Automated Roughneck

The Automated Hydraulic Roughneck (AHR) enhances safety on the drilling floor, increases productivity, reduces costs, and lowers tubular wear and tear.

The AHR is equipped with an insert holder that automatically adapts to different sizes, eliminating the need to replace inserts during operation. As a result, it makes possible the automatic handling of tubulars from 3½” to 20″.

The AHR is designed for easy maintenance and its hydraulic torque piston rods are different sizes to ensure the torque applied to tighten a tubular is less than the torque to loosen it.

Conventional mechanized roughnecks operate remotely, using pneumatic or electrohydraulic controls, and are not automated.  A skilled operator must give full attention to manipulating the roughneck’s machinery and is susceptible to fatigue and human error.  The AHR operates hands-free or sequentially, in semi-automated mode, with the turn of a switch on a control panel.

The AHR’s pipe handling makeup and breakout works as following: 1) The clamps move to well center and can shift higher/lower on the tubular to fit the tool joint connection; 2) The clamps tighten over the tubular joints and; 3) The top clamp rotates to tighten/loosen the tubular.

In hands-free mode, a computer initiates each step in sequence. As any time, a driller can switch to semi-automatic mode to monitor and initiate each step of the process.