On the floor of a facility owned by Apollo-Clad’s Laser Cladding, a 30-foot-long length of tubing is clamped into a cutting lathe. The length of pipe is what’s called a “stator tube,” an oilfield tool used to stabilize mud motors during drilling operations. And while it will perform much like other stator tubes in the field, this particular tool was manufactured using a different method than most – and one that came at a much lower cost.
Suspended in the air over the tube is the spray nozzle of a laser-cladding machine, which has been placing successive layers of tungsten carbide to build up three “stabilizer blades” in the center portion of the tool. “It’s exactly like 3-D printing but on a larger industrial scale,” says Doug Hamre, the head of research and development at Apollo-Clad, a company that manufactures and repairs downhole tools and mining equipment. As recently as five years ago, those stabilizer blades would have been machined out of a larger (and more expensive) length of solid steel. The steel had to be hollowed out with a lathe, and excess parts were, in some cases, manually welded to the tool. But the ability to laser-clad successive layers of hard metals within very precise parameters marks a shift in how some companies manufacture and repair various downhole tools for the energy sector. By laser-cladding the stator tube, for example, the client is able to build the tool from the ground up, in turn using far cheaper base materials and significantly less energy in the process.
But the game-changing nature of this technology is not simply the laser-cladding process (the method has been used in the aerospace sector since the ’80s). Instead, the advantage lies in Apollo-Clad’s ability to automate such a process to the point that almost no human intervention is required, something that dramatically reduces labor costs. Unlike many shops in the area, Apollo-Clad looks to hire software-inclined workers with a basic understanding of math and computer programming. “They don’t need to be a welder and they don’t have to have experience working with metal,” Hamre says. “They need to be comfortable running a computer.”
Apollo-Clad’s highly automated process is increasingly becoming the norm in the energy sector’s manufacturing and fabrication sector. Due to still-high labor costs, many companies are adopting robotics or automated processes (often defined as computer numerical control, or CNC, systems) to replace high-paid workers with lower-paid ones. “From the automation standpoint of this,” Hamre says, gesturing toward the stator tube, “once we program this [stabilizer] blade once, operators only need to make very minor adjustments to the program.”
Apollo-Clad is just one example of how automation and robotics are making their way into oil and gas manufacturing – and in particular how they are used to repair damaged equipment. The company is responsible for repairing all of Halliburton’s drive shafts, which are used for directional drilling across its international operations. It receives drive shafts from all around the world, grinds away the damaged or worn-out areas, then laser-clads a fresh layer to reinforce the tool. Before laser-cladding, there was no process that could cost-effectively repair those shafts and get them back into the field. As a result, Apollo-Clad’s process gets the drive shafts back into the field more cheaply and quickly. “We’ve saved them millions and millions of dollars.”
Apollo-Clad has seven laser systems in its shop, each coming at a cost of at least $100,000 per kilowatt of power, though Hamre says prices are quickly coming down. In 2011 the company invested over $1 million on a laser-cladding robot as part of the expansion of its shop. The robot is mounted on top of a 17-foot-tall tower that moves along a track in one of Apollo-Clad’s shop bays, using its revolving arm to laser-clad large machinery from a high vantage point. That high vantage point allows the company to repair large machinery that would otherwise be unwieldy to repair by hand – including, for example, the heat treatment or laser-cladding of the giant wheel hubs of oil sands mining trucks. But while laser equipment systems and robotic equipment don’t come cheap, Hamre says it is actually the CNC software that makes up the bulk of the costs. “It’s come to that point where the laser isn’t the most expensive part of the purchase anymore,” Hamre says. “The system that controls it, the automation, that’s the expensive part.”
The cost of installing automated systems, coupled with the energy sector’s long-held wariness towards new technologies, has slowed the adoption of automation in oil and gas manufacturing. And even big manufacturers with existing robotics and automation equipment are eyeing new purchases with caution as oil prices seem set to remain low – or, at least, lower than they’d like – over the foreseeable future. Manluk Global Manufacturing Solutions, a Wetaskiwin-based company with facilities across Alberta, has over 50 CNC machines, and recently began investing more heavily in robotics. Codey Soanes, a representative with the company, told Alberta Oil during Calgary’s Global Petroleum Show that it had recently purchased a robot for about $400,000 to build a small product that fits into one of the valve components it manufactures. Similar equipment is used for other processes, like the overlaying of a metal coating on the teeth of oil sands crushers. While these robots can lower manufacturing costs, they come with a steep upfront price tag, which means they are only economic “if you can keep the robot busy.”
There are other limits to the deployment of automation in oil and gas manufacturing. Tony Wang, the executive director of Hilong Petropipe, a subsidiary of the China-based company Hilong Group, says client demands in the energy sector vary widely, and therefore automated processes need to be constantly recalibrated to fit specific needs. The capabilities required of oilfield equipment in one area often vary from the capabilities of equipment in another due to different geological constraints. Hilong has increasingly automated its Nisku-based shop, which manufactures tubing, casing and pipelines, since it started operating in 2013. But for now Wang says Hilong’s plans to invest in additional automation technology are on hold. “It’s not like the automotive or fabric industry,” Wang says. “Manufacturing in the oil and gas industry is unique.”
Automated equipment is also useful to companies that have trouble retaining low-skill workers. Wang says that because fewer workers are required on the floor, and because there are fewer jobs in the marketplace today, the labor constraints he felt a few years ago have eased. “At first there were a lot of people coming and going, and people could easily find another job,” he says. “But right now it’s quiet.”
The pace at which automation and robotics will be adopted in oil and gas manufacturing is an open question. But automated processes are already cutting costs for clients and making oilfield processes more efficient. Take Apollo-Clad’s heat treatment of one of its clients’ “reamer bodies,” a down-hole tool that clears out or widens existing boreholes. The treatment involves heating up very specific regions of the tool to 1,000 degrees Celsius, which reinforces the steel and makes it more durable against wear. “When we first started doing these, they’d take about two hours each. Now that they’re fully programmed, they take about 45 minutes,” Hamre says. The process is quite simple, but can be the difference between a stalled project and a successful one. “The employee does very little except press a green button.”
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