Oil & gas · Wellhead valves
Valve seats and slab gates that last 2–3× longer
Problem: Drilling oil and gas wells involves tremendous pressure. Valves in the wellhead, the structure that controls flow at the surface, see pressures as high as 20,000 psi. Their slab gates and seats wear out quickly and must be replaced often, and a failure could lead to a blowout. Because these parts seal metal-to-metal, the surfaces must be perfectly flat.
Solution: We developed a proprietary coating and ultra-flat finishing process. We strip the old coating, apply high-quality tungsten carbide, and finish surfaces as flat as 12 millionths of an inch with finishes finer than 1 Ra.
Result: Valve sealing rings, slab gates and valve stems with two to three times the service life of parts from competing coaters, and even from the original equipment manufacturers. Refurbished gates and seats cost roughly one-third as much as new components. Read more.
Wind energy · Tube-flaring dies
Die life up from 7,000 to 20,000 cycles
Problem: NRG Systems of Vermont manufactures towers for the wind energy industry from large-diameter, thin-wall galvanized steel tubes, mostly 87″ long, which are joined where the tower is erected. A die flares the tube ends. For years NRG made the die from hardened tool steel; compression against the galvanized tubes wore it severely, and it had to be replaced every three months.
Solution: NRG asked us to develop and apply a protective tungsten carbide coating to the dies.
Result: Die life rose from 7,000 to 20,000 cycles, with less downtime and lower cost. NRG replaced dies less often and could make them from a less expensive grade of steel. The project was covered in TPJ – The Tube & Pipe Journal.
Environmental control systems
Titanium hub and wear plate
These components are part of a larger assembly in an environmental control system exposed to high-temperature corrosive gases and particulate matter.
We manufactured them from Grade 5 titanium in our plant, coated them with tungsten carbide, and finished them to 70 Ra.
Battery manufacturing
Ceramic-coated spray dryer line
Problem: A manufacturer of nickel-cadmium batteries wanted extreme wear resistance on its production equipment but was concerned about contamination during coating. Any contaminant could hurt battery performance.
Solution: We applied a ceramic coating to the stainless steel interior of the spray dryer vessel, and coated all related components, including valves, mixing machines, hoppers and mixing agitators, the same way.
Have a similar part? Send us the drawing and coating spec for a quote.