Pneumatic Spiders for Tubing and Casing Jobs
Anyone who has set hand slips a few hundred times on a long tubing job knows how worn out a crew gets. All that bending over the rotary adds up, and so does the risk of a pinched hand or a pulled back. That's one of the main reasons more rigs have moved to pneumatic spiders . Midland Oil Tools (MOT) supplies spiders and other handling tools built to API 7K, and below are the questions crews ask us most when they're thinking about switching. How Pneumatic Spiders Work The spider sits on or in the rotary table and holds the string while the crew makes up the next joint. Inside the body is a set of slips. On an air-operated model, rig air feeds a cylinder that lifts and sets them. The floor hand runs it with a valve, usually a foot pedal, so nobody handles the slips directly. Because the slips come down together, they also grip the pipe more evenly, which is easier on the tubing. If you need to run a different size, you can normally change the slip inserts or segments rather than ...