Cross-section wye bi-metallic piping

A major Oil Sands facility replaced CCO (chromium carbide overlay) 28″wye and lateral piping assemblies with bi metallic piping from Penticton Foundry.

The mine found that the CCO wyes and laterals that transported bitumen in their hydrotransport piping was a very high wear component. Outages and maintenance downtime were a major cost concern.

We proposed an assembly that would have a solid high chrome white iron casting inserted into a steel pressure boundary shell.

There are a number of advantages to the design. One of the major issues was increased wear life. The minimum wall of the casting was 1.25″ but in high wear areas (crotch of the wye and lateral) we increased the casting thickness to as much as 8″.

The other advantage was rebuild, the assembly is designed to have the casting replaced once the liner has reached its maximum service life. This is a major cost saving to our customer as the pressure shell can be reused.

Wye pipe for bitumen transport

Bi-metallic wyes and laterals for bitumen transport installed

Bi-metal wye and laterals installed

7000 lb Solid Chrome Elbow made by Penticton Foundry

Penticton Foundry recently shipped a 60 degree solid chrome elbow to a mine in the Alberta Oil Sands.

The elbow was specifically made to increase production from the customer’s cyclone launders. The elbow was designed to have double the wall thickness on the outside radius where the majority of wear takes place.

This customer expects at least four times the life from the cast elbow over the CCO fabrication it is replacing.

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.

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.

These 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.

A 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)

This 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.