Controllably-Deformable Inflatable Sleeve, Production Method Thereof and Use of Same For Pressure Metering Applications

• US 20100038860A1
• Filed: 12/17/2007
• Published: 02/18/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Francis Cour
• Original Assignee: Francis Cour
• Inventors: Cour, Francis
• Granted Patent: US 8,978,754 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 277/338
• CPC Class Codes: E21B 33/1277 characterised by the construction or fixation of the sleeve
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/49863 with prestressing of part

Abstract

An inflatable sleeve or packer includes a mandrel that extends along a longitudinal axis and a sealed inflatable jacket which is connected to the mandrel and selectively adopts a rest configuration or a maximum inflation configuration. The sleeve also includes a restraining sheath which covers the inflatable jacket and is at least partially formed by essentially inextensible fibres including peripheral fibres which each extend around the longitudinal axis, the peripheral fibres adopting a pleated configuration for the rest configuration of the jacket and a stretched configuration for the maximum inflation configuration thereof.

Claims

1-10. -10. (canceled)

11. An inflatable sleeve comprising a mandrel extending along a longitudinal axis and a sealed inflatable jacket connected to the mandrel and selectively adopting a rest configuration or a maximum inflation configuration, a retaining sheath covering the inflatable jacket and including a flexible structure at least partially formed of fibers substantially inextensible, said fibers including at least peripheral fibers each one of which extends around the longitudinal axis by forming with the longitudinal axis an angle of at least equal to 70 degrees, and said peripheral fibers adopting a pleated configuration for the rest configuration of the inflatable jacket and a stretched configuration for the maximum inflation configuration of the inflatable jacket.

12. The inflatable sleeve of claim 11, wherein said angle is at least equal to 80 degrees.

13. The inflatable sleeve according to claim 11, wherein the flexible structure further comprises longitudinal fibers intersecting with the peripheral fibers and extending in a direction at least substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis.

14. The inflatable sleeve according to claim 11, wherein said substantially inextensible fibers are textile fibers.

15. The inflatable sleeve according to claim 11, wherein the flexible structure further comprises peripheral elastic yarns each one of which extends around the longitudinal axis and solicits the peripheral fibers in stretched configuration towards the pleated configuration.

16. The inflatable sleeve according to claim 15, wherein the elastic yarns are interlaced with longitudinal fibers.

17. The inflatable sleeve as claimed in claim 11, wherein the flexible structure belongs to an elastic belt with a textile matrix helically wound around the inflatable jacket.

18. The inflatable sleeve according to claim 17, wherein the textile matrix of the belt comprises warp yarns forming said peripheral fibers, weft yarns interlaced with the warp yarns and forming the longitudinal fibers, and elastic yarns at least substantially parallel to said warp yarns.

19. A pressure metering sensor including an inflatable sleeve as claimed in claim 11.

20. A method for manufacturing an inflatable sleeve comprising a mandrel extending along a longitudinal axis and a sealed inflatable jacket selectively adopting a rest configuration or a maximum inflation configuration, said method comprising the steps of providing the mandrel, providing the inflatable jacket and mounting the inflatable jacket on the mandrel, manufacturing a model on a scale of an inflatable sleeve having a form desired for the inflatable sleeve in a fully inflated configuration and having a longitudinal axis;

helically winding on the model and in a state of full elongation, an elastic matrix element with textile backing;

unwinding said elastic matrix element with said textile backing of the model by driving said model in rotation at constant angular velocity around its longitudinal axis; and

using said elastic matrix element with said textile backing at constant forward movement speed, while being unwound from the model, either to manufacture, by knitting or weaving if said elastic element is yarn, a retaining sheath intended to cover the inflatable jacket, or, if said elastic element is a matrix, in order to wind said elastic element directly onto the inflatable sleeve arranged in rest configuration in the vicinity of the model and driven in rotation around its longitudinal axis at the same angular velocity as the model.

21. Method according to claim 20, wherein the elastic element with said textile backing is an elastic belt with textile matrix wound directly onto the inflatable sleeve, further comprising arranging the respective longitudinal axes of the sleeve and of the model parallel to each other at a distance at most equal to a circumference of the sleeve, and driving the sleeve and the model in rotation in the opposite direction or in the same direction according to whether or not the portion of the belt connecting the model to the sleeve crosses a plane passing through said longitudinal axes.