We’ve heard a lot about how stainless steel—a widely used iron with 10.5 percent chromium, and other alloy metals, such as molybdenum and nickel—is used in the oil and gas industry.
But this is a vast industry that depends on a more extensive base of metals to suffice various industrial uses. From structural construction to drilling mud pumps and brass wear rings, oilfield instrumentation requires strong, corrosion-resistant, hardy materials to fulfill the extraction requirements.
Here are some of the most notable metals used in this industry.
Duplex Stainless Steel
Duplex stainless steel has an Austenitic and Ferritic microstructure. It’s a much sought-after metal in oilfield instrumentation because of resistance to corrosion, impact, stress, and cracking. This is improved by the material’s strength that makes it even more appealing because of its price stability.
Its composition depends less on molybdenum and nickel and more on other metals. That’s why it’s a cheaper alternative to nickel or chromium with the signature strength. It’s used to make storage tanks, pressure vessels, and OCTG because of its hard-wearing properties and lightweight.
Carbon Steel
When there’s less than 2 percent of carbon and small quantities of phosphorus, manganese, sulphur, and silicon in iron steel, it forms carbon steel. It’s famous for its strength and resistance in high-wear industrial uses. It’s one of the most widely-produced metals used profusely in the oil and gas industry for pipelines, structural parts, flow lines, OCTG, platforms, and jackets. It’s made in bulk in Japan, the U.S., and China.
Engineered Steel
Engineered steel is also known as special bar quality steel. It can contain nickel, chromium, carbon, or molybdenum as well. It’s mostly used to make moving parts that need to maximize safety and reliability. Commonly used to make drilling equipment, bearings, shafts, and completion equipment, it’s also used to manufacture automotive parts because of its strength. It’s majorly produced in European countries as well as Japan and China.
Nickel
It’s a scarce metal that’s mainly used to produce corrosion-resistant alloys. It’s useful for making subsea drilling equipment, valves, fittings, completion equipment, down-hole tools, and wellheads. Nickel is mainly produced in countries like Australia, Canada, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Russia.
Chromium
This metal is popularly used to manufacture corrosion-resistant alloys and stainless steel. Chromium-based stainless steel products have various grades. They can range from Cr35 to Cr13. This material is used to make valves, fittings, down-hole equipment, wellheads, and other Natural Gas processing plants’ tools. Chromium is mostly produced in Turkey, Kazakhstan, India, and South Africa.
If you’re done browsing through metal varieties used in the industry, check out our full range of oilfield instrumentation, including mud pressure gauges, custom cables, or clipper weight indicators.
Contact Instruments is a leading manufacturer of OEM drilling instrumentation in Canada and has a production facility in Leduc, Alberta. We’re manufacturers and suppliers of drilling equipment for Canadian and American oil companies and are a one-stop solution for high-quality equipment.
Check out our variety or call us at 780-955-8998 for more information.