Solutions & Case Studies
The DynaBearing
Customer: Drilling motor manufacturers and rebuilders
The Application: Many of the wells produced today are drilled using some form of downhole motor. There are two basic motor design concepts: Sealed and mud lubricated. The sealed motors are lubricated with oil, and as their name implies, are sealed from the flow of drilling mud. The bearings in a mud lubricated motor operating with a small percentage of the drilling mud diverted into the bearings section for lubrication and cooling. The motors convert the linear flow of drilling mud into rotary motion and torque. The thrust bearing in these motors must carry both weight of the drill string and the cutting force of the drill bit on the bottom.
The Problem: The restricted ID and OD boundary dimensions of downhole tools make it very difficult to apply standard catalogued thrust bearings. In addition, the plastic cages and 52100 through hardened race materials used in these standard bearings were not ideally suited to the high temperatures and impact loading experienced during operation. Out of shear necessity, our customers were previously forced to try manufacturing their own thrust bearings. Some customers were successful while others struggled with the quality assurance issues involved in heat treat and the precision required. They were also having problems designing a bearing with the required thrust capacity.
The Product developed: A unique two piece machined thrust bearing cage design was produced that provided availability of a locally manufactured maximum capacity thrust bearings in a wide range of ID and OD sizes. Races of customized boundary dimensions were also made available in Carburized grade steels. Single, tandem, and multi-high stacks are regularly designed to meet our customer’s ever changing demand for downhole thrust bearings. The demand for our DynaBearing product has grown steadily with increasing customer satisfaction.
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