THE equipment used for drilling oil or gas wells has to withstand extreme wear conditions. The anti-wear materials developed by Technogenia are manufactured using innovative techniques and are used by the largest well service companies in the world. Technogenia’s participation in Adipec 2010 will be an opportunity to discover the company’s know-how and the quality of its products.

Technogenia has developed a very high quality tungsten carbide which comes in the form of spherical beads of exceptional hardness: 3,000 +/- 500 Hv. Their spherical shape enhances impact strength and density of the deposits. The primary hardfacing process consists of welding this product onto the tools.

This is achieved using a flexible welding rope (Technosphère) made up of a nickel wire coated with a blend of carbide grains. Easy and inexpensive welding provides exceptional resistance to abrasion and great durability. This technique has proven its worth and lasts almost 10 times longer than conventional chrome carbide.

In order to optimise the performance of this material, Technogenia has developed a fully- automated technique: the Lasercarb process. It uses the energy of a laser beam to melt a tungsten carbide powder mixed with a filler metal. Lasercarb coatings exhibit excellent adhesion and hardness.

Moreover, deposits can also be made on non-magnetic steels, which are very difficult to weld using conventional methods. This extremely precise technique is numerically controlled to ensure highly accurate and smooth deposits. Following the success of its hardfacing centres in the UK, the US and Singapore, Technogenia is considering installing a Lasercarb service centre in the Middle East.

Applications in the oil and gas industry are very varied and vital for the viability of wells. Without protection, tools would wear very quickly, meaning interrupted drilling operations. Anti-wear coatings are also applied to a large number of parts in various industrial fields, such as brick and tile industry, foundries, dredging and mining, iron and steel, agri-food industry as well as waste recycling.

Thanks to its capacity for innovation, Technogenia has been awarded the second prize for innovation from the GEP (Groupement des entreprises parapétrolières and paragazières) in 2008, for its laser hardfacing process for internal surface cladding.