Rough and Rigorous Demands of Machining Oil/Gas Parts

Manufacturers of field components for the oil/gas industry have their work cut out for them. Often materials for high-pressure components like frac blocks, mud pumps, or other multifunction pumps are down-right cruel on cutting tools. How can machine operators get more peace and precision when boring out features for energy components destined for the rough environments of the oil/gas fields - especially applications involving an extended-reach?

Recently, a Wohlhaupter NOVITECH boring system provided significant productivity improvements, surface quality, and time savings for A to Z Machine Company, Inc., a CNC machine shop in Appleton, Wisconsin. A to Z specializes in a wide variety of custom parts including complex components and assemblies for the oil/gas industry and they’d been contracted to manufacture high-pressure, multifunction pumps. Each cast-iron part was to be bored with three holes, each with a 12” depth and a 22” reach. Their previous tooling had been running at a slow 0.47 IPM resulting in a lengthy cycle time of 84 minutes per part for this feature, so they reached out to Allied Machine’s field engineer, Mark Fowler based in the area.

Together Fowler and A to Z’s lead manufacturing engineer, Marc Manteufel worked to find the best tools and techniques to reduce both vibrations and cycle time while maintaining the required finish. Fowler and Manteufel selected the Wohlhaupter 320 boring head with NOVITECH vibration damper for the job. With the right tooling and expert teamwork, the cycle time for this feature was reduced by 74 minutes while still achieving the required finish. Read the hole (pun intended) case study here.

Struggling with a holemaking application or just looking for ways to improve your processes for a better ROI? Visit www.alliedmachine.com or send your technical questions to Allied Machine and Engineering at [email protected].