Dear Fellow Oil and Gas Professionals,
Compliant Mechanisms Technology could be used to produce fracking plugs that: 1) have only two mechanical parts; 2) have no pins, no revolute joints, no springs, etc.; 3) have an increased resistance to contamination and are maintenance-free; 4) are manufactured from a range of materials such as plastics or metals, including ones that dissolve at will and that withstand downhole fluids such as brine for several hours; 5) are capable of expanding through a large range of casing sizes; and 6) are less expensive than current plugs by one order of magnitude. Compliant mechanisms have already been used in different industries such as airplane manufacturing, automotive, and biomedical; in addition, they have proven robustness and practicality. The photographs below illustrate some of their uses.
The photographs below illustrate some of their uses in the automotive, aerospace, robotics and biomedical industries; the furthest most pictures show some of the current plugs, which could be improved with the technology of the compliant mechanisms.
![](https://i0.wp.com/crativ1.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/all-parts-of-poster.jpg?resize=819%2C602&ssl=1)
This video shows an example of our team’s experience designing Compliant Mechanisms