Oil & gas
Creating custom projects in a tough economic climate
The recent financial constraints faced by the Oil & Gas industry have increased the reliance on the advice of electronics specialists as the level of overall investment has reduced, explains Charcroft Electronics
the level of activity within the sector has fluctuated with the market price of oil. A consequence of this is that many projects have been placed on hold during pricing slumps, until the oil price rises to a level which allows projects to be viable. This has created an extremely competitive
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market for the companies in the supply chain of the oil and gas sector. In addition to tough competition on price, there is a huge emphasis on the approvals and performance of the electronic components being supplied by the distributors and suppliers used by companies within the industry. Safety is a top priority and so are the capabilities required to reflect this. In order to ensure long life and high reliability in down-hole applications, high ratings for heat, shock and vibration are required to ensure fully ruggedised performance. In recent years, the sector has seen a shift in
focus for the features and requirements of components being supplied. Physical space is now at a premium for both on-surface and downhole projects. Customer requirements are now focussing on the components’ ability to perform to the same standards whilst taking up less space. This challenge can drive a need to develop more innovative solutions. One example of this was a project for an on-surface power supply. The customer needed to redesign an EMC
filter for an on-surface power supply for instrumentation in an oil rig, with the aim of using the space more efficiently. To succeed, the customer needed capacitors which would enable the filter to be much smaller whilst achieving the
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s the Oil & Gas industry has balanced the investment of time and resources against the returns from the fields, so
same or better performance in about one-sixth of the space. This would allow the customer to fit up to six EMC filters into one equipment rack and use the rest of the space for the additional power supplies and control equipment. The relevant product specialist from Charcroft
investigated the customer’s requirements against a strong linecard of products with the rugged performance and safety required by applications in the oil and gas sector. As a fully franchised distributor for many key global manufacturers, Charcroft’s specialist technical expertise is used to support customers on custom projects such as the reduction in the size of the filter. After initially considering a Kemet film capacitor, a potential alternative solution was assessed using Kemet’s custom EMC filter company, Dectron. The main challenge was to find an EMC filter which was able to meet all of the customer’s technical specifications in a very small space. The customer was also faced with various voltage drops which made pinning down the exact specification and operating parameters more challenging. In order to solve the problem, a number of design meetings between the customer, component manufacturer and Charcroft’s product specialists, were held at the customer’s premises and at Kemet Dectron. During the course of these meetings, Charcroft’s product specialist was able to identify the opportunity to reduce the size of the inductors and therefore to reduce the size of the filter. This, coupled with the input from the highly experienced engineering team at Kemet Dectron, enabled the Kemet film capacitors to be used in such a way that the design was further compacted. Tests and trials were carried out on a
prototype and pre-production unit to ensure that the full design criteria were met. The result of these trials was that the final solution provided an EMC filter which is small enough to enable the customer to fit six units into a single cabinet, whilst meeting the necessary specification and filter performance requirements. Bespoke solutions such as this can offer customers the results that are needed, whilst also serving to differentiate suppliers in an increasingly competitive market. Whilst the focus of this project was an on-surface application, the broader scope of products used by the Oil & Gas sector depends on the applications and problems which need to be solved. A complete solution for on-surface and down-hole applications, needs to be based on a linecard which has components capable of operating in a harsh environment as well as in high- temperature, high-vibration and high-shock environments. For down-hole sensing and monitoring tools, the range of high-temperature passive and hi-rel semiconductors and packaging is particularly wide. For monitoring, a range of position sensors gives operators the confidence that the equipment will operate effectively despite a harsh environment. There are also hi- rel pressure switches that are used on Pipeline Inspection Gauges (PIGs). A challenging environment, coupled with tight
performance, technical and specification demands, means that the Oil & Gas sector is increasingly relying on the expertise of electronic component specialist suppliers such as Charcroft. With failure not being an option, the emphasis must always be on getting it right first time.
Charcroft Electronics
www.charcroft.co.uk March 2019 Instrumentation Monthly
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