Cast Hydraulic Fracturing Components cost less, last up to 6 times longer

Published on Friday, January 7th, 2011 and filed under New Developments.

Penticton Foundry supplies ASTM A532 chrome iron frac’ing components that outlast fabricated components

Cast hydraulic fracturing tub

Frac'ing Tub

The blender tubs, liner and mixing impellers used in the fracking process are ASTM A532 CLIII A (or 3A) chrome iron castings. The cast components usually last at least 6 times longer than T1 fabricated plate overlayed with CCO. (chromium carbide overlay)

The impeller is cast, machined and balanced. Hardness is >550 BHN (55RC)

One of our customers trialed a sample ASTM A532 chrome iron cast impeller. It was finally replaced after pumping 50,000 tons (100 million pounds) of proppant. The prior steel impellers wore out after only 8,000 tons.

Impeller with liner

Frac'ing impeller with liner

Cr Iron Pump Box Spool Liner Inserts Solve Hydro Transport Wear Problem

Published on Friday, October 16th, 2009 and filed under Customer Success Stories, New Developments.

An oil sands customer had a problem with extreme high wear on pump spools in the hydrotransport line for oil sands.

We worked with the customer to design a reusable spool that houses a 1 ¼” thick wall 27% chrome iron liner >650 Brinnell.

Not only will the chrome iron liner wear longer than the CCO, the fabrication is reusable. Once the liners wear out, the fabrications will be shipped back to Pentic

ton to have another liner installed and put back into service.

Prior to using our insert spool the customer used fabricated spools made from chromium carbide overlay plate (CCO). The customer found the CCO did not have the wear life required and that the cost of fabricating CCO was prohibitive.

Cr Iron inserts in pump box

Thickness of lined pump box

Pump-Box-Spool

Cyclofeeder Wear Liner

Published on Friday, October 16th, 2009 and filed under Customer Success Stories, New Products.

Cyclofeeder linerAn oil sand customer from Ft McMurray had a Cyclofeeder liner that required new wear liners.

They wanted a turnkey operation, they wanted the vessel completely lined and ready to install in their hydrotransport line for pumping oil sands.

The vessels were 16’ in diameter and had to be lined with over 80,000 pounds of castings.

The quality requirements were exceptionally stringent. The castings required ultrasonic inspection, liquid penetrant inspection, dimensional inspection, hardness, and chemistry. In addition the chrome iron castings had to meet demanding retained austenite requirements and pass the G65 wear test.

The project was a complete success and came in on budget and under the originally quoted time frame.

Interior of Cyclofeeder liner

cyclofeeder liner - exterior

Frac Pump Sand Slinger

Published on Friday, October 16th, 2009 and filed under Customer Success Stories, New Developments.

One of our oil service companies used our Pliant 25 alloy to improve the wear life of their sand slingers. The slingers are a critical high wear component in hydraulic fracturing pumps. They’re used to mix sand in  the frac pumps. The slingers are over 600 Brinnell hardness and balanced to a G1 spec.

The chrome iron slingers used in the frac units achieved more than more than 4 times the service life at half the price of the original product.

Machine balanced sand slinger

Sand slinger for frac pump

CADI feed chute liners

Published on Monday, August 3rd, 2009 and filed under New Developments, New Products.

CADI feed chute liners on a usage trial at a large Canadian copper mine.

chute-liner-1

The purpose of the trial is to determine the castings ability to wear and absorb impact.

The trials are ongoing but at this point the CADI has performed beyond our expectations.

Austempered Ductile Iron (ADI) gear segments

Published on Monday, August 3rd, 2009 and filed under New Developments, New Products.

Austempered Ductile Iron (ADI) gear segments used in the mining industry.

gear-segmentsThese gear segments are used in rail dumping assemblies that empty entire rail cars of ore. The alloy use for the gears has a tensile strength of 150,000 PSI a yield strength of 100,000 PSI with 7% elongation. The gears are 100% X ray inspected.

ADI is chosen for this tough application due to the strength of the alloy and the surface hardening effect on the gears. The top .0015” of the gear tooth will harden to nearly 600BHN when subjected to impact.

Balanced Machined Impellers

Published on Monday, August 3rd, 2009 and filed under New Developments, New Products.

Balanced Machined Impellers at >600BHN in ASTM A532 CLIII Type A.

Machined-Impellers-2A large OEM pump customer was closing their manufacturing facility. They chose Penticton Foundry to provide turn-key products. These 28% chrome white iron impellers are machined, heat treated, painted and balanced. (ASTM A532 CL3A)

Trunnion Liner

Published on Monday, August 3rd, 2009 and filed under New Developments, New Products.

a 5800 pound ASTM A532 CLIII Type A >650BHN fully machined casting made for a mine here in British Columbia.

trunnion-linerThis mining customer had a shutdown situation and Penticton Foundry provided the replacement trunnion liner in record time. No other foundry in western Canada or the U.S. was able to quote the part except Penticton Foundry.

White Iron Cyclone Used in Oil Sands

Published on Thursday, July 30th, 2009 and filed under Customer Success Stories.

One customer’s success story ..

17 times savings based on acquisition cast, running costs and expected life span!
White Iron Cyclone Used in Tar Sands

Our cus tomer anticipated a three times increase in life span when they switched from neoprene lined cyclones

to white iron cyclones in 2004. Running costs per hour would be 8 times lower and they would cost a third of the price of the originals. Don’t we all dream of results like that?

In fact, the results are even better – 17 times savings:

“Based on recent UT measurements and hour tracking, I estimate the white iron cyclones will last for about 12,000 hours. The previous estimate was 6000 hours but now that we have more data, the results look even better.

We currently have 7 cyclones with more than 6000 running hours with the most used cyclone with 8200 hours. We haven’t changed any cyclones out since we started installing them in 2004. The recent UT survey had only one survey point that was below 5/8″ (original was 1″ for most areas) – the current plan is to run these cyclones until they reach 1/4″.

“Just as a comparison, the old rubber lined cyclones lasted about 2000 hours and were close to 3 times the price in 2004. If the cyclones do in fact last for 12,000 hours, then the cost savings from changing the cyclones to white iron will be about 17 times which has resulted in a significant materials savings in Plant 86.

With these great results, we can see that we can achieve savings in other areas of the plant by changing to white iron. We’ve recently ordered some white iron “spun cast” bypass elbows and a tailings elbow. And we’re going to order some white iron liners to replace the rubber liners in the cyclone inlet spools. In the future, we may also order some white iron “bolt on bells” for the sep cell underflow nozzles….”

And it can only get better. The cyclones are only about halfway through their expected life span!