ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 3 -- United States Patent no. 12,404,731, issued on Sept. 2, was assigned to Epiroc Drilling Solutions LLC (Garland, Texas).
"Drilling tool changer apparatus" was invented by Matthew Fosler (Wylie, Texas) and Steven B. Tweedie (Plano, Texas).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An apparatus for changing a drilling tool for a drilling rig is described, where the drilling rig comprises a drill tower supporting a drill pipe. The apparatus for changing a drilling tool has a drilling tool changer assembly moveable between a storage position and an exchange position, and the drilling tool changer assembly supports a rotatable carousel assembly. The rotatable carousel assembly has a ...