Patent 8113290 was granted and assigned to Schlumberger on February, 2012 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A connector guard is provided to protect one or both downhole connectors during wellbore run in prior to mating downhole. The connector guard may comprise dissolvable or degradable material and include an engagement sections and a removal feature. The connector guard may be dissolved or degraded via a reactive agent or temperature either introduced downhole proximate to the guards or contained within a chamber included in or created by a connector guard. The connector guard may be further coupled by a non-reactive cover in order to control the rate of reaction of the dissolvable material. The cover may be breached prior to mating of the downhole connectors.