Penticton Foundry » Customer Success Stories

Cr Iron Pump Spool Liner Inserts Solve High Wear Problem

sam — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 06:38:33 +0000

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 Penticton 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.

Cyclofeeder Wear Liner

sam — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 06:15:40 +0000

An 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.

Frac Pump Sand Slinger

sam — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 05:53:28 +0000

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 balaced to a GI balance spec.

The chrome iron slingers used in the frac units achieved double the service life at half the price of the original product.

White Iron Cyclone Used in Oil Sands

sam — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 08:17:55 +0000

One customer’s success story ..

17 times savings based on acquisition cast, running costs and expected life span!

Our customer 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!