Oxfordshire-based Hardide Coatings (www.hardide.com) has provided a coating solution for a new tool that will save oil and gas operators millions of pounds per year by extending the ‘weather window’ for drilling operations.

Well construction specialist DeltaTek Global selected the Hardide-T chemical vapour deposition (CVD) tungsten carbide-based coating for the key component of its new ArticuLock tool.

It gives operators longer to deploy sub-sea hardware and improve its operational reliability by removing bending fatigue in sub-sea running tools and landing strings.

The Hardide-T coating was used on the tool’s ball-and-socket pivot joint, which is subject to extreme loads and torque while operating in severe wind, wave and current conditions.

Delays due to bad weather cost operators £400 million per year in the UK alone, and up to 20% of drilling budgets are allocated to waiting for the weather to improve.

The use of ArticuLock will allow operators to run tools in weather that would previously have caused drilling to be suspended.

The severe operating conditions meant that a hard-wearing coating was needed for the pivot joint body, while the complex grooved geometry of the ball presented a further challenge.

Hardide Coatings and DeltaTek worked together to achieve the necessary hardness, thickness and smooth surface finish through coating and polishing alone, rather than using grinding.

The ArticuLock was successfully field-trialled on the Stena IceMAX, a harsh-environment ice-class drill-ship. It is expected to be used in regions as varied as the North Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, West Africa and Western Australia.

Hardide Coatings is also supporting DeltaTek on its Seacure cementing tool, which will be field-tested west of Shetland in early 2019.