Highlights
Highlights
Benefits
- Ensure improved core sample quality and quantity
- Reduce nonproductive time by minimizing the risk of core jamming
- Ensure high activation reliability with no need to pull off bottom
Applications
- Enhanced coring operations
- Soft, loose, or unconsolidated formations
- Fractured formations with a high potential for core jamming
Overview
Recover core samples from your soft or unconsolidated formations, with no loss of quality or integrity, with the HydroLift™ full-closure catcher system from Baker Hughes. Designed for unobstructed core entry, the HydroLift system decreases jamming risks, reducing downtime and lowering your overall operating costs.
Effective core collection in challenging formations
With unrestricted core entry into its inner barrel, the HydroLift system protects the quality of soft or loose samples while preventing jams as the core enters the catcher. A clam-shell, full-closure system captures loose materials, while a secondary, spring-type core catcher activates if hard, consolidated core material is encountered at the end of a core run. These catchers ensure a reliable inner tube seal, which prevents core loss when tripping out of the hole.
Collect your core samples with a simple, efficient process that begins with circulating drilling fluid through the inner tube to clear the assembly of any fill. A ball dropped from surface diverts the mud flow through the inner and outer barrel annulus to provide cooling and cuttings removal from the core head.
Once coring is complete, the coring assembly remains on bottom while a second ball is dropped to activate the HydroLift system. Pressure from the drilling fluid lifts the inner barrel, which pulls the HydroLift system’s smooth, core-protecting sleeve out of the catcher assembly. A heavy spring and cam then forcefully closes the full-closure clam shells and seals the inner tube.
The HydroLift system is fully compatible with the Baker Hughes HT Series™ coring system’s HT30 and HT60 core barrels, which cut 4-in. and 51⁄4-in. diameter core samples, respectively. The HT30 outer barrel coring system provides a trip distance of derrick height, while the HT60 barrel system allows for longer core runs.
For added protection against core washing and drilling fluid contamination in your collected cores, run the HydroLift system with the CoreGard™ low-invasion system.
Contact us today to learn how the HydroLift full-closure catcher system can help you efficiently collect core samples in your unconsolidated formations.