This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
Process Improvement Keeping Energy Production in High Gear


Worldwide demand for energy is growing. Fortunately, so too is the technology for producing energy. Tis is where the gear—that humble mechanical cogwheel that quietly goes about its job of rotating and delivering torque to various pieces of machinery—has an important role to play. Tat’s because a large portion of the world’s energy depends in one way or an-


other upon gears: gears that can help drills bore through the earth’s crust and reach for oil or natural gas; gears that make mining for coal more effective; and gears that help wind turbines convert a breeze in the sky into electricity. Indiana Technology and Manufacturing Companies (ITAMCO; Plymouth,


IN) is one of the most extraordinary gear shops in the world, delivering precision- machined components to OEMs that serve the energy industry. In the process, ITAMCO helps a rapidly growing and industrializing world meet its energy needs. Te energy industry is still largely dominated by fossil fuels, and gears play a critical role in extracting three of its major players: oil, natural gas, and coal.


Drilling for Oil ITAMCO’s gears are used in some of the nation’s leading top-drive drilling sys-


tems, which are primarily—though not exclusively—used on land-based oil wells. A top drive is a mechanical device on a drilling rig that provides clockwise torque to the drill to facilitate the process of drilling a borehole. Te better the gear, the more reliable the torque that can be delivered by the top-drive system. An advantage of a top drive is that it allows the drilling rig to drill longer sections


of a stand of drill pipe. A rotary table type rig can only drill 30' (9-m) sections of drill pipe, while a top drive can drill 60–90' (18.3–27.4-m) stands, depending on the drilling rig type. Having longer sections of drill pipe allows the drilling rigs to drill deeper sections of the wellbore, thus making fewer connections of drill pipe—which reduces the amount of time it takes to reach the actual liquid gold underground. Meanwhile, in sea-based quests for oil, we oſten see the jack-up rig: a self-ele-


vating type of mobile platform that is capable of raising its hull over the surface of the sea. Jack-up rigs are used to search for oil and gas deposits down to a maximum water depth of 130 m. Te buoyant hull of the jack-up rig enables the unit and all attached machinery


to be transported out to sea, to the desired location, by towboats. Here’s where the gears come into play. Te platform, which can oſten weigh as much as 6000 tons (5444 t), stands on three legs that rest on the seabed and can be jacked up vertically. Much the way a car jack raises up a car one ratchet at a time, the rig is raised and lowered by up to 54 helical planetary gear units connected by racks and pinions. Without this ability to “climb” up and down, sea-based oil exploration—which seldom takes place on smooth, placid waters—would be much more difficult.


Fracturing for Gas In recent years, there’s been a lot of attention around hydraulic fracturing or fracking—the act of injecting highly pressurized liquid into rock to help release


70 Energy Manufacturing 2014


Joel Neidig Technology Manager ITAMCO Plymouth, IN


Toothy round things drive the equipment that drives the energy industry, which helps make the world go around.


A mining transmission carrier is just one of the components that ITAMCO manufactures for the energy industry.


Images courtesy of ITAMCO


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156  |  Page 157  |  Page 158  |  Page 159  |  Page 160  |  Page 161  |  Page 162  |  Page 163  |  Page 164  |  Page 165  |  Page 166  |  Page 167  |  Page 168  |  Page 169  |  Page 170  |  Page 171  |  Page 172  |  Page 173  |  Page 174  |  Page 175  |  Page 176  |  Page 177  |  Page 178  |  Page 179  |  Page 180  |  Page 181  |  Page 182  |  Page 183  |  Page 184  |  Page 185  |  Page 186  |  Page 187  |  Page 188  |  Page 189  |  Page 190  |  Page 191  |  Page 192  |  Page 193  |  Page 194  |  Page 195  |  Page 196  |  Page 197  |  Page 198  |  Page 199  |  Page 200
Produced with Yudu - www.yudu.com