Top drive

A top drive is a mechanical device on a drilling rig that

provides clockwise torque to the drill string to facilitate
the process of drilling a borehole. It is an alternative to
rotary table. It is located at the swivel place and allows a
vertical movement up and down the derrick.
An advantage of a top drive is that it allows the drilling rig
to drill longer sections of a stand of drill pipe. A rotary table type rig can only drill 30-foot (9.1 m) (single drill pipe
respectively) sections of drill pipe while a top drive can
drill 6090-foot (1827 m) stands (double-triple respectively. A triple being three joints of drillpipe screwed together.), depending on the drilling rig type. Having longer
sections of drill pipe allows the drilling rigs to drill deeper
sections of the wellbore, thus making fewer connections
of drill pipe. Another advantage of top drive systems is
time eciency. When the bit progresses under a kelly,
the entire string must be withdrawn from the well bore
for the length of the kelly drive. With a top drive, the
draw works only has to pick a new stand from the rack
and make two joints. The savings in time reduces the
risk of a stuck string from annulus clogging.
Several dierent kinds of top drives exist, and are usually
classied based on the Safe Working Load (SWL) of
the tool, and the size and type of motor used to rotate the
drillpipe. For oshore and heavy duty use, a 1000 short
ton, top drive would be used, where a smaller land rig may
only require a 500.99 Motors are available in all sizes, and
come in Hydraulically powered, AC, or DC motors.

References
Schlumberger Oileld Glossary
Tesco Corporation
Canrig Drilling Technology
LeTourneau Technologies (now Cameron)
National Oilwell Varco
Warrior Rig
GDS International

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Top drive Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top%20drive?oldid=654164449 Contributors: Underpants, JamesBWatson, TXiKiBoT,

Truthanado, Wwww 1999, Addbot, Al Maghi, Fasmike3, Jassir ben Hussein, Ricktechguy, Bentec GmbH, Jawbone, N.etheridge, AutomatedRig, Crimish010, PhillipHansel, Arjitgidwani, WillowTW, Wora and Anonymous: 7

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