ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 29 -- United States Patent no. 12,209,467, issued on Jan. 28, was assigned to Nabors Drilling Technologies USA Inc. (Houston).
"Pivot joint with a rotatable lower portion" was invented by Ashish Gupta (Houston), Marinel Mihai (Calgary, Canada), Hendrik Schalk Le Roux (Calgary, Canada) and Geoffrey Marjoram (Calgary, Canada).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A system can include a top drive with a quill with a pivot joint, with an upper portion pivotably coupled to a lower portion via a pivot, coupled between the quill and a running tool, wherein rotation of the lower portion relative to the upper portion pivots the running tool about the pivot. A method for running a tubular...