Patent 7185709 was granted and assigned to Schlumberger on March, 2007 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
An apparatus suitable for use in a wellbore comprises an expandable bistable device. An exemplary device has a plurality of bistable cells formed into a tubular shape. Each bistable cell comprises at least two elongated members that are connected to each other at their ends. The device is stable in a first configuration and a second configuration.