Twin Wire Arc Spray for Oil Field Tubulars
Drilling for oil and gas involves drill pipe and tools which are subject to friction and wear.
Wear is generally due to abrasion as the drill pipe and tools contact the sides of the hole and by the passage of high velocity drilling fluids that contain cuttings. In the Bakken Filed of North Dakota the problem of wear is very serious, resulting in the replacement of the entire drill string in less than six months of active drilling.
Friction is induced by the drill pipe contacting casing and open hole. Due to the long strings of pipe and drilling horizontally, friction lowers the rate of penetration and may exceed the capacity of the top drive to rotate the drill string.
This presentation discusses the development of thermal spray alloys that mitigate both problems, including alloy design, testing and field application.