Jim-Rex Lawson MOSES

Experts say that in the oil and gas industry, the invested capital declines in value unless the machinery is properly maintained since this will ensure efficient and effective utilisation of installed machinery and production capacity of facilities.

Lack of systematic maintenance of modern equipment, often leads to machinery breakdown and loss of production time.

Industries should therefore find valuable time and capital to develop competence and know-how for repairing equipment on site, while at the same time saving foreign exchange and improving production figures. One of such major problems facing the industry is corrosion and wear of machinery parts in the offshore drilling business.

In response to such challenges, and as part of contributions and efforts by indigenous companies to create an enduring environment for the growth of the oil and gas sector in Nigeria, Tricontinental Technologies has made a giant stride through its technological initiatives to eliminate downtime is this sector.

Tricontinental Technologies Limited, a division of the Tricontinental Group offers services in maintenance, repairs and restoration, corrosion control, plant integrity enhancement, plant construction, plant and facility inspection, subsea engineering, pipeline technology, project and quality management among others.

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Company, Prof. Toyin Ashiru, who stated that the potentials in the Nigerian oil and gas industry was yet to be tapped, said the Company was positioned to diversify into different areas of the nation’s oil economy so as to create employment opportunities for many Nigerians.

“We help to extend lives of the equipments, pipelines and facilities used in the oil and gas industry by providing proper maintenance services including design, building and inspection and also in the area of project quality management for the oil and gas sector. We also ensure that the contractors provide the best possible services that would extend the lifeline of equipment and facilities in the oil industry for years and also to avoid plant shut-down; he added.

He disclosed that the group had about four technologies for repairing industrial components in the oil and gas industry. Among them is the DALIC selective process, which he said, was a form of electroplating which repairs damaged components in a plant.

DALIC selective electroplating he further explained, had useful applications in the oil and gas exploration and production operations. According to him, offshore oil and gas platforms are subjected to hostile corrosive marine environments, which he said require continuous preventive and corrective maintenance to ensure prolonged and safe operations.

The Managing Director said that ball valves with corrosion damages on the sealing surfaces of the housing units can be repaired by the DALIC process ‘on site’ on gas platforms so that you don’t have to take it abroad for repair which according to him was a lot of savings.

Ashiru commended the vision of the chairman and founder of the group, Chief Olabintan Famutimi, acknowledging the tremendous support he still gives which has enabled the Group to take the giant strides it has done achieved in the industry.

Tricontinental Group which began operation in 1997 as Tricontinental Oil Services Limited in Nigeria, the Managing Director revealed had expanded into multiple business units such as engineering, constructions, development options internationally providing products and services to oil and gas, marine and power generation.

He said that the Group was made up of other companies including Tricontinental Oil Services Limited, Tricontinental Trinidad Limited, Tricontinental Technologies Limited, Tricontinental Academy, Tricontinental Energy System, Tricontinental Eagle and Tricontinental Ghana Limited.

Tricontinental Group, Toyin informed, partnered Eagle Solutions Providers which has its headquarter in Atlanta Georgia in US to provide international services including design, building management services to the energy sector, transportation networks as well as improving and maintenance facilities and equipment for industries.

WHAT IS DALIC TECHNOLOGY?

DALIC Technology is a mobile system for adding metal to metal. The process is, in fact, a special type of metalizing but with far better adhesion, less porosity and more precise thickness control than spray, flame, or plasma types of metalizing or welding techniques, no heat is generated. Therefore, no internal stresses are imparted to the part. The end result is the user is concerned with neither thermal distortion nor cracking.

DALIC Technology works like an arc welder. A DC power pack has two flexible leads, one going to the work and the other connecting to one of a number of working tools “styli”. Anodes of different sizes and shapes (round, flat, concave, and convex) are connected to the end of the styli. The anodes are wrapped with an absorbent material.

The covered anodes are dipped into the DALIC solutions or the solutions are flow-fed to the area when mechanized operations are used. A positive (+) connection from the DC power pack is connected to the work tool and the negative (-) is connected to the work piece.

An electrical circuit is completed either when the wrapped tool is moved over the metal work piece or by moving the work piece under the wrapped tool. With the completion of this electrical circuit, metal deposits from the liquid solutions onto the base metal. The deposition rate is very rapid, often times at the rate of 0.05mm per minute.

WHERE IS THE DALIC TECHNOLOGY USED?

Anywhere industry needs metal build-up for repair, resizing, metal restoration, or replacement coatings for mechanical, electrical, or corrosion resistant properties. DALIC installations are now used in service world-wide in Aircraft overhaul; Marine maintenance; Offshore oil drilling; Plastic, Rubber, or Glass moulding; calendaring; Offset & Gravure printing; Power generation and Turbine repair; Railway maintenance.

HOW MANY COATINGS MAY BE APPLIED?

Over 100 primary metals or binary or territory alloys can be deposited with the DALIC Technology. Examples are: Babbitt, Cadmium LHE, Copper, Cobalt, Gold, Lead, Lead-Tin, Nickel, Nickel-Tungsten, Rhodium, Silver, Tin, Tin-Indium, Zinc. The end-user’s application governs which coating is selected.

WHAT IS THE COST JUSTIFICATION FOR THE DALIC TECHNOLOGY?

Most DALIC customers save the cost of their DALIC installation within the first six months of application. A DALIC Technology installation is possibly the most cost effective capital equipment any company will ever purchase.

WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF DALIC’S DEPOSITS?

First and foremost an excellent bond, in contrast to spray type metalizing where a mechanical bond is achieved, the DALIC Technology results in a molecular bond. This bond is achieved on any base metal such as aluminum, cast iron, cast steel, stainless steel, tool steels, chrome, beryllium copper, brass, or bronze.

APPLICATIONS

Oil and Gas

Offshore oil and gas platforms are subjected to hostile, corrosive marine environments and require continuous preventive and corrective maintenance to ensure prolonged and safe operations. The corrosion and wear of machinery parts are the most expensive problems in the offshore drilling business. Ball valves with corrosion damages on sealing-surfaces in the housing units, were repaired by DALIC process “on site” on a gas platforms.

Millions of premium pipes and couplings are used in oil fields every year. Many of these connectors suffer galling due to a combination of extreme tensional and compressional forces.

The galling of the threads of the connectors is at best a nuisance resulting in a leak, but at worst a disaster as the pipe and connector weld together causing expensive time wasting and the loss of pipe lengths and connectors. In order solve the problem, DALIC process is now used for copper plating of the connectors’ threads to prevent galling.

This also improves the sealing qualities of the connector which must be gas tight. In addition it ensures easy separation of the connector when required.

Aircraft Overhaul

Aircraft maintenance provided one of the earliest industrial areas where selective plating proved successful. Initial applications were primarily for corrosion resistance, since there existed a need for a cadmium plating in situ without having to disassemble parts, and then send them through bath plating and a baking cycle for embrittlement relief.

Bath plating imparts hydrogen embrittlement into ultra high-strength steels ranging from 140.6 x 106 kg/m2 to 214 x 106 kg/m2. Plated components made of these steels always require supplemental baking for embrittlement relief.

Another area of development for aircraft finishing was for the instrument and accessories shop where high-speed rotary equipment, susceptible to vibration and fretting and galling corrosion, often required very minute amounts of metal build-up to get a tight bearing fit. Such parts are now rotated in a lathe or turning head, while the aid of the bearing support is resized with small amounts of nickel, usually less than 13µ (0.5 x 10-3 in) in a side. Once final dimensions have been checked and approved, a thin deposit of tin is put down, so that the bearing can be pressed or shrink fitted, with a completely round fit (rather than a three or four point fit) resulting. With an average plating time of 20 minutes, extensive masking and two machining operations are eliminated.

Another major problem has been the corrosion pitting of landing-gear main cylinders. Such pits have been filled and smoothed back to restore original contours. Fill materials include nickel, copper, and even tin.

High-speed rotary equipment is susceptible to vibration, with resulting fretting and galling corrosion and loosening of bearings in their housing or settings. The problem is quite costly, since a single aircraft may have as many as 100 servo motors and rotary machines, many of them vital to the safety of the aircraft. EMS provides a particularly good repair method here, since very minute amounts of metal build-up are needed to get a tight bearing fit.

Marine, Naval and Shipboard Applications

The electrochemical metalizing process have found a large number of applications in U.S. Naval Shipp-yards, and their maintenance shops have reported savings in the millions of dollars.

Extensive wear occurs on the bearing cap face and saddle areas of Packard aluminum diesel engine cylinder blocks on minesweepers such as the Naval Ship.