workholding innovations proliferate for the oil patch - · pdf fileworkholding innovations...

February 2015 | AdvancedManufacturing.org 67

Workholding

Workholding Innovations Proliferate for the Oil Patch

Patrick WaurzyniakSenior Editor

Large threaded pipes and other oil-field

components can often require taking a

different workholding approach

Demand for oil-field components, and the ma-

chines that produce them, has been humming

along nicely for the past few years. With strong

growth in natural-gas hydrofracking and shale-

oil production, manufacturers that build oil-field pipeline

gear have turned to the latest advanced manufacturing

equipment that includes multitasking machines (MTM) for

milling and turning applications requiring state-of-the-art,

modular workholding to handle workpieces used in oil-

country applications.

Speeding up production of oil-field parts means

turning to more efficient machine tools like MTMs that

can produce parts faster without time-consuming and

costly multiple manual setups. More modular workhold-

ing options for milling and turning include new lathe

chucks, grippers, boring dampers, quick-change pallets,

and magnetic workholding equipment. “Just like any

The Smart Damper

system from BIG Kaiser

Precision Tooling is a

vibration-dampening

system to help reduce

vibration caused in

using longer tools

in deep boring and

extended reach milling.

Photo courtesy BIG Kaiser Precision

68 AdvancedManufacturing.org | February 2015

other industry, oil & gas

is looking to make parts

faster, with less scrap,

less human intervention,

as much automation as

they possibly could get,”

said Larry Robbins, vice

president, sales and mar-

keting, SMW Autoblok

(Wheeling, IL).

Leak-Proof

Premium Threads

Finding more-efficient

methods for thread-

ing pipes, couplings,

and many other metal

components used in oil

production and transport

is an important trend in the industry.

Threads for the oil & gas industry use

an unconventional thread geometry,

called Premium Thread, noted Kevin

Bennett, CPM, senior business consul-

tant, Kitagawa-NorthTech Inc. (Scha-

umburg, IL).

Many oil-field customers need

highly-specific, engineered solutions

for workholding used in the manu-

facture of fracking components or

forgings, including the threaded pipes

and couplings used on both land-

and ocean-based drill rigs, Bennett

said. “It’s everything from specialized

fixtures for fracking components to

specialized rotational workholding,

engineered turning workholding for

valves, valve bodies.

“Some of the key technical trends

in workholding of interest to users in

oil & gas are the modular fixturing for

milling and turning components such

as drillheads,” Bennett said. “Our line of

UPR Rapidstroke large-bore air chucks

are specific to the premium threading

of pipe and coupling that goes down

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3054-4088-ME_1114-4.56x4.88-2C.eps 1 9/29/2014 7:14:14 AM

Workholding

The redesigned Kitagawa Automated Jaw Pallet System is a flexible automation system that allows

a robot to change the workholding and continue machining a new part without stopping.

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North

Tech

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the hole.” The UPR series through-hole air chucks have been

completely redesigned for oil applications, Bennett said, al-

lowing significantly shorter cycle times by machining at higher

RPM than with previous models.

The tapered-thread hole design of pipes and couplings is

machined that way to help prevent leaks and oil-site con-

tamination, Bennett said. “When they lock together, they lock

pretty hard so they can’t leak. When it comes to tolerancing

and how things are made, there isn’t a large difference [from

other industries], but one of the things they pay a lot of at-

tention to is controlling drill site contamination—everything is

designed so it can’t leak.”

Automating oil & gas component production is far dif-

ferent than other highly automation-intensive industries,

noted SMW Autoblok’s Robbins. “When they talk about

automation, it’s nothing like automotive or gun manufacturing

where you have robotics. I mean, they consider an air chuck

automation,” he said. “For many years, the oil & gas industry

started out using nothing but three-jaw chucks, front and

rear, with manual chucks. They would have to shim the pipe

to get it on center after they clamped it, and it was a long,

tedious process. Someone who’s very good at it takes about

five minutes per jaw per chuck, so on a three-jaw chuck

times two, you’re talking approximately a half an hour of

setup each time you put in a different piece of pipe.”

“Just like any other industry, oil & gas is looking to make parts faster, with less scrap, less human intervention.”

Complicating matters is the oil & gas industry has several

standards for different types of pipe, Robbins added. Many of

the major players—GE Oil & Gas, National Oilwell Varco, VAM

and others—all have their own standards that vary from the

API standard. “They all adhere to a different standard and they

sell that design to other companies to manufacture,” Robbins

said. “The platforms are all the same in the end. Everybody

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Workholding


is striving to do what they call single-pass

threading. There’s not a lot of people that are

doing it right now.”

Single-pass threading is simply trying to thread

the pipe in one pass in the cutting tool. “Generally

now it’s just like any other kind of thread, where

you do multiple passes to achieve the thread you

want,” Robbins said. “Pipe is the same way. What

everybody is trying to achieve with pipe is single-

pass threading.” With this thread type, a lot of

older products like manual chucks are being used

only as rear chucks, but not as front chucks, he

added. Newer chucks like SMW’s BB-FZA, which

will be shown at the upcoming Houstex show

in Houston Feb. 24–26, offer self-centering and

compensating clamping, eliminating the need for

shimming required on manual systems.

“In the oil industry, threading of pipe is very common,”

said Gerard Cochard, Röhm vice president, sales and

engineering, Röhm Products of America (Lawrenceville,

GA). “For the most part, when the part comes through the

machine and it gets clamped with a

chuck, the area that gets threaded or

machined, if you will, is a little bit out

of concentricity in comparison to the

area where we clamp it.” An opera-

tor has to put some shims under the

jaws, to put that area that’s going to

be machined on center, he said, but

in some cases the piece won’t be

on center and clean up, resulting in

what’s called black threads.

“A black thread is a bad thread,

so they throw out the part,” Cochard

said. “The pipe can be many feet

long—it’s expensive. They spend a

lot of time in the setup to make sure

the areas that are being machined

are running concentric and they won’t

have black threads.”

At Houstex, Röhm will show a

concept that allows the pipe to be

centralized by a device that is part

of the chuck and that removes the

human intervention on the chuck. “It’s

done automatically,” Cochard said.

“The chuck is designed with six jaws,

three jaws are responsible for central-

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Shrinking Technology

Workholding

Quick changes at 5-micron repeatability take just minutes with the Schunk

Vero-S quick-change pallet system shown on a horizontal mill.

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c.

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izing the part, where it needs to be, then on the other side

of the machine, a threading machine always has two sides,

one in the front and one in the back.” The LVE chucks are

self-contained air chucks that automatically create the cor-

rect clamping pressure, eliminating

potential operator errors and speeding

the process.

Big Parts, Big Machines

In many cases, the larger part sizes

prevalent in the oil & gas industry ap-

plications may make going to hybrid

mechanical/hydraulic fixturing an optimal

choice, and modular workholding is pre-

ferred for its fixturing speed advantages.

“For very large parts, some oil & gas

shops are using large, 1200-mm CNC

horizontal machining centers or boring

machining pallet machines,” said John

Gage, regional sales manager, Carr

Lane Manufacturing Co. (St. Louis,

MO). “For the smaller parts, companies

are moving production from vertical

machining centers with multiple setups

to horizontal machining centers to get

the advantage of being able to machine

multiple sides in a single setup.”

Workholding technology require-

ments often differ in oil & gas versus

general manufacturing needs. “The

fixturing for large parts is simpler than

smaller parts: positive stops, strap

clamps and gravity,” said Colin Frost,

Carr Lane’s chief business develop-

ment officer. “Some companies are

moving toward modular elements on

their fixtures to accommodate a family

of parts.

“Many other types of manufacturing

are well-suited to either mechanical or

hydraulic workholding. Large oil & gas

parts often are well-suited to a hybrid

fixture; one containing both mechani-

cal and hydraulic workholding,” Frost

said. “Hydraulically, we can faster and

more reliably clamp a part that varies

in dimensions from part to part, the most obvious example of

which is a raw casting.”

Mechanical workholding excels at providing maximum

force for their size, Frost noted. “Size is, in fact, the main

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difference between oil and gas and other machining ap-

plications. Whereas a typical 40 × 20" [1016 × 508-mm]

vertical machining center might accommodate a 18-mm

T-nut with a ½" [12.7-mm] stud and a clamp strap 11/4"

[31.8-mm] wide and 5" [127 mm] in length capable of a

maximum clamping force of 2300 lb [10.2 kN], we frequent-

ly sell 11/8" [28.6-mm] T-nuts with a 1" [25.4-mm] stud and

a clamp strap 33/16" [85.7-mm] wide and 12" [305-mm] long

capable of a maximum clamping force

of 10,000 lb [44.5 kN].”

Carr Lane has invested in the

development of many modular fixtur-

ing and quick-change fixturing suitable

for larger parts, he added. At IMTS,

the company showed its CL5 five-axis

fixturing solutions, heavy-duty modular

clamps, and tooling blocks with quick-

change modular tooling plates.

Reducing Large-Part Vibration

With larger workpieces, eliminat-

ing or reducing the vibration typi-

cal in large, longer parts is an issue

for oil & gas manufacturing, noted

Gerard Vacio, applications specialist

for workholding, BIG Kaiser Precision

Tooling Inc. (Hoffman Estates, IL). A

new system aimed at deep boring and

extended-reach milling operations,

the Smart Damper, can substantially

reduce the vibration inherent in using

longer tools, Vacio said.

Everybody is trying to achieve single-pass threading with pipe.

The Smart Damper incorporates a

damping mechanism that functions as

both counter and friction dampers. The

patent-pending system’s counter weight

maximizes the effect of the friction

damper, absorbing vibration effectively

and allowing higher machining accuracy.

BIG Kaiser also has developed a

new tombstone made out of mineral

casting and coated with a vibration-

reducing epoxy. “We take a conven-

tional tombstone, add a steel insert

Workholding


and encapsulate it in epoxy

damping,” Vacio said. “With

the mineral cast components

and the Smart Damper, it

attacks vibration in the tool-

ing.” This system is said to

offer up to six times higher

productivity, increasing cut-

ting speeds while offering

superior surface finishes and

better tool life.

Quick-Change Pallets

Among recent trends,

new vertical turning machines

(VTM) are speeding up turn-

ing of large pipe processing,

and newer quick-change

palleting systems that are

common in Europe are be-

coming more popular in the

North American market, said Brad Evans, product manager, workholding, Schunk

Inc. (Morrisville, NC).

Schunk recently redesigned its Vero-S quick-change pallet system, which is

aimed at horizontal turning applications. “Typically the parts we work in are large,”

Evans said. “They can be rotational, using lathes. The pipe industry is basically

turning, and it uses big through-hole chucks. Quick-change palleting systems

are finally catching on in this country. We’re seeing pockets of interest across the

board from small munitions manufacturers and we’re seeing a lot of it in oil and

gas, with a number of large projects going on.”

For setting up machines for gear grinding, the time required has been as much

as 8–10 hr, Evans noted. “That’s a lot of money that’s not productive. With a quick-

change system that we’ve reduced that substantially.”

Other workholding op-

tions are magnetic work-

piece gripping systems,

which can hold a part when

there are no places to clamp

it. “Magnetics is a technol-

ogy that I’ve been involved

with for 20 years,” Evans

said. “While it’s still a bit

new for this country, there

are huge benefits in setup

reduction and increased ac-

cess to the workpiece.”

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?BIG Kaiser Precision Tooling847-228-7660 / bigkaiser.com

Carr Lane Manufacturing Co. 314-647-6200 / carrlane.com

Kitagawa-NorthTech Inc. 847-310-8787 / kitagawa.com

Röhm Products of America 770-963-8440 / rohm-products.com

Schunk Inc.800-772-4865 / schunk.com

SMW Autoblok 847-215-0591 / smwautoblok.com

A Carr Lock system from Carr Lane Manufacturing

allows accurately locating and clamping at the

same time, for quick-change tooling on horizontal

or vertical machining centers.

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workholding innovations proliferate for the oil patch - · pdf fileworkholding innovations...

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