A world leader in advanced-technology equipment and services for the oil and gas industry, GE Oil & Gas has invested in a range of machining solutions; these not only ensure that the company can continue to provide the capacity to meet the rising demand for increasingly large workpieces, but also that it can maintain its position as a cost-effective manufacturer of a wide range of exploration and production equipment.

GE Oil & Gas has two sites in Montrose, Scotland. At its Brent Avenue manufacturing facility, the company now has a large-capacity Soraluce FR-11000 travelling-column floor-type milling centre with live spindle, plus a Soraluce KB150 boring machine; both machines were supplied by Sheffield-based TW Ward CNC Machinery (www.wardcnc.com). GE Oil & Gas also has three more KBW150s on order.

At the company’s Charlton Road service facility, the machines supplied by Ward CNC include a Hyundai-Wia HS630 twin-pallet horizontal machining centre, a Hankook 9NC two-axis CNC lathe, a Hartford PBM-115 CNC horizontal boring and milling machine, and a Hankook VTC-160 vertical boring and turning centre with C axis and driven tools.

Brent Avenue provides the company’s global customer base with a wide range of solutions for drilling (land, offshore and sub-sea), as well as for ‘enhanced oil recovery’, power generation, refining and gas storage.

It also produces pipeline components. How-ever, it was the increasing demand for sub-sea valve blocks that prompted the installation of the large-capacity Soraluce FR-11000.

Increased capacity

Jim Spark, the company’s global machining leader for sub-sea tree manufacturing, says that forecasts identified the need for increased capacity. “This projected increase, combined with a need to simplify complex set-ups, resulted in us contacting Ward CNC — the exclusive UK agent for Soraluce. Our initial discussions led to a period of extensive technical reviews and meetings with both Ward CNC and Soraluce technical engineers.

“Of course, machining capacity was paramount, and the 150-tool FR-11000 satisfied this with its work envelope of 10,000 x 3,600 x 1,900mm, plus a W axis (quill cross traverse) of 1,000mm. Meanwhile, accuracy is ensured by the use of best-in-class linear guides, Heidenhain scales and Soraluce’s innovative Dynamic Ram compensation system. Furthermore, Soraluce could provide a number of additional features that other suppliers couldn’t.”

GE Oil & Gas specified a number of options to complement the machine’s fourth/fifth-axis rotary/travelling table; this measures 2,500 x 2,000mm and accommodates loads of 40,000kg.

The options included a fixed pick-up station for the automatic changing of machining heads, namely: a 2,500rev/min H342 automatic indexing head (0.001deg increments); a 2,500rev/min 180mm modular quill; a long (1,050mm) 1,500rev/min boring head; a Cogsdill adaptor and ZX900 head; and a Gerardi angular head.

Installed at the same time as the FR-11000, the Soraluce KB150 T-type boring machine features a 46kW spindle drive, 60-tool capacity, a work envelope of 4,000 x 3,200 x 2,000mm, an 800mm W axis for the boring spindle, and a rotary/travelling table that measures 2,000 x 2,500mm and accommodates loads up to 20,000kg.

A number of enhancements were also made to this machine’s ‘standard’ specification. These included a quill support and universal milling head, along with a ‘stock block’ system on the quill for Sandvik ejector drilling — plus the upgrade features necessary for this method of drilling (coolant/refrigeration, an increase in spindle torque to 2,750Nm, and increased thrust in the W and Z axes via different ballscrews).

For the trio of KBW150s on order, GE Oil & Gas specified a host of enhancements, based on its experience with the existing KB150. They include the use of robotic tool-changers and a machine operation based on the combination of ram- and quill-type machining “to ensure optimum performance on components of every size”.

The four Ward CNC-supplied machines at the Charlton Road site replaced older machines of similar capacity. They were supplied from stock.