History was made. A giant leap, too. And now, a significant shift to follow.
At least that’s the hope of the five companies that came together earlier this year to address a common problem experienced on onshore and offshore energy platforms and prove out a workflow underpinned by a digital inventory.
Valve handwheels are typically manufactured in carbon steel, but exposure to the sea breeze causes aggressive corrosion and brings about a couple of challenges. First, a worn and damaged handwheel becomes difficult to operate and incurs frequent maintenance, and second, once the part is broken beyond repair, energy companies are faced with high replacement costs, operational downtime, and a logistical rigmarole.
These handwheels are used to drive and manoeuvre valves and often represent the only method of valve activation on the energy platforms. When they do break down, it is imperative that they’re fixed and, ideally, fixed quickly.
The problem is one shared across the energy sector. On older platforms, after 15 years of operation, it is likely that around half of the valve handwheels require some TLC, and on new platforms – like the P74 that Petrobras brought online in Brazil in 2018 – 10-15% of the valves would be candidates for replacement.
“It’s very common, this problem,” Petrobras engineer Danilo Cunha tells TCT. “We used to say it’s like drying ice. After you dry it, you look, and it’s wet again. We change one set of handwheels and, after [a few] months, it’s starting to rust all over again.”
Petrobras has been on the lookout for solutions to this problem for a little while, as has Equinor. It is not uncommon for these companies to need to replace thousands of units per year across all their assets because of corrosion, and so attention has turned to polymer 3D printing.
Equinor was the first to explore the technology. The Norwegian multinational first deployed a polymer handwheel at an onshore facility four years ago. This installation allowed for greater control of the environment and easier access for monitoring, inspection, and evaluation, and proved out the concept.
"The pilot provided valuable field experience and long-term performance data, helping to verify the suitability of the polymer handwheels under real operating conditions," Olaviu Calin Covrig, Manager Technology CC TD TD2, Equinor ASA, explains. "The onshore deployment also allowed us to maintain a conservative risk profile and implement design improvements based on operational feedback. The positive results have contributed to increased confidence among maintenance personnel and end users, supporting the case for broader adoption of the technology in other facilities."
