Patent Application
20250059649
None.
Aspects of the disclosure relate to coatings for subterranean components. More specifically, aspects of the disclosure relate to Lead-free metallic barrier coatings for Copper and Zinc-rich surfaces for downhole components.
Powering equipment in a downhole environment is a necessary and complicated endeavor. Many times, powering of such equipment is performed by cables for electric submersible pumps, hereinafter “ESP”. A common problem with such ESP cables is that they have Lead (Pb) incorporated into the matrix or materials used. The presence of Lead leads to problems with conduction on other components as well as having deleterious environmental effects. Despite Lead use, failure is common. In some field embodiments, ESP cables are not effectively sealed, permitting corrosion to occur. There is a need to provide a way to seal off steel armor. Because of the high probability of corrosion, there is a need to be able to supplement galvanized (Zinc) coatings. There is also a need to coat end connector pins for improved electrical continuity in the presence of a corrosive environments.
Generally, an ESP cable has a main function to convey electrical power from the surface to the ESP motors and must be designed to survive the aggressive, downhole well environments. The cable architecture must be such that cable diameter remains small enough to fit in the downhole spaces. The cable architecture must also be protected from mechanical abuse and be impervious to physical and electrical deterioration. Cables are available in either round or flat configurations, using several different insulation and metal armor materials depending on the well environments. The ESP cable comprises:
In contrast to ESP cables, wireline cables do not comprise a metal barrier such as Lead (Pb). There are basic types of wireline cables; multi-conductor, single conductor, slickline, and braided line, in addition to wirelines with sheathed slickline and fiber-optic lines. Multi-conductor lines consist of external, armor wires wound around a core of typically four or seven conductors. The conductors are bound together in a central core, protected by the external, armor wires. Conductors are used to transmit power to the downhole instrumentation and transmit data (and commands) to and from the surface.
Single-conductor cables are similar in construction to multi-conductor cables but have only one conductor. These cables are employed in pressurized wells due to their size, making them particularly suited for cased-hole, logging activities. They are typically used for well construction activities such as; pipe recovery, perforating, and plug setting, production logging and reservoir production characterization activities (production logging, noise logging, pulsed neutron, production fluid sampling and production flow monitoring).
Slickline is a smooth, single strand of wireline. Slickline has no conductor (although there are specialized, polymer, coated slicklines and tubing encapsulated (TEC) slicklines). Slickline is used for light well construction and well maintenance activities, as well as subsurface data gathering. Slickline work includes mechanical services such as gauge emplacement and recovery, subsurface valve manipulation, well bore cleaning and fishing. For all these wireline applications, there are great concerns over the armor degradation by corrosion, and a protective coating potentially exceeding the performance of the current galvanized coating on steel would be an improvement to extend cable life and provide an additional guarantee against potential loss of assets.
Over the years, there have been numerous initiatives to increase the life of Copper bearing components, particularly among structural parts. Copper is a widely utilized metal in downhole tools for a variety of purposes and applications; electrical, thermal and structural. Copper (annealed and commercially pure) is irreplaceable in electrical wires, cables, motor windings, connectors, among others. Copper, when alloyed with Tin (to produce brass), or nickel (bronze, aluminum bronze, etc), is used as a bearing and bushing alloy, but also for structural applications such as couplers (threaded rings), connectors, and even pressure housings. One such alloy (of premium type) is UNS C72900 (e.g., CuNiSn or Toughmet by Materion™), available between 95 ksi and 150 ksi and widely used in drilling and measurement applications, and occasionally in pumping applications, for its high machineability and dry lubricity. Copper is also found at 33 wt. percent in Monel (Ni—Cu alloys) for other structural applications; including bolts, fasteners, gas-lift housings, bearings and threaded parts. Beryllium Copper is also found in electronic chassis because of its combination of high strength and thermal diffusivity, two properties required in high-temperature tools, as found for HPHT or geothermal applications.
In reservoir characterization (when in contact with oilfield fluids), Copper alloys rarely last very long as they suffer from heavy corrosion, particularly in the presence of sour gas, at temperatures in excess of approximately 125 degrees C. (approximately 250 degrees F.).
A short list of Copper alloys (with internal designation, UNS Cxxxxx) is provided next along with current applications where a coating may be beneficial:
Many oilfield applications involving Copper have a need for an economical and easy to apply protective coating that is corrosion resistant, either at the surface of tools (hardware), or as part of an electrical conductor, to provide long-term protection against corrosive gases such as hydrogen sulfide (H2S). One example is cast, Zinc alloy, centralizers for the deployment of downhole sand screens (SMS). The centralizers only have the temporary function of positioning at the center of the bore hole tubulars (namely sand screens in SMS) during their deployment downhole up to gravel packing. Once gravel packing is completed, the screen is set in its permanent place and the centralizers become non-critical and are permitted to corrode. In some fields, wherein the conditions are corrosive, the deployment is slow, or the gravel packing delayed, and barrier coatings may be advantageously applied to centralizers to increase survivability in the downhole environments. In addition to corrosion resistance, the coatings have low friction coefficients (CoF), an advantage when conveying the centralizers to their final position downhole (low friction implies an easy slide or trip downhole with low risk of abrading to costly and critical downhole tubulars and equipment).
There is a need to provide an apparatus that is easy to operate in downhole environments, while having superior environmental properties compared to conventional apparatus.
There is a further need to provide apparatus that do not have the drawbacks discussed above, namely corrosion in high H2S environments.
There is a still further need to reduce economic costs associated with operations and apparatus described above with conventional tools by providing tools that are fit for anticipated aggressive environments.
So that the manner in which the above recited features of the present disclosure can be understood in detail, a more particular description of the disclosure, briefly summarized below, may be had by reference to embodiments, some of which are illustrated in the drawings. It is to be noted that the drawings illustrate only typical embodiments of this disclosure and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope, for the disclosure may admit to other equally effective embodiments without specific recitation. Accordingly, the following summary provides just a few aspects of the description and should not be used to limit the described embodiments to a single concept.
In one example embodiment, a component is disclosed. The component may comprise at least two consecutive layers wherein a first layer is reactive to at least one of Copper and Zinc, produces an intermetallic when in contact with at least one of solid Copper and Zinc, and a second layer in contact with the first layer wherein the second layer has a compositional range of approximately: (Bi+Sb)/(Sn+Zn) in between 0.5 and 3.0 wt. percent, Bi: approximately 27 to approximately 70 wt. percent, Sn: approximately 5 to approximately 40 wt. percent, Sb, Zn, and other elements as balance and is characterized by a hardness of 18 HVN, or at least 4 times higher than the hardness of Lead in the HVN scale, wherein Bi represents Bismuth, Sb represents Antimony, Sn represents Tin, and Zn represents Zinc.
In another example embodiment, a method for production of a component is disclosed. The method may comprise obtaining a body of material, wherein the body of material has one of a Copper and Zinc-rich surface. The method may also comprise cleaning the body of material. The method may also comprise covering at least a portion of a surface of the body of material with a first layer. The method may also comprise covering at least a portion of the first layer with a second layer wherein the second layer has a composition of: (Bi+Sb)/(Sn+Zn) in between 0.5 and 3.0 wt. percent, Bi: 27 to 70 wt. percent, Sn: 5 to 40 wt. percent, Sb, Zn, and other elements as balance, and is characterized by a hardness of 18 HVN, or at least 4 times higher than the hardness of Lead in the HVN scale, wherein Bi represents Bismuth, Sb represents Antimony, Sn represents Tin, and Zn represents Zinc.
So that the manner in which the above recited features of the present disclosure can be understood in detail, a more particular description of the disclosure, briefly summarized above, may be had by reference to embodiments, some of which are illustrated in the drawings. It is to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate only typical embodiments of this disclosure and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope, for the disclosure may admit to other equally effective embodiments.
To facilitate understanding, identical reference numerals have been used, where possible, to designate identical elements that are common to the figures (“FIGS.”). It is contemplated that elements disclosed in one embodiment may be beneficially utilized on other embodiments without specific recitation.
In the following, reference is made to embodiments of the disclosure. It should be understood, however, that the disclosure is not limited to specific described embodiments. Instead, any combination of the following features and elements, whether related to different embodiments or not, is contemplated to implement and practice the disclosure. Furthermore, although embodiments of the disclosure may achieve advantages over other possible solutions and/or over the prior art, whether or not a particular advantage is achieved by a given embodiment is not limiting of the disclosure. Thus, the following aspects, features, embodiments and advantages are merely illustrative and are not considered elements or limitations of the claims except where explicitly recited in a claim. Likewise, reference to “the disclosure” shall not be construed as a generalization of inventive subject matter disclosed herein and should not be considered to be an element or limitation of the claims except where explicitly recited in a claim.
Although the terms first, second, third, etc., may be used herein to describe various elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections, these elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections should not be limited by these terms. These terms may be only used to distinguish one element, components, region, layer or section from another region, layer or section. Terms such as “first”, “second” and other numerical terms, when used herein, do not imply a sequence or order unless clearly indicated by the context. Thus, a first element, component, region, layer or section discussed herein could be termed a second element, component, region, layer or section without departing from the teachings of the example embodiments.
When an element or layer is referred to as being “on,” “engaged to,” “connected to,” or “coupled to” another element or layer, it may be directly on, engaged, connected, coupled to the other element or layer, or interleaving elements or layers may be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being “directly on,” “directly engaged to,” “directly connected to,” or “directly coupled to” another element or layer, there may be no interleaving elements or layers present. Other words used to describe the relationship between elements should be interpreted in a like fashion. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed terms.
Some embodiments will now be described with reference to the figures. Like elements in the various figures will be referenced with like numbers for consistency. In the following description, numerous details are set forth to provide an understanding of various embodiments and/or features. It will be understood, however, by those skilled in the art, that some embodiments may be practiced without many of these details, and that numerous variations or modifications from the described embodiments are possible. As used herein, the terms “above” and “below”, “up” and “down”, “upper” and “lower”, “upwardly” and “downwardly”, and other like terms indicating relative positions above or below a given point are used in this description to more clearly describe certain embodiments.
Aspects of the disclosure provide for a family of barrier coatings and method to produce the family of barrier coatings to be used in downhole conditions. By definition, such downhole conditions are the environmental conditions that are present during oil and gas recovery operations. In instances, the barrier coatings may be used in the following applications.
Conventionally, there are several metallic coatings available to protect Copper. These include Zinc (95 percent min), Silver, Gold, Tin (pure), and Nickel (Ni>90 percent), among others, all offering a range of disadvantages. Nickel (particularly Ni—P electroless nickel plating) is attractive for mechanical parts, but is very hard and lacks any flexibility. The deposition processes are lengthy and not compatible to cable manufacturing processes. The most common application processes are by plating (including electroplating). By comparison, hot dipping and extrusion are less utilized and, in fact, are quite rare and special to ESP cable manufacturing. Hot dipping is common to Zinc plating (galvanizing) and occurs quickly, at a temperature not causing detrimental effects to its substrate. Typical galvanizing times take seconds at a temperature of 830 degrees F.
Aspects of the disclosure provide for a broad range of applications. In aspects of the disclosure, aspects for a differentiating coating solution are as follows:
As a replacement to Lead (Pb), aspects of the embodiments use Bismuth, among other metals or alloying elements. Bismuth is rarely used elsewhere in engineering materials because it is difficult to process; however, it offers excellent anti-seizing and anti-corrosion resistance, among other properties. Tin is a low-melting point metal that is an excellent start to build a low-temperature process capable of being applied to ESP cables, and a variety of alloys, without thermally impacting pre-coating mechanical properties. Tin (Sn) may be used as a thin coating; therefore, certain alloys of tin may also be beneficially used. Aspects of the disclosure specifically target barrier coatings or layers containing Bismuth, which is the critical element providing corrosion resistance, and also an element rarely used in engineering applications.
Hot-dipped plating tests were conducted on a number of Copper and Copper alloy substrates to determine basic properties of the coating as well as acquire some sense of the coating processability. Environmental exposures tests were also conducted in pressurized autoclaves containing corrosive brines and gases, particularly CO2 and H2S as a means to compare some of the alloys presented herein against Lead, used as reference and common in ESP cable shields. Test coupons, in the form of washers and coupons, extracted from solid bar stocks, were prepared and tested for their ability to receive any new alloy formulation as coating. These test coupons were prepared in a normal surface-finish condition. Prior to hot dipping in molten baths of the inventive alloys, the test coupons went through a series of cleaning steps to ensure good and continuous reaction with the molten liquid bath. These two steps consisted of degreasing and pickling; for larger scale application, fluxing is also recommended as conducted for hot-dip galvanizing. Referring to
Hot dipping was conducted by re-melting various ingots, specially formulated with specific chemical compositions, and anticipated properties. The ingots were first produced out of high-purity pure metals (99.9 wt. percent min), poured into refractory-coated stainless-steel crucibles, then remelted at low-temperature into a small box furnace, as depicted in
The hot dipping was achieved at a temperature comparable to galvanizing, even though the current alloys are liquefied at a temperature considerably lower than a galvanizing Zinc bath. As substrates, the following materials were evaluated for their ability to be directly hot plated by immersion into liquid melts:
Upon completing hot dipping trials, on duplicate test coupons, the hot dipping baths were poured into rectangular plates as shown in
The rationale for combining Bismuth (Bi) and Antimony (Sb) and combining Tin (Sn) and Zinc (Zn) in additive ways are as follows:
Table 1 presents test results, wherein the alloys of
While the previous alloys were designed for improved processing and manufacturability at low temperatures (<Pb), additional alloys may be used. Compared to the alloys of
A number of alloys meet the above criterion and many other alloys are expected within the compositional range and criteria of
Referring to
Referring to
Example embodiments of the claims will now be disclosed. The example embodiments should not be considered limiting. In one example embodiment, a component is disclosed. The component may comprise at least two consecutive layers wherein a first layer is reactive to at least one of Copper and Zinc, produces an intermetallic when in contact with at least one of solid Copper and Zinc, and a second layer in contact with the first layer wherein the second layer has a compositional range of approximately: (Bi+Sb)/(Sn+Zn) in between 0.5 and 3.0, Bi: 27 to 70 wt. percent, Sn: 5 and 40 wt. percent, Sb, Zn, and other elements as balance and is characterized by a hardness of 18 HVN, or at least 4 times higher than the hardness of Lead in the HVN scale, wherein Bi represents Bismuth, Sb represents Antimony, Sn represents Tin, and Zn represents Zinc.
In another example embodiment, the component may comprise a thickness of the at least two consecutive layers has a total thickness of between 10 mm and 125 mm.
In another example embodiment, the component may further comprise a third layer liquefying between 120 degrees C. and 450 degrees C.
In another example embodiment, the component may be configured wherein the second layer has less than 35 wt. percent of intermetallic phases.
In another example embodiment, the component may be configured wherein the first layer is applied onto galvanized steel.
In another example embodiment, the component may be configured wherein the first layer is applied to a one of a Copper alloy and Zinc alloy.
In another example embodiment, the component may be configured wherein the component is configured to convey electrical energy.
In another example embodiment, the component may be configured wherein the first layer is applied to at least one of a steel wire armor and a pin.
In another example embodiment, the component may be configured wherein the component is a downhole centralizer.
In another example embodiment, the component may be configured wherein the component is a pump.
In another example embodiment, the component may be configured wherein the pump is one of a electric submersible pump or a progressive cavity pump.
In another example embodiment, the component may be configured wherein the component is a component of one of a downhole cable, a slickline, instrumentation, line and actuator.
In another example embodiment, the component may be configured wherein the component is a portion of a intentionally degradable downhole component.
In another example embodiment, a method for production of a component is disclosed. The method may comprise obtaining a body of material, wherein the body of material has one of a Copper and Zinc-rich surface. The method may also comprise cleaning the body of material. The method may also comprise covering at least a portion of a surface of the body of material with a first layer. The method may also comprise covering at least a portion of the first layer with a second layer wherein the second layer has a composition of: (Bi+Sb)/(Sn+Zn) in between 0.5 and 3.0 wt. percent, Bi: 27 to 70 wt. percent, Sn: 5 to 40 wt. percent, Sb, Zn, and other elements as balance, and is characterized by a hardness of 18 HVN, or at least 4 times higher than the hardness of Lead in the HVN scale, wherein Bi represents Bismuth, Sb represents Antimony, Sn represents Tin, and Zn represents Zinc.
In another example embodiment, the method may be performed wherein the covering of the first layer with the second layer is through a hot dipping process.
In another example embodiment, the method may be performed wherein the hot dipping process is characterized by an alloy melting temperature of +25 degrees C., and no less than 120 degrees C.
In another example embodiment, the method may be performed wherein the hot dipping process creates a barrier.
In another example embodiment, the method may be performed wherein the covering of the first layer with the second layer is through an electroplating process.
In another example embodiment, the method may be performed wherein the electroplating process creates a barrier.
The foregoing description of the embodiments has been provided for purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the disclosure. Individual elements or features of a particular embodiment are generally not limited to that particular embodiment, but, where applicable, are interchangeable and can be used in a selected embodiment, even if not specifically shown or described. The same may be varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the disclosure, and all such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of the disclosure.
While embodiments have been described herein, those skilled in the art, having benefit of this disclosure, will appreciate that other embodiments are envisioned that do not depart from the inventive scope. Accordingly, the scope of the present claims or any subsequent claims shall not be unduly limited by the description of the embodiments described herein.
