The civil long-bore coiled-tubing plant. The CS-410 plant sent to utility and aquifer ground: a steerable coiled-tubing bore in three sizes that installs conduit, characterizes the ground and leaves a completion in place.
Four figures that size the family, and four reasons a utility, civil or water buyer puts it on an alignment.
Reel, straightener, clamp-and-push injector and entry guide are the CS-410's. The civil job changes the head kit, the fluid package and the article left in the ground, and a spare on the shelf serves both applications.
Pilot bores of Ø85, Ø108 and Ø149 mm, with the push, the reel and the completion following from each, from a 57 mm service completion to DN140.
Water, bentonite and a pH buffer, nothing unlisted in the tank, and the loss to the formation measured on every bore by two flowmeters.
A person at the console steers every bore and nobody enters it. There is no radio and no GPS aboard, and on loss of the data path to the head, advance stops.
Values run CS-411A, CS-411B, CS-411C, grouped as the family, tube and bore, push, downhole, the drilling fluid, the reel and tube life, entry, reaction and transport, and guidance and safety.
The familyTube and borePushDownholeDrilling fluidReel and tube lifeEntry, reaction and transportGuidance and safety
| Parameter | Value | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Sizes | CS-411A micro · CS-411B utility · CS-411C industrial | design value, the three-size ladder |
| Plant | The CS-410 surface plant: reel, straightener, clamp-and-push injector and entry guide | design value; one machine in its civil application |
| What changes from CS-410 | Head kit, fluid package and completion goods | design value |
| Injector | Dual-clamp continuous advance | design value, the advance subsystem |
| What enters the ground | The string and its bottom-hole assembly; nobody enters the bore | design value; the plant stays on the surface |
| Design case | Freeze–thaw ground, to −40 °C | design case for the Underground family |
| Parameter | Value | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Coiled tubing | 38.10 × 3.18 mm · 60.33 × 4.78 mm · 88.90 × 6.35 mm | design value, CT-80 grade in every size |
| Tube yield strength | 552 MPa | design value, CT-80 grade |
| Tube bore | 31.74 mm · 50.77 mm · 76.20 mm | calculated from the tube sections |
| Tube axial yield | 192.6 kN · 460.5 kN · 909.0 kN | calculated |
| Pilot bore | Ø85 mm · Ø108 mm · Ø149 mm | calculated; the pilot is sized by hole cleaning alone |
| Radial annulus, pilot bore | 23.45 mm · 23.84 mm · 30.05 mm | calculated |
| Ream pass | Ø96 mm · Ø149 mm · Ø216 mm | design value; the completion is cut by a separate reaming pass, permitted separately |
| Service completion | 57 mm · DN90 · DN140 | design value; DN90 and DN140 fixed by owner decision |
| Parameter | Value | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Design push | 34.3 kN · 110.3 kN · 237.3 kN | calculated: the helix yield cap divided by 2.0 |
| Governing push limit | The tube yielding inside its own helix | calculated; the clamp does not govern in any size |
| Parameter | Value | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Bottom-hole assembly | Positive-displacement mud motor with a bent housing | design value, all three sizes |
| Jetting-only string | Kept for loose to medium sand and silt | design value; a site decision taken against a geotechnical report |
| Toolface | Electrically driven orienting sub, closed loop on a downhole toolface measurement | design value; nothing at surface rotates the string |
| Survey instrument | Gyro, continuous, with stationary north-seeking re-references | design value; a gyro needs no non-magnetic spacing |
| Downhole power | Turbine-alternator in the mud stream | design value; tool power is generated downhole |
| On loss of the data path to the head | Advance stops and the string is pulled back | design rule |
| Release sub | In the string on every bore, in every size | design rule; a string that cannot be rotated cannot be backed off |
| Recovery means | Overpull, then a deliberate release | design value; the string cannot be rotated, backed off or jarred |
| Parameter | Value | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Formulation | Water, sodium bentonite and a soda-ash pH buffer | design rule; nothing else enters the tank in aquifer contact unless it carries a third-party drinking-water listing |
| Maximum mud density | SG 1.05 | operating limit, held by mud balance on site |
| Circulation | Never stopped with the string in an open lateral | operating limit |
| Loss to the formation | Measured on every bore by delivery and return flowmeters | design value, the instrument schedule |
| Surface expression of fluid | Zero; the inadvertent-returns response starts immediately | operating limit |
| Parameter | Value | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Reel core radius | 1.00 m · 1.20 m · 1.70 m | calculated |
| Reel outside diameter, layers | 2.50 m, 5 · 3.18 m, 5 · 4.73 m, 6 | calculated |
| Bend strain across the drum | 1.91 % · 2.51 % · 2.61 % | calculated at the inner wrap |
| Tube life available | 27.6 · 16.7 · 15.5 trips | calculated, full trips |
| Tube life required | 15.0 trips | design requirement, every size |
| Tube record | A fatigue ledger that belongs to the tube and follows it between jobs | design value; the tube is a tracked consumable |
| Reel module | Integrated · Integrated · Demountable | design value |
| Parameter | Value | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Conductor bore at the entry guide | Capped at the pilot bore: Ø85 mm · Ø108 mm · Ø149 mm | interface requirement at the entry guide |
| Lateral support pitch, oversize conductor | 1.26 m · 1.73 m · 2.46 m | calculated: Euler half-wave at twice the design push; supports built into the entry module |
| Free span at the design push | 1.79 m · 2.45 m · 3.49 m | calculated, Euler pinned-pinned |
| Reaction anchors | 2 at 25 kN · 6 at 25 kN · 6 at 100 kN | design value, anchor points on the frame |
| Transport | Single load · Single load · Three-load spread | design value |
| CS-411C reel on the road | Over-height at a 4.73 m outside diameter; travels as its own module | design value, the over-height route |
| CS-411C reaction | The demounted reel is not counted as sliding resistance | design rule at the anchor interface |
| Parameter | Value | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Emissions | No radio and no GPS aboard | design value, in any size |
| Operator | A person at the console steers every bore | design value |
CS-410 and Aquifer CS-411 are one machine in two applications. Above the ground line the hardware is shared; below it the head, the fluid and the article left behind belong to the civil job.
One rig, one drive and one console. The commonality is mechanical, down to the spares on the shelf.
A positive-displacement motor with a bent housing turns the bit, and an orienting sub sets toolface at the head. A jetting-only string is kept for loose sand and silt.
The drilling fluid carries cuttings back along the annulus to surface settlement, and the service completion goes into a bore opened by a separate reaming pass.
A long civil bore asks the drive for endurance and an accurate stroke count rather than more force, so the injector advances continuously on two clamps, one holding the load while the other resets. Everything above the ground line is the machine on the CS-410 sheet. Everything below it is on this one.
The pilot bore names the size, and the tube, the push, the reel and the completion follow from it.
| CS-411A micro | CS-411B utility | CS-411C industrial | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coiled tubing, CT-80 | 38.10 × 3.18 mm | 60.33 × 4.78 mm | 88.90 × 6.35 mm |
| Pilot bore | Ø85 mm | Ø108 mm | Ø149 mm |
| Ream pass, separately permitted | Ø96 mm | Ø149 mm | Ø216 mm |
| Service completion | 57 mm | DN90 | DN140 |
| Design push | 34.3 kN | 110.3 kN | 237.3 kN |
| Reel outside diameter, layers | 2.50 m, 5 | 3.18 m, 5 | 4.73 m, 6 |
| Reel module | Integrated | Integrated | Demountable |
| Transport | Single load | Single load | Three-load spread |
One tube grade runs through the ladder. What moves with size is the push the tube can carry inside its helix, the reel its fatigue demands, and the way the plant travels: the largest size carries its reel as a demountable module and moves as three loads.
Push a coiled tube along a horizontal hole and it goes sinusoidal, then helical. The tube yielding inside its own helix is the limit, and the design push is half of it.
| Size | Tube axial yield | Design push |
|---|---|---|
| CS-411A | 192.6 kN | 34.3 kN |
| CS-411B | 460.5 kN | 110.3 kN |
| CS-411C | 909.0 kN | 237.3 kN |
A tube bent into a helix carries bending stress on top of its axial load, and the tube is not empty: on the smallest size, internal pressure alone adds enough effective force to buckle the string from the toe before any push is applied at surface. The helix cap is solved with that pressure-induced effective force in the bending term.
The clamp does not govern in any size, and its conforming dies are retained for tube life, not for capacity.
The pilot is sized by hole cleaning alone. The service completion follows on a separate reaming pass, with its own permit and its own fluid.
A completion article does not travel down the tube. The tube bores are 31.74, 50.77 and 76.20 mm and the service completions are 57 mm, DN90 and DN140, so the completion goes into the ground behind the string, after the reaming pass has opened the bore to Ø96, Ø149 or Ø216 mm.
In the pilot bore the fluid carries cuttings back along the annulus to surface settlement, and the annulus at the entry guide is the only place the returns can be observed.
Each pilot bore is sized to keep its own hole clean, not to fit the completion that follows it.
Cut separately and permitted separately, so the fluid each pass puts into the ground is reported on its own.
The drilling fluid is written as an exclusion rule, not a recipe: water, sodium bentonite and a soda-ash pH buffer, and nothing else in aquifer contact unless it carries a third-party drinking-water listing.
Fifteen classes of additive are assessed against aquifer contact and eight are excluded outright, and the exclusions are written down so that the fluid actually mixed can be audited against them. The rate of penetration is treated as an environmental control as well as a hydraulic one: at a fixed loss fraction, the volume lost is proportional to the hours the string spends in the hole.
A coiled tube transmits no controlled rotation, and a long string winds up under torque. So the motor, the toolface control and the power all sit at the head.
A positive-displacement mud motor with a bent housing turns the bit in all three sizes, and its reactive torque twists the string. Toolface is set by an electrically driven orienting sub that closes its loop on a downhole toolface measurement, because the string would absorb any reference taken at surface. Power for the tools is generated at the head by a turbine-alternator in the mud stream.
| Formation | Jetting-only string |
|---|---|
| Loose to medium sand, silt | Adequate: the jet erodes and the string is advanced by push alone |
| Soft to firm clay | Marginal: it erodes slowly and the cuttings ball |
| Stiff clay, glacial till | Inadequate: the matrix erodes and the clasts stay |
| Cobbles, boulders | Inadequate and hazardous: the string stops |
| Bedrock | Impossible |
The survey instrument travels with the bottom-hole assembly, and a person at the console steers every bore. When the data path to the head is lost, the bore stops.
A continuous gyro with stationary north-seeking re-references, which needs no run of non-magnetic material around the sensor.
On loss of the data path to the head, advance stops and the string is pulled back. A bore advanced blind past its allowance has an unknown cover.
There is no radio and no GPS aboard, in any size. The plant stays on the surface and nobody enters the bore.
The tube bends onto the drum at far more than its yield strain on every pass, so it is a tracked consumable and its life is counted in trips.
| CS-411A | CS-411B | CS-411C | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reel core radius | 1.00 m | 1.20 m | 1.70 m |
| Bend strain across the drum, inner wrap | 1.91 % | 2.51 % | 2.61 % |
| Trips available | 27.6 | 16.7 | 15.5 |
| Trips required | 15.0 | 15.0 | 15.0 |
The largest size clears its requirement by a narrow margin, so the fatigue ledger is load-bearing rather than a record-keeping convenience: the count belongs to the tube, follows it between jobs and is signed off by someone other than the person running the machine. A completion left in the ground spends about one deployment of tube life, and every re-entry to develop a lateral or service a sensor string is charged to the same ledger.
The conductor at the entry guide is capped at the pilot bore, the push goes into the ground through anchors, and a release sub in every string decides what happens if the string will not come back.
| CS-411A | CS-411B | CS-411C | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conductor bore at the entry guide | Ø85 mm | Ø108 mm | Ø149 mm |
| Support pitch, oversize conductor | 1.26 m | 1.73 m | 2.46 m |
| Free span at the design push | 1.79 m | 2.45 m | 3.49 m |
| Reaction anchors | 2 at 25 kN | 6 at 25 kN | 6 at 100 kN |
Where site conditions force an oversize conductor, lateral supports at the stated pitch are part of the entry module, never a field practice. On CS-411C the reel leaves the machine as its own module, and its mass is not counted as sliding resistance at the anchors.
The string cannot be rotated, backed off or jarred, so recovery rests on overpull and a deliberate release. The release sub is in the string on every bore in every size: when it fires, the tools stay at the toe and the tube comes back. Without it, a string that cannot be pulled free is abandoned in the hole whole.
A surface-launched lateral has nowhere to house a pump, so the work that suits the plant is the work that needs none.
Where it earns its place.
What it is not.
What differs between the sizes, from the tube and the completion to the way the plant travels.
34.3 kN design push and a 57 mm service completion after a reaming pass to Ø96 mm. The reel is integrated and the plant travels as a single load.
110.3 kN design push and a DN90 completion after a reaming pass to Ø149 mm. Integrated reel, single load.
237.3 kN design push and a DN140 completion after a reaming pass to Ø216 mm. The reel is a demountable module and the plant moves as a three-load spread.
The lines that hold on every size and for every customer.
The page this sheet specifies, and the sheets beside it in the line.
The page this sheet specifies, with the pictures and the reasoning.
The tunnel crawler for passages that already exist.
A first conversation needs the alignment, the ground it runs through, the cover available and the article to be left in it.
Not an offer. Enquiries are screened, international transfer is subject to Canadian government permits taken per shipment, and all designs, systems and technologies shown are patent pending.
