Headquartered in Edmonton, Alberta, CA, Genesis Oil Tool Inc. is one of the premier manufacturers of downhole drilling tools for the oil and gas industry. The company designs, manufactures, and rents out a large variety of tools to the entire North American drilling market including shock tools, drilling jars, drilling motors, pulsation tools, and enhancer tools.
Genesis is a relatively new company, only being formed in 2013, but each of the principal owners have been involved in drilling applications for the oil and gas industry for over 40 years. Genesis attributes much of its success to their willingness to try new and different materials and processes; always looking outside the industry to improve their applications. This willingness and desire to provide a superior product led them to USC Technologies, LLC of Stratford, Connecticut and to TriCom, a breakthrough surface finishing technology. In 2014, USC Technologies partnered with Genesis to develop a solution for an issue plaguing the oil and gas industry. That solution, a modified version of TriCom, is credited with providing Genesis substantial cost savings and higher customer retention by increasing the service life of their downhole tools by over 2400%.
Organization: Genesis Oil Tool Inc.
Location: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Challenge: Exotic drilling fluids used to increase drilling performance have become more accepted throughout the Oil & Gas industry, but these new fluids promote extreme corrosion to many of the parts manufactured at Genesis
Solution: TriCom – Proprietary Surface Finish for Wear & Corrosion
Key Benefits:
Manufacturers in the oil and gas industry are quite familiar with how volatile the global energy market can be and are constantly exploring ways to reduce the negative effects from an unexpected shift. The need to safeguard from these events is what drives oil field drillers to either develop better technology or identify pre-existing out-of-market technology to improve their production capabilities. The main focuses from any improvement being the reduction of costs and increases in drilling productivity. The introduction of exotic drilling fluids achieved both of these needs for downhole drillers, but in doing so, also created a larger issue.
“In our industry, the service life in a harsh environment is paramount. Costs cannot be overlooked as our customers are always pushing for reduction in costs but want superior downhole performance.”
E. Leicht
President
Genesis Oil Tool Inc.
As the use of this new drilling fluid progressed towards industry wide acceptance, Genesis found that their downhole tooling, which was directly being used in this fluid, was starting to experience frequent failures and shortened field life. The traditional surface coatings used on their parts to provide wear and corrosion resistance were no longer effective. Gradually, more components experienced similar effects, such as mandrels, which traditionally were hard chrome plated to provide a wear surface for elastomer seals and bushings.
The engineering group at Genesis tried a number of materials and application processes including hard chrome, hard chrome over an electroless nickel base, and carbide applied by an HVOF process. Unfortunately, all of their trials continually saw application failure in less than 100 hours use down hole. Genesis was left handcuffed by these now substandard metal finishes which subsequently increased costs due to the necessity of frequent repairs.
Having initially developed TriCom as an aerospace prime approved metal finish to solve acute wear and corrosion failures, USC Technologies knew that TriCom would restore the longevity of Genesis’ parts. Applied as a single-layer barrier coating, that’s fully dense, crack-free, ductile, and self-lubricating, TriCom fortifies the substrate, addressing failures from breakdown through sliding wear and corrosion.
In order to immediately provide Genesis relief against the onslaught of repairs from this extremely corrosive environment, USC Technologies recommended to start with their existing version of TriCom. The coating was applied to the inner diameter (ID) and outer diameter (OD) of the downhole tooling and brought to the field for testing.
“USC Technologies worked directly with us to make material and application changes that provided a better product.”
E. Leicht
President
Genesis Oil Tool Inc.
While this version was being tested, USC Technologies chemical engineers evaluated the various TriCom amalgamations to find a definite solution. Both teams immersed themselves into the project to learn everything about the parts, manufacturing process, environmental influencers, materials, and, most importantly, the exotic drilling fluids that caused this.
The testing with TriCom accomplished what Genesis needed, an extended window between repairs, and USC Technologies received a comprehensive analysis of the coating’s performance. This analysis, along with the efforts of everyone involved, led to the development of a new version of TriCom that radically exceeded every expectation.
When Genesis was using traditional finishes like hard chrome over electroless nickel, their tooling saw operational failures within one to two runs, approximately 50 to 100 hours downhole drilling. With their parts now finished with a tailored version of TriCom, the service life of their products greatly improved. Genesis was now seeing drilling operations achieving between 50 to 75 runs, approximately 2,500 to 3,750 hours downhole.
Genesis, like many other manufacturers in the oil & gas industry, machine their parts from stainless steel due to the materials innate resistance to wear and corrosion. The downside to using this material is that it is one of the most expensive options available.
The extensive testing done by the USC Technologies research and development team allowed them to recommend material changes, without ill effect, in order to save on costs. Genesis modified their manufacturing process and introduced carbon steel to replace stainless steel. With the use of TriCom, whether the part was made from stainless steel or carbon steel, the performance didn’t change.
They also realized that a number of other areas in their business benefited from the change to TriCom. Their customers satisfaction with the efficiency of their product offerings improved and their ROI increased from a massive reduction in repair hours heavily reduced and logistics costs. It speaks volume to say that on the low end, TriCom improved the service life of their drilling tools by 2400%.
