading pipes onto processing machines, in particular pipe-bending machines, is provided which comprises a handler arm (8) consisting of a first segment (9) and a second segment (10) disposed in succession, and kinematic members (12) adapted to determine a fixed ratio between the rotation angles of said segments about the respective hinging axes.
A mobile rig for angle drilling comprises a tiltable drilling mast and a drill pipe storage rack both mounted on a land vehicle, with a carriage movable lengthwise on a track extending alongside the mast. When the mast is in an oblique position for angle drilling, an articulating arm on the carriage retrieves drill pipes individually from the pipe storage rack, swings them to a position above the mast and lowers them into alignment with a drilling head. The storage rack is moved longitudinally as the drill pipe supply is depleted so that the arm can grasp each drill pipes close to its center of gravity. In an alternative embodiment, one of the elements of the articulating arm is extensible.
A blast hole drill with a drill head mounted on a mast has a pipe carousel on the drill deck which holds drill pipe along the length of the deck. A pipe handling arm mechanism has a lower arm portion pivotally mounted on the deck and an upper arm portion pivotally mounted to the lower arm portion. The upper arm portion has jaws that grasp a drill pipe. A ram connected to the upper arm portion pivots the arm mechanism until the lower arm portion engages a stop adjacent the mast. The ram thereafter continues to pivot the upper arm portion until a drill pipe carried thereby is aligned on the mast.
A horizontal directional drilling machine including a rod transfer member having a rod retainer that is movable between a first position and a second position. When the rod retainer is in the first position, the rod retainer is adapted to retain a pipe on the transfer member. By contrast, when the rod retainer is in the second position, a rod can be moved from the transfer member without being obstructed by the rod retainer. A sensor is provided for detecting when a pipe is positioned on the pipe transfer member, and for causing the rod retainer to automatically move from the second position to the first position when a rod is detected.
