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.

Frac'ing impeller with liner

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.

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 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.

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.

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

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!