GB800299A - Improvements in or relating to hydraulic turbine units for turbine drilling systems - Google Patents

Abstract

800,299. Lubricating. DE BATAAFSCHE PETROLEUM MAATSCHAPPIJ N.V. July 23, 1956 [Sept. 30, 1955], No. 27889/55. Class 12 (3). [Also in Groups XXIV and XXVI] The invention relates to a contra-rotating hydraulic turbine for use in deep-well boring (see Group XXVI). The thrust bearing pads 106 and the radial bearing 124 on which the stub shaft 104 at the lower end of the turbine rotor 4 is mounted are lubricated by means of lubricant contained in the bellows member 118 which is subject on its outer surface to pressure of the turbine working fluid exhaust through an orifice in the cap 111. The bellows member is filled through a channel 121 normally closed by a plug 122. Speed reduction gearing connecting the turbine rotor and stator is disposed in a casing 15 at the upper end of the turbine rotor and stator assembly (which is disposed in a vertical position). The gearing is lubricated by means of lubricant contained in a flexible bellows 46 which is subject on its external surface to pressure of the turbine working fluid by means of apertures 41 in the cap member 40. The bellows is filled with lubricant through a port normally closed by a plug 53. The drill bit shaft 5 is rotatably mounted within the outer housing 7 by means of bearings 21, 22 and 153 and the bearings are lubricated by means of lubricant contained between the annular bellows 160, 161 which are joined at their upper ends by a plate 162, the lubricant chamber being subjected externally to the pressure of the turbine working fluid. The chamber is filled with lubricant through a bore normally closed by a plug 168. The lubricant in the speed-reducing gear may be caused to flow through a heat-exchanger device as shown in Fig. 9, the heat being transferred to the working fluid flowing to the turbine. The lubricant is forced upwardly through a spiral passage 219 formed between tubular parts 211, 212 where it is cooled by turbine working fluid flowing downwardly on the outside of the tubular part 211, the cooled lubricant returning to the gearing downwardly through the central tube 212. Flow of lubricant is caused by pressure due to gear teeth moving into engagement and by motion due to gear teeth moving out of engagement. A bellows 215 between the tube 211 and the gear casing 15 acts as a pressure-balancing device to maintain the pressure of the lubricant within the heat-exchanger and gear casing equal to that of the turbine working fluid. Specification 755,207, [Group XXI], is referred to.