Protecting oilfield valves
Weld overlay cladding specialist Arc Energy Resources has applied a coating of corrosion-resistant alloy for A. Finkl & Sons, to protect a brand new oilfield valve and refurbish an old one. A. Finkl & Sons of Chicago is a supplier of forging die steels, plastic mould steels, die casting tool steels and custom open-die forgings. Finkl UK Ltd (Warley, UK) was the first Finkl warehouse to operate outside of the USA and today stocks a range of specialised forged steels as well as offering comprehensive machining, testing and heat-treatment services.
Explains Finkl UK managing director Steve Hadley: âCustomers in the oil and gas industry, for whom we stock specialised steel forgings, often subcontract our machine shop to manufacture oilfield valves.” He quotes a recent export contract, where Finkl was asked to manufacture a new 51/8â? blow-out preventor valve body and refurbish a 5â? body. Both valves, which are 2â square and 3â long, are designed to stop blow-outs from oil wells. Says Hadley: âAs the dual valve bodies are handling aggressive oils or gases that corrode the surface of the steel, the specification for both included a corrosion and wear resistant weld overlay cladding to their inside diameters. Arc Energy applied a weld overlay cladding of Inconel 625 to all three bores of the new 51/8â? valve. The main bore of the 5â? valve, which had been eaten away by sour gas or oil, was first machined to remove the corrosion and then coated by Arc Energy. Finkl then machine-finished the bore to its original specification.
