ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 28 -- United States Patent no. 12,448,860, issued on Oct. 21, was assigned to ZP INTERESTS LLC (Spring, Texas).
"Internal latching apparatus" was invented by Balazs Horvath (Veszprem, Hungary), Mario Munoz Reyna (Pasadena, Texas) and Charles W. Bedford (Hempstead, Texas).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An internal locking ring assembly for a wellhead system that includes a compact single body locking ring design that eliminates the need for a separate casing head and housing configuration or the use of numerous lockdown pins, therefore increasing the safety of the entire drilling operation. The internal locking ring includes outer and inner diameter grooves and angles to a...