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Warrior Rig

Engineering Design Intern  

Summer 2012, 2013

I joined the R&D team at Warrior working on early development of the 500E AC top drive. My primary responsibilities were the electromechanical systems in the Gripper subsystems, from initial designs to production drawings and testing. I developed Gripper capabilities that were novel to the industry.

500 Ton AC Electric Top Drive


The Warrior 500E top drive was a clean sheet design with an emphasis on minimal maintenance and downtime by reducing use of hydraulics and including multiple redundancies in major subsystems. Another unique feature was a system for transmitting power from the main top drive body to the continuously rotating pipe handler housing the Gripper.


Hydraulic Gripper Positioner

I designed the hydraulic Gripper Positioner and the necessary high pressure hydraulic plumbing connections. Because the Gripper holds the drill pipe while the top drive makes or breaks connections, the structure of the Gripper Positioner must react the full torque of the top drive, even while at full extension.

  • Hydraulic systems protected from impacts to avoid costly downtime, but accessible for maintenance

  • Structure capable of reacting the high torque of making/breaking drill pipe connections

  • Designed for compatibility with a future all-electric design


Gripper Position Sensor

The unique presence of electrical power on the rotating pipe handler enabled new instrumentation possibilities, particularly for the Gripper systems. I designed a custom explosion-proof linear position sensor costing roughly one third per-unit compared to an off-the-shelf solution. This sensor feedback enabled automation and safety features.

  • Class 1 Div 2 hazardous area explosion-proof sensor

  • Custom linkage using common components

  • Significantly lower cost sensor hardware with easily acceptable sacrifices to accuracy

  • Used sensor feedback for automation and to prevent accidental damage or unsafe behavior


Gripper Overhead Safety Harness

An operational error in the field led to a legacy gripper positioner coming loose from the top drive and breaking free from its integrated fall-arrest harness. I performed a failure analysis on the prior design and found that it had not properly accounted for the high energy of this component in freefall, and had instead only been designed to hold a static load. My redesigned harness utilized a lifting sling to better absorb and dissipate the impact energy, and was retrofitted to the legacy fleet. I also integrated the new safety harness design into the 500E top drive.

  • Failure analysis of previous design

  • Fully redesigned overhead equipment safety harness

  • Emphasis on ease of assembly and service

  • Fleet-wide standardization using the redesigned safety harness

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This is a project description. This section highlights my involvement in the project, my responsibilities, an overview of the challenges and how I overcame them.


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