Insulated Drill Pipe

Sponsor: Drill Cool Systems, Inc.

Team: Thermo Drill Inovations

Coach: Geoff Germane

Students: Kent Fairbourn, Shalindra Herath, Jed Parker, Mitchell Woolf

Insulated Drill Pipe (IDP) has been developed by Drill Cool Systems, Inc. to provide a medium to control the high temperatures encountered while drilling for deep oil and gas reserves throughout the world. However the current manufacturing process for the IDP is costly. TermoDrill Innovations has been tasked to refine the process by which insulation is added to the IDP assembly and by doing so reduce the costs associated with the labor and the wastes generated during fabrication.

The Capstone team successfully studied the insulation material and confirmed its ability to withstand the 350 F / 19,000 psi environment. Additionally they built and tested a prototype that could inject the two part insulation into the part drill pipe assembly that resulted in a significant reduction is insulation waste product while still minimizing labor.

The new process can be fully operated by one person.