Developing an Automated Drill Cutting Sample Collection and Analysis System

南艾伯塔省理工学院(SAIT)和XRF解决方案有限公司提出了一项多年合作，这将推动公司初步开发和设计一种能够自动筛选、洗涤、干燥、分析和标记钻头切割样品的新型设备。这种协作要解决的公司特有的问题是现在在钻井过程中手动收集的岩屑的质量和分辨率不同。手工采集岩屑给该公司的测量带来了严重的误差，并且对于X射线荧光数据的随钻测量传输来说太慢了。一个包含X射线荧光分析仪的自动化钻削样品采集和分析系统将使XRF Solutions能够在钻井过程中提供多达70种现场测量元素，以帮助对水平油气井进行地质导向。拟议的项目将遵循目前由该公司和NSERC Engage赠款资助的合作，为自动化系统制定基线设计和初步计划。拟议的项目将开发一个原型系统，该系统将在项目期间在实验室和实地进行测试，然后在选定的地点进行试点测试。这些项目将受益于SAIT应用研究和创新服务部(ARIS)两个研究领域的最先进的专业知识和基础设施：设计、制造和测试(DFT)小组和创新信息技术解决方案中心(CIITS)。

The Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) and XRF Solutions Ltd. propose a multi-year collaboration which will advance the company's initial development and design of a novel device capable of screening, washing, drying, analyzing and labeling drill cutting samples automatically. The company-specific problem to be addressed by this collaboration is the variable quality and resolution of cuttings that are now manually collected during drilling. Manual collection of cuttings introduces significant error into the measurements made by the company and is too slow for 'measure while drilling' delivery of X-ray florescence data. An automated drill cutting sample collection and analysis system that incorporates an X-ray fluorescence analyzer would allow XRF Solutions to provide up to 70 measured elements live while drilling, to aid in geo-steering horizontal oil and gas wells. The proposed project will follow a collaboration currently underway funded by the company and an NSERC Engage grant, to develop a baseline design and preliminary plan for the automated system. The proposed project will develop a prototype system that will be tested in the lab and the field during the project, and subsequently pilot-tested in select locations. The projects will benefit from state of the art expertise and infrastructure available in two research areas in the Applied Research and Innovation Services (ARIS) department at SAIT: the Design, Fabrication and Testing (DFT) group, and the Centre for Innovative Information Technology Solution (CIITS).