Flexible drill pipe

摘要

A flexible pipe adapted for connection in a drill string, having sufficient wall thickness in order to withstand forces imposed by drilling a well. The flexible pipe has a plurality of improved, essentially circumferential cuts, each cut being through the wall thickness of the pipe. The cuts provide a pipe having a plurality of dovetail teeth and complimentary recesses on each end of the intermediate segments. The teeth on one segment are positioned in the recesses and interlocking with the teeth of the adjacent segment. Each side of each tooth consists of two reversed, intersecting semicircles. The tooth and recess interlock has sufficient clearance to form a joint which has limited relative movement in any direction between the segments.