New Mexico contractor’s portable pipe handling machines boost efficiency and reduce injury risks to employees on job sites.
When oilfield workers get hurt, their hands and fingers are most at risk. In fact, hand and finger injuries accounted for nearly 38 percent of all recorded lost-time incidents in 2014, according to the International Association of Drilling Contractors — which explains one of several reasons why Longhorn Tubular Services owns 10 pipe handling machines manufactured by Pipehandler Oilfield Systems.
“To a great degree, our machines minimize our rig employees’ exposure to injuries while performing pipe handling operations,” says Bruce Sharp, who established Longhorn Tubular in Hobbs, New Mexico, in 2011. “And because of these machines, employees also don’t have to do nearly the amount of lifting they’d otherwise do, which limits their exposure to back strains and other injuries.”
Longhorn Tubular started out as a provider of pipe laydown and pickup services to customers in the Permian Basin in west Texas and southeastern New Mexico. Over the years, the company expanded and diversified; it now provides oilfield trucking services as well as tubular goods and equipment rentals for well servicing and work-over operations, says Sharp, the company’s owner and president.
PRODUCTIVITY AND EFFICIENCY
While safety was a big consideration, it wasn’t the only reason Sharp opted to invest in Pipehandler units. Productivity and efficiency also influenced his decision, he notes. “One thing I really liked about the units is that they’re totally self-contained,” Sharp explains. “That allows you to move it and set it up with one man, with no forklift or more employees required.”
Sharp also cites the unit’s ability to reach up to 20-foot-high rig floors, which makes the machine more versatile. “At the time, other similar equipment wasn’t functional at that height,” he notes. “Blowout preventers and frac valve configurations can elevate rig floors pretty high, so we need to be able to raise pipe that high.”
Moreover, the Pipehandler machines can work from any side of a work-over rig, which gives contractors like Longhorn Tubular more flexibility on congested work sites. “You can walk between the unit and the rig floor,” he says. “It does not obstruct the side where you’re working.”
Sharp also cites the unit’s elevated operator station, which provides the operator with a clean line of sight while running the machine. “On some other companies’ machines, the operator is stationed away from the machine or operates it remotely, and I personally don’t like that,” he says. In addition, the machine eliminates the need for cable-type or bucket lifting devices, which expose workers to a higher risk of injury.
For added flexibility, the Pipehandler unit can pick up pipe from racks, whether they’re located on the right or left side of the conveyor table/boom. The unit can handle pipe (most of them about 30 to 32 feet long) up to 5 1/2 inches in diameter and weighing up to 2,500 pounds, and works at rig floor heights as low as 3 feet and as high as 20 feet. With frameworks constructed out of structural tube steel, the unit weighs about 7 tons and measures nearly 50 feet long. Sharp says his workers tow the unit, which features a gooseneck hitch, with a 1-ton dually pickup truck. Setup or takedown time? About 30 minutes.
OPERATION OF THE MACHINE
A 54.9 hp, air-cooled diesel engine made by Deutz AG provides power for the unit’s hydraulic systems. Here’s how the machine works: A conveyor bed equipped with two metal arms tilts toward a pipe rack, and the arms lift a joint of pipe off the rack. (The rack must be at least 36 inches high, and the unit can lift pipe that’s up to 60 inches above ground level.) Then the bed tilts back to its regular position, cradling the joint of pipe. After that, hydraulic-powered pistons push the far end of the boom up to the rig floor height.
Then the operator activates a hydraulic “glove” located near the bottom of the trough, which grips the bottom end of the pipe and pushes it up the conveyor bed. When the far end of the pipe reaches the rig floor, rig personnel latch it in an elevator, which lifts it up and into place. Total cycle time? About one joint of pipe every 30 seconds, though Sharp says the machine sometimes can load pipe even faster than that if the rig floor isn’t very high.
RELIABILITY OF THE MACHINE
Sharp also cites the unit’s reliability, noting that equipment downtime is a profitability killer that can also kill chances for repeat business. “Time is money,” he notes. “You’re depending on all the pieces (on a job site) working together and if one piece breaks down, everything else potentially has to wait for it to be repaired, so dependability is pretty important.
“The Pipehandler machines are pretty well engineered,” he continues. “All the hydraulics are powered by an air-cooled Deutz diesel engine, which we’ve found to be very reliable. If you keep the machine’s moving parts lubricated and give it a little TLC, these machines are pretty dang reliable.”
At roughly $190,000 per machine, plus the purchase of a truck to tow it, the units represent a significant capital expenditure. But Sharp says they’ve proved to be worthwhile purchases. “They’re the reason our company exists,” he says. “At the time we bought the first one, we only offered pickup and lay-down services. You take a risk every time you invest money in equipment, but this was a very good investment.”
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