ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,331,630, issued on June 17.
"System and method to determine and control wellbore stability" was invented by Calvin Stuart Holt (Houston), Francois Ruel (Victoriaville, Canada) and Martin E. Oehlbeck (Cohocton, N.Y.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An image system captures images and automatically identifies objects in an object flow at one or more mechanical mud separation machines. A control signal may be generated to change one or more drilling parameters in response to identifying the objects in an object flow. These parameters may be one of a drill speed, an equivalent circulating density, or a control valve."
The patent was filed on ...