Drill Pipe Features

Hardbanding options

Grant Prideco™ drill stem products can receive application of hardbanding to protect them from wear resulting from rotation against casing or the formation downhole.

SmoothEdge tool joints

Grant Prideco’s SmoothEdge™ tool joints provide a sacrificial wear pad for the installation of tool joint hardbanding. SmoothEdge is available for both pin and box tool joint hardbanding applications, and its adjustable width and height allow for customer-specific hardbanding applications. The use of SmoothEdge tool joints and casing-friendly hardbanding extends the life of the tool joint, reduces torque and drag operating loads, and significantly reduces casing wear.

Reduces risk to downhole pressure-sensitive components

Often, the leading edge of proud hardbanding applications can be sharp or jagged, increasing wear or damage to various downhole components. Grant Prideco’s SmoothEdge tool joints provide a base material with a radius as the leading edge to the hardbanding material. The radius reduces wear and tear to items such as seals within rotating heads and other items whose pressure integrity are critical, especially within pressure-critical operations such as underbalanced drilling (UBD) and managed pressure drilling (MPD).

Improves hardbanding integrity

Proud hardbanding applications ideally maintain higher weld bead heights than other applications. The significant amount of bead deposit required to achieve these levels often makes the initial application of casing-friendly hardbanding susceptible to flaking and spalling. Grant Prideco’s SmoothEdge tool joints provide an expendable wear pad, allowing a more controlled weld bead deposit while maintaining the proud application heights desired to protect the tool joint from wear.

TCS-8000 and TCS titanium hardbanding

Tuboscope’s original hardbanding alloy TCS-8000™ is specifically designed and formulated to protect casing. With a visually crack-free overlay, TCS-8000 can withstand multiple reapplications. Tuboscope’s TCS™ Titanium is formulated to provide high stress abrasion resistance and unmatched resistance to cracking and spalling. The TCS Titanium microstructure exhibits smooth, round particles that help prevent galling on metal-to-metal contact. This combination provides a superb balance between abrasion and crack sensitivity that results in both reduced tool joint wear and casing wear.

SmoothX hardfacing

Developed to minimize tool joint wear, SmoothX™ is a patented hardfacing of submerged spherical tungsten carbide granules in a mild steel matrix. SmoothX is applied in a machined groove on the tool joint or drill collar by dropping a measured quantity of spherical-shaped, sintered, 30-14-mesh tungsten carbide granules into a molten puddle formed by welding wire. The granules sink into the molten weld metal and leave a smooth surface that has little or no exposed tungsten carbide. The resulting matrix has an increasing density of tungsten carbide from the surface to the bottom of the deposit.

Make and break

Factory break-in of drill pipe ensures that the proper procedures are followed every time. Controlled break-in procedures are consistently applied to every tool joint to eliminate the field variables and operational rush that cause rig crews to take shortcuts or cancel the break-in procedure. Because the drill pipe break-in is performed consistently and correctly every time, it saves money in both materials and rig time.

Initial makeup

Proper initial makeup is one of the most important factors affecting the life of tool joint connections. If factory break-in hasn’t been performed, Grant Prideco provides the following recommendations for initial makeup:

• Determine proper makeup torque by the connection type, size, OD and ID, and torque tables.
• Spin connections slowly, preferably using chain tongs (high-speed spinners or the spinning chain used on initial makeup can cause galling of the threads).
• Make up connections up to the predetermined torque using a properly working and calibrated iron roughneck or torque gauge to measure the required line-pull (always use the backup tongs to make-and-break connections).
• Break out, clean, visually inspect, and re-dope the connections.
• Repeat the above three steps twice more.

Weldneck and upset design

A critical section of a joint of drill pipe is the transition from the pipe body to the tool joint. This section includes the weld that joins the pipe and tool joint as well as the transition from the thin cross-section of the pipe to the thicker cross-section of the tool joint. It is imperative to ensure that the weld is stronger than the pipe body and that there is a smooth, strong transition between the pipe body and the tool joint.

The Grant Prideco weldneck and upset design is a comprehensive solution that addresses all parameters affecting the drill pipe’s fatigue strength. Specially designed proprietary steels and modern processing techniques ensure a tensile strength greater than the pipe body and limit detrimental stress concentration. Precision machining and grinding provide a surface finish that is free of stress risers. State-of-the-art electromagnetic and ultrasonic inspections ensure that inclusions and defects are not present. The resulting design has lower stress and greater fatigue resistance than that obtained with a generic design.