Erik Tietz and Arun Sriraman, UPCO, Inc.
Beam pumping systems are operated in challenging and hostile environments due to the ever increasing demand to produce oil. Marketing research revealed the fact that 70% of failures in this industry were rod pin failures. An in-house research & development project/experiment was conducted to address some of the critical factors governing rod pin failures. The experiment uses core engineering concepts of stress, strain, torque and circumferential displacement and explicitly answers the following questions. A) How does the current displacement values affect rod-coupling make up and are they accurate? B) What is the best type of lubrication technique (dry or wet face make up) for the application of rod-coupling make up and why? C) What is the life of a sucker rod or what is the optimal number of make ups on a sucker rod?