Jaxon Caines, technology reporter, Hart Energy: How does H&P reduce drill pipe damage, increase torque efficiency while also staying safe on the rig floor? I'm Jaxon Caines, and this is Tech Trends with Hart Energy LIVE. I'm here with H&P’s Sonny Auld to discuss their Hexgrip 120.

Sonny Auld, product manager, Helmerich & Payne: In the past, people were operating the automatic floor wrench from the drill floor, and now we've removed that from there. So that's one key element. And now when we pair that with our internally developed retractable slip lifters, what was a manual process of pulling and lowering slips, we do that remotely from the drills cabin as well. So now on a drilling connection, we've removed 85% of the time in the red zone.

It's got near concentric gripping, which is a huge improvement when we're talking about improving the accuracy of the makeup torque. So that's one. The makeup torque, we've increased that to 100,000 ft pounds of torque. And then on top of that, we've increased the breakout torque to 120,000 ft pounds of torque. Now that 120,000 becomes the highest breakout torque device on the rig floor, completely eliminating the need for tong events. And the goal is to keep moving those three sort of streams of automation into one where we eventually get into autonomous drilling down the road.

JC: And that is Tech Trends with Hart Energy LIVE. Find out more about H&P’s Hexgrip 120 at hartenergy.com/ep.

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