Investigations on the Mud Pumps Valves Repair Using Hard Metal Depositing by Welding

Abstract

Mud pumps are essential components of the drilling rig, since they support the drilling process, and are required to operate 24/7. Their ability to generate high pressure at relatively high flow rates led to a wide application of reciprocal pumps, from mud pumps to fracking pumps, within the oil and gas business. The elements of the mud pump, especially the mud pump valve, are exposed to erosion-corrosion processes during the pumping operations because of the solids and the corrosive components of the pumped fluid which leads to a drastically reduction of their durability. The downtime of such a pump may add high costs to the drilling or fracking operations, and any improvement of the components durability helps. The mud circulation system is of main interest during the drilling operation, with 7% of the personnel time being spent on mud pumps and 26% on monitoring from the total time spent in the mud area. The present paper shows the experimental results regarding the hard metal deposition of high erosion/abrasion resistance materials on the valve seat’s working surfaces, and the use of the welding process in order to increase their durability, and eventually, to establish the possibility of reconditioning the mud pump valve. The experiments were performed on used valves as part of their reconditioning process, but can also be performed on new elements, as means to increase the durability and erosion resistance. The results are very promising and show a good and strong hard metal deposition with very good mechanical properties. The paper describes the steps and the specific pre and post welding treatment in order to achieve the optimum hard-facing parameters.