Abstract: A safety valve for use in a hydrocarbon production tube comprises a valve member which is opened by a piston tube displaceable as a result of the intake of hydraulic fluid into an operating chamber therefor, and a tubular receptacle for receiving an auxiliary safety valve recoverable by means of a cable. The receptacle is longitudinally displaceable between inactive and active positions and is engaged telescopically with the piston tube in a sealed manner to define, with the piston tube, the operating chamber. The receptacle is normally retained in its inactive position by shearable elements, but after the elements have been sheared, descends to its active position simultaneously driving the piston tube to its lower position to open the valve member.

Abstract: The present invention concerns an assembly of pipes, particularly but not exclusively submarine pipes, adapted to permit disconnection of a tubular member therefrom while maintaining the interior of the remainder of the assembly isolated therefrom. The assembly comprises a first pipe provided with a first tubular connection portion for coaxial connection to a second tubular connection portion of a tubular member. The tubular member is also provided with a tubular extension which is coaxial with the second connection portion and houses a closure means. The end of the tubular extension is adapted to receive the casing of a manipulator for moving the closure means from the tubular extension into the first connection portion of the first pipe to isolate the first pipe from the tubular member and permit disconnection thereof.

Abstract: An internal chuck for use in the butt welding of tubes 16, 17 aligning the tubes and for bringing them into abutment comprises a central tube 6, a sleeve 7 slidable on the central tube and carrying centering means 12 and welding backup means 8, the centering means and the welding backup means being longitudinally spaced from one another, gripping means 2, and jaws 33 for clamping against the tubes. The jaws are displaceable longitudinally relative to the gripping means and central tube to draw the two tubes together and a jack 27 is provided for displacing the sleeve longitudinally relative to the central tube so that either the centering means or the welding backup means can be aligned with the ends of the tubes.

Abstract: A method of defining homogeneous rock formation zones along a borehole on the basis of logs, uses two logs, a lithological log and a log relating to the impregnation fluids. Individual limits of zones are determined by reproducing or reshaping each of the logs in the form of rectangular zones or crenellations, preferably rough crenellations for the first log and smoothed crenellations for the second log, and the individual limits are combined to obtain synthetic limits, some of the individual limits belonging to the first log only preferably being subsequently eliminated when the first log is smoothed.

Abstract: Apparatus for supporting a tubular element 24 to be butt joined horizontally at one of its ends to a tubular structure 27, comprises an upwardly acting, vertical hydraulic thrust jack 9 which compensates at least partly for the weight of the tubular element and which is placed towards the other end of the tubular element. The thrust jack is pivoted at its upper end on a slide 11 which is vertically movable and carries support members 23 for supporting the tubular element, and at its lower end on a base 6 mounted on a lower frame 2 provided with wheels 3 adapted to run on rails 4.

Abstract: An external apparatus for butting two tubular elements 1, 2 to be welded together comprises two frames 8, 9 provided with means for the external gripping of the elements and which are connected by jacks 10, 11 for bringing the elements together and by a plurality of connecting and aligning means 14-19 each comprising a pair of members 20, 21 engageable one in the other with the interposition of an elastic means 22. The gripping means comprise a plurality of radial jaws 55-64 for gripping the tubular elements and carried by support rings each comprising three jaw holders 23-25 each in the form of a segment of a circle.

Abstract: A machine for the internal butt welding of two tubes comprises a fixed axial electron gun, a rotary prism system for radially deflecting the electron beam and comprising a plurality of prisms and a deflection system for cyclically delivering the electron beam emitted by the electron gun successively to each of the prisms at a high frequency, the relative duration of utilization of each prism being modifiable in the course of the rotation of the rotary system.

Abstract: A consistometer container for testing rheologically evolutive materials is generally cylindrical or frustoconical in shape, and has a side wall composed of two half-shells 20, 21 which are connected together along two generatrices 40, 41 and which have externally threaded longitudinal end portions 26, 27. Two clamp rings 22, 23, are threaded onto the side wall ends to clamp the half-shells together. Such a construction enables the testing of a progressively hardening material without having to separate the material from the container as soon as the tests are finished.