Modern coating solutions in the oil and gas industries

On an oil production platform, a large number of components are protected from friction and wear by thermally sprayed coatings. These include the rotors of the mud pumps, the mandrels and the wear protection strips on the drill rods, the ball valves and the valve gates. Welded coatings (plasma arc welding, laser weld surfacing and metal-inert gas welding) are preferably applied to surfaces which are subjected to very great loads due to a high (punctiform) area load and/or due to impacting stresses. The article gives an overview of the most important applications in the various areas of a drilling platform with an indication of the utilised materials and processes. Furthermore, there are reports on the solution of wear and corrosion problems with water injection pumps as well as with process pumps in refineries. Here lies another application field for thermal spraying technology: corrosion under insulation.