Ep014 – Mr. Carey Crutcher – Oilfield, Pipeline and Rodeo Legend… “The Impossible Pays Better!”
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Interview of a lifetime with Mr. Crutcher who is 88 years old & started in the Oil Patch when he was 14… that’s 68+ w/ years spent in the Oil Industry, and he is still going…
He is ‘The Most Interesting Man’… Oilfield Talk has interviewed and the stories he tells are just AMAZING!
40+ years professional experience with all facets of pipeline equipment design, fabrication, marketing and sales.
2019 Inductee of the All Cowboys & Arena Champions Hall of Fame
http://www.cowboyandarenachampions.com/Linked_Pages/4thInductionMeeting-2019.html
Mr. Crutcher and CCI invented the “Automatic Pipe Welding Machine” that revolutionized laying of pipelines and enabled at least four times faster welding of pipeline connections and was used to help build The Alaskan Pipeline and tens of thousands of miles of pipeline both offshore and on land.
In the mid 1960's Crutcher-Rolf-Cummings merged with M.J. Crose Manufacturing and operated as CRC-Crose International until sometime in the 70's when they became Crutcher Resources Corp. In the mid 60s Jerry Nelson (who had been the engineer working on the Battelle project) approached CRC with an idea for a new and improved system. He purposed to make a system that would be composed of a bevel facing machine, an internal line-up clamp/welding machine to deposit the root pass and then external welders run on bands clamped to the pipe OD. This was the foundation of the CRC Automatic Welding System and it remains essentially unchanged today.
The CRC welding system had some growing pains. Welding parameters were then poorly understood, the operators were not welders and needed to have extensive training and like most new technology, it was not readily accepted in the industry. Finally some trial runs were made and welding parameters were improved and the operators became proficient. In about 1983 CRC Pipeline International broke away from Crutcher Resources Corp and became a privately held operation.
Mr. Crutcher and CCI have multiple patents including:
“Size-adjustable internal pipe clamp apparatus”
Patent# US4140262A - Assigned to CAREY CRUTCHER, INC.
https://patents.google.com/patent/US4140262
“Pipe handling apparatus for pipe laying barges”
Patent# US4067450A - Assigned to CAREY CRUTCHER, INC.
“Automatic internal pipe line-up clamp”
Patent# US5288005A - Assigned to CAREY CRUTCHER, INC.
“Apparatus for brush-cleaning the interiors of pipes”
Patent# US4027349A- Assigned to CAREY CRUTCHER, INC.
“Pipe wrapping apparatus”
Patent# US4069088A- Assigned to CAREY CRUTCHER, INC.
“Rotary internal pipe bending mandrel”
Patent# US4164135A- Assigned to CAREY CRUTCHER, INC.
Many, many more… see https://patents.google.com/?q=(%22Carey+Crutcher%22)&oq=%22Carey+Crutcher%22
AUSTRALIAN LAND & CATTLE COMPANY
Australian Land & Cattle Company (ALCCO) was incorporated in Western Australia in 1969 by Jack Miller Fletcher and Carey Crutcher, after extensive research to engage in irrigation farming, ranching, feedlotting of cattle and export marketing. With property over 6,700 square miles, and comprising of several stations, the heart of its program was the Camballin Irrigation Farm along the Fitzroy River.
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