Presentation
VOLGABURMASH, JSC: Reliable Tools for Any Drilling Application
Volgaburmash, JSC’ bright, printed in maroon logo is well known to all large oil and gas producing, drilling and service companies. It is not an overstatement to say that after many years of doing business successfully in the domestic and international markets, it became a symbol of Russian drill bit production.
The products of this major company are used in all of the main fields of Russia and are exported to dozens of near and far abroad countries. Its customers include such well-known companies as “Rosneft”, TNK BP, “Surgutneftegaz”, BK “Eurasia”, “KazMunaiGaz”, “Ukrgazdobycha”, “Belorusneft” and others.
In May, Volgaburmash will celebrate its 65th anniversary. The Company was founded in 1948 under the decree of Ministry of oil industry to provide the country’s actively developing oil industry with drilling tools. It became one of the first domestic drill bit manufacturers.
In 1958, the Company organized the first in Russia Specialized Design Bureau (SDB) which united the country’s best designers and production engineers. During these years the secialists of the Design Bureau received more than 300 patents and put into production over fifteen hundred innovations.
Since it was founded, the Company manufactured over 8.5 mln drill bits for oil and gas and mining industries, that allowed to produce millions tonnes of oil and geological materials and billions cubic meters of natural gas. None of Russian producers can boast of equally impressive operational and research experience.
Large-scale Modernization
Within the last 10 years, Volgaburmash, JSC has fulfilled large-scale technical re-equipment of production facilities. The Company has purchased over 200 units of production and laboratory equipment from leading European producers - Аihelin, Ipsen, Kovosvit, Hermle, Deckel-Maho and others. At present, all its departments are equipped with highly productive machines and assembly units, all of them are 3 to 8 years old. The plant has its own unique metallurgy shop that allows to produce high quality tungsten carbide inserts and hardfacing materials for rock bit production.
All raw materials and component parts undergo thorough incoming control. The unique equipment of Volgaburmash, JSC metallographic laboratories is capable of identifying the contents of any element in raw materials to a precision of 10-6%.
High quality of the products is further facilitated by careful selection of reliable suppliers. In 2012, the Company increased its list of approved PDC suppliers. That provided an opportunity to substantially increase drill bit performance.
Bench tests are carried out in realistic conditions. Present-day technologies make it possible to watch bit cutters and bearings wear, its character and dynamics. After positive results are achieved, pilot batches are delivered to customer for further testing on the rigs, where the bit serial manufacturing will be finally confirmed.
TechnologiesandResources
Matrix bit 215,9 FD-266MН-AM369Volgaburmash, JSC is not only leading Russian manufacturer but also a cutting-edge research center for development and improvement of bit designs. Scientific and research activities are constantly going on at the plant to improve technical and economic indices of drilling tools performance.
All design and engineering is done in 3D software systems Siemens NX. Using advanced computer technologies makes it possible to take into account all aspects of drill bit operation and its interaction with formation and drilling fluid as early as at the stage of design.
In 2012, by efforts of R&D Group established at the plant in cooperation with leading Russian sci-tech institutes, several new engineering methods were introduced. They are utilized for creating new bit designs as well as upgrading the existing ones.
For instance, using math modeling method allows calculating drill bit trajectory in the bottom hole and estimate rock-cutting efficiency. This gives a possibility to define the amount of cutters, their optimal positioning and spacing angle. In this way we receive optimal cutting structure layout that balances dynamic loading while drilling. As a result, vibrations are decreased significantly, tracking is prevented and bit life is increased.
The Company’s specialists did a lot to improve PDC bits hydraulics. In some cases, continuous flushing may cause fluid wash of the inner surfaces of the bits reducing their life. Cavitation wear can be reduced by studying the math model of bit hydraulics. Analysis of the drilling mud flow helps select the right number of nozzles and their size, position them and design shank bore.