New drum handling tool
This Liftomatic Ergo-1000-OBS allows the operator automatically to pick, lift, weigh, and move plastic, fiber, and steel drums.
Using special load-cell technology, the weighing device has zero-out, auto shut-off, metric and imperial measurement capabilities, and can be ordered with an optional printing feature. Accuracy is within 1 lb, or 0.25%, up to 1,000 lb.
This transportable drum handling device is equipped with the exclusive Parrot-Beak mechanical clamping system that engages the top lip of the container, helping assure a safe and reliable pickup each time.
A rubber belt cradle cushions the side of the drum during pickup and transport, protecting labels, printing, and bar codes against scratching.
The new tool is available with options such as power lift, spark resistance, and wheel choices for varying floor conditions, and it comes in lift heights of 20-38 in. above floor level.
Source: Liftomatic Material Handling Inc., 700 Dartmouth Lane, Buffalo Grove, IL 60089.
New unbonded flexible pipe for onshore field uses
Product N, an unbonded flexible pipe, is suited to onshore oil and gas field uses.
This product, based on traditional flexible pipe technology, uses steel strips to act as reinforcement layers. Its patented layered polymer and steel construction provides corrosion resistance to internal fluids and external environmental conditions.
It is designed using the methods and design factors of API 17J, an offshore flexible pipe specification.
Source: Wellstream International Ltd., Wellstream House, Wincomblee Rd., Walker Riverside, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 3PF, UK.
Single coiled tubing run stimulates multiple intervals
FASTFrac Systems, a portfolio of coiled tubing fracture systems, selectively stimulate previously bypassed pay, providing an alternative to conventional stage fracture techniques.
Operators can isolate and treat multiple intervals on one trip into the well, cutting workover costs and reducing the total time of completion, the firm says. The coiled tubing conveyed systems helps optimize production quickly, because kill weight fluid is no longer needed to contact production intervals. Wells can be completed and stimulated live, with no need for well kill.
FASTFrac tools incorporate an Auto-J system that allows coiled tubing to push or pull the systems into or from a wellbore. Upper and lower packoff elements isolate one or multiple production intervals for treatment. Once the first treatment is completed, the FASTFrac system can be unset and repositioned across another production interval to start another treatment.
The company says both the FASTFrac Packer and Bridge Plug System and the FASTFrac Fixed Straddle System provide operators with an economic technique for stimulating small pockets of gas and oil that used to be left behind.
For example, gas production on a well in East Texas tripled after a recent treatment of two zones with the FASTFrac Packer and Bridge Plug. The ability to reposition the system multiple times in one trip with unlimited isolation interval spacing gave the operator flexibility that was previously unavailable. This helped to reduce time spent on the fractures; turnaround time was cut by 23 days compared with previous fracture methods.
In the Raton basin, the FASTFrac Fixed Straddle System has been used successfully on more than 100 wells to isolate and treat more than 300 zones.
By optimizing the frac design with pinpoint isolation, production has been increased. Meanwhile, well completion costs are reduced by completing multiple treatments in a single day, the firm pointed out.
Source: Baker Oil Tools, 9100 Emmott Rd., Houston, TX 77040.
Real time decimeter navigation for aerial surveys
VueStar, a global navigation system configured specifically for all aerial survey applications, couples dual frequency global positioning system technology with the global satellite based StarFire service to provide real time decimeter navigation and positioning accuracy.
VueStar offers aerial photogrammetry, light detection and ranging and synthetic aperture radar surveyors' decimeter-positioning accuracy in real time, improving their ability to return customer surveys in days rather than weeks.
VueStar provides GPS navigation enhanced to decimeter accuracy by the globally available StarFire network, in a small convenient form-factor.
The company says it navigation solution meets the decimeter level accuracy needed for positioning airborne interferometric SAR sensors and is comparable with the postprocessed differential solution with reference to a ground based station located 100-200 km away.
VueStar utilizes this firm's SF-2050M dual frequency GPS receiver providing position and velocity as often as 10 times a second with decimeter accuracy.All necessary cabling, a combined GPS/StarFire aircraft certified antenna, internal data logging, event input, 1 pps output, and a 1 year global StarFire license are included in the system package.
The StarFire system utilizes a network of more than 50 GPS reference stations around the world to compute GPS satellite orbit and clock corrections. These corrections are broadcast via three geosynchronous satellites to the GPS receiver enabling precise real-time navigation without the need for a ground base station.
Source: NavCom Technology Inc., 20780 Madrona Ave., Torrance, CA 90503.
