Production • Processing • Handling
Tungsten carbide coatings for extreme abrasion resistance
Patrice Fournier outlines the benefits of a new generation of tungsten carbide coatings.
performance, reduce plant downtime and increase service intervals - all with constant respect of the environmental constraints. Deep drilling exploration and oil sand exploitation are two of the more challenging applications which require innovative coating solutions for longer operating times which are under more severe abrasive and corrosive environments and at higher pressures than regular drilling.
T
Problems of abrasion Exploitation techniques often requires separation of the water from oil. During operation, huge problems of abrasion occur thus reducing the life of pipes, elbows, pumps, separators, casings, etc. Downhole tools for drilling are subject to combined stresses such as abrasion, erosion, impact, corrosion and contact pressure. Because their
he oil and gas industry continuously faces dilemmas regarding its operation efficiency. Contractors are more demanding of extreme performance coating materials that offer exceptional
non-sufficient fracture toughness, the traditional ‘commodity’ tungsten carbide coatings can’t withstand all of these stresses simultaneously. Constant research and development efforts conducted thermal sprayed coatings and hard- faced overlays to become more and more complex with feature enhancements allowing for more severe operating conditions as well as coating life improvement. Te improvement has been achieved with
important innovations by alloying proprietary powders with tungsten carbide/metal powders, nano WC/Co, macro WC and/or superfine WC/ Co materials. Tey are mixed with hard and tough metal matrixes which offer exceptional hardness, abrasion/erosion wear resistance and corrosion resistance - and consequently with improved fracture toughness. Tese grains can be used as powder or converted into electrodes, flexicords and tungsten carbide ropes. Tese new materials can be sprayed, PTA cladded or brazed with a flame welding torch. Te Hardkarb flexicord or high velocity thermal
Fig. 1. Left: ID coated pipe with tungsten carbide. Right: Drilling bit hardfaced with tungsten carbide.
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