Product Innovation - Assignment Example

Product Innovation 1. Product Market Flanges are the most essential mechanical component or part that is being used exclusively in large numbers during a drilling process and even in the production phase of an oil and gas. This product innovation is majorly concerned with the product market, manufacturing and selection of materials, and improved processes concerning the assembly of flanges and ring gaskets in well head equipment. The existence of product market is therefore enormous all over the world, since all exploration and production companies have been heavily involved in exploring and producing oil and gas, which has become the major basic commodity of the modern world since all vehicles, transport and heavy machineries need this commodity to run their activities. Consequently the production of oil and gas is continuous necessitating the presence of all equipments needed for production including the smaller fraction of it that is the assembly of flanges required in Christmas tree and well head equipments for controlling the flow of production from oil and gas well. (William C. Lyons & Gary J Plisga, 2005) As for the potential in the global market is concerned, if only Saudia-Arab and Kuwait are considered then the official report of Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (2010-11) reveals the fact that there is huge declared potential still left in both the countries and it is well enumerated as 264.5 billion barrels in Saudia Arabia and 101.5 billion barrels in Kuwait alone in the year 2010. In the past 18 years Saudia Arabia has only utilized 60 billion barrels and the report regarding Kuwait declared reserves is unchanged from the year 1991 to 2002. Therefore there is huge amount of work that can be done to produce oil and gas. Definitely there is huge capacity left for the servicing and manufacturing firms for the assembly of flanges. 2. Product Specifications Now in this mechanical assembly of flanges, it has two components with the related assembly; the product specification will spotlight for process and material selection for the manufacturing of the two products. These two components are flange and ring gasket. These are mechanically utilized in well head equipments. The sizes and dimensions are actually defined by the customer and the type and size of well head equipment used. This means that Exploration and Production Company will itself inform the product manufacturing firm for dimensioning requirements. Normally these requirements are government by standard provided by American Petroleum institute, the specification that covers the product specifications of assembly of flange used in well head and Christmas tree is API 6A (2004). Well head equipments are the primary equipment used in drilling and production of oil and gas. This equipment is installed at the land of the well. This equipment is used to deliver the hierarchal and over all support to all the drilling and production structures. The major purpose of the equipment is to provide the necessary support to the suspension area as well as the tubing that go deep in to the well (H Rabia, 1985). There are other several functions of the well head equipment these includes sealing of the casings, a way for accessing well, attachment of Christmas tree or production valves on the top is only possible through well head equipment. Now the flanges are used to connect different parts of well head, as well as the pipes within the well. The pressure of the mud coming out of well is huge and thus the design specifications of the well head equipment should be accordingly catered. Now the flanges are the integral part of the well head equipment, their design considerations and specifications are vital in manufacturing, any problem in its designing can even maltreat the whole project of oil and gas or can result in severe consequences. 3. Analysis of functions and systems So for the flange assembly, it is essential to know few things, the components of the flange assembly and the desired location where these flanges will be used. So for this purpose the following equipments need to be visualized and understood. This flange assembly includes Flange, Ring Gaskets while the other locations where these will be used are Christmas tree and well head equipment. Flanges are used to join pipes during drilling as well as in production these are used in two major equipments those are well head equipment and Christmas tree. For integrating pipes assembly flanges are very efficient tools as compare to other processes. By the use of flanges pipes can easily be integrated or disintegrated. For this purpose of easily assembling the pipes, the usage of flanges have superseded all remaining processes of assembly like welding, connectors, and manual fittings. Hence flanges are the most exclusive components that are used for joining and disjoining the pipes (Mohinder Nayyar, 1999). Within flanges, ring gaskets are utilized to close up the annular space between the two mating male and female flanges. In oil and gas sector it is very vital to prevent any leakage because the leakage can result in a disaster known as blow out at the oil rig platform. Therefore designing of a flange and ring gaskets to seal the meeting of the flanges are vital element for consideration and this is the reason it is a subject of product innovation. 4. Product Illustrations Flanges are easy devices used for immediate assembling and disassembling. If ring gaskets or sealing is not used in these flanges then there will be leakage. These are components that are used for flange assembly in order to seal the flange assembly. Their manufacturing is of high importance and their functional credibility is a major concern. A simple assembly of flange and ring gaskets is shown in this figure. As discussed earlier, well head equipment is an assembly of different component; primary purpose is to provide support for drilling strings deep inside the well. Flanges are the essential component of this equipment. It is placed at the surface of the well. Christmas tree is equipment that is mounted just above the well head; this equipment is used for production controlling, production delivering and adding additive chemicals into the mud material. This equipment is also composed of flange assembly and is joined by the well head equipment with a flange assembly (Ron Baker, 2000). 5. Controlled Dimensional Requirements The exploration and production companies provide some requirements. The oil and gas production companies are the clients for the manufacturing of flange assembly, they will define the maximum pressure rating, maximum temperature rating, hardness requirement, environmental chemicals, sizes of the components they need. On account of which other Controlled Dimensional Requirements like nut diameter, bolt diameter, threads, ring gaskets, flanges types and other criterions will be selected. The Controlled Dimensional Requirements are based on the above standard of API 6A (2004), which proposes a detail guide of all the manufacturing ins and outs for the flange assembly which is the product innovated. The standard even provides the details of even the very minute components of flange assembly like nuts, bolts and studs for assembling purposes. The selection is based on the detailed API 6A (2004), where all sizes tables for each component of a flange is defined, moreover material requirement can also be specified from there. API 6A (2004) provides explanation for all flanges, ring gaskets, studs, nuts and bolts. Table 4 and table 5 of API 6A (2004) specifies the material rating of the required flange when pressure rating is defined by the customer. For example the pressure rating is 207 MPA then the flange material designation is 75K, on which we can find the yield strength, the tensile strength from table 5 as for 75k it is 517 MPA material yield strength, and 655 MPA tensile strength and other physical requirements of the material can be well understood from these tables. Both the two tables are discussed in other section material selection. 6. Materials And Their Required Properties As for the material selection of ring gaskets section 5.5 of API 6A (2004) tells us about the following table, in which we can see that maximum hardness rating is there. Because ring gaskets play their part on sealing areas where these are permanently indented hence hardness is the criterion for selection. So the client specifies the maximum hardness value which is usually proposed more than the operating value. API 6A (2004) enables us to identify the material of ring gasket directly through this table. In flange materials, pressure rating is the factor to decide the material type or gradation. Table 4 of API 6A (2004) reveals us that on different pressure ratings there are different gradation of materials. This gradation is noted for the purpose to study material properties from API 6A (2004). As we have got the material gradation from table 4, we will use this gradation to specify the material properties. These material properties can help in directly selecting a material fulfilling such property. For example 60K is our material designation then the table shows us that yield strength is 414 MPA and other physical quantities can also be found on the same. With the help of table 8 of API 6A (2004), one can select the alloying elements or material composition by just a specific designation of material. It is again not necessary to use any material composition fulfilling the material properties specified by table 5 can be used. Ring gasket materials as discussed earlier can be found out easily. The below table is formed with the help of API 6A (2004). The table under section 5.5 and table under section 8.7.3 of API 6A (2004) are merged together, only the hardness values are taken in HBW instead of HRB in the following table: Where CRA stands for corrosion resistant alloy, this column is left for customer choice in API 6A (2004). Through the above table of API 6A (2004) material specification for ring gasket will not be a problem for engineers. The details of Flanges’ material can be selected from the following table after analyzing all before parameters of material selection. This table not only tells the material but also the type of flange that will be used for the specific yield value or HBW value. Connections Material Min. Yield/Min. HBW 6B Weld Neck Flanges Carbon Steel 45K/140 Integral Flanges and Hubs Low Alloy Steel, or 410 Martinsitic Stainless Steel 60K/174, 75K/197 6BX Weld Neck Flanges Low Alloy Steel 60K/174, 75K/197 7. Propose Design Improvements There are few problems and limitations if one go for forming process for flange, this is because flanges will fracture soon, and the forming process will take the help of plastic deformation to give the required shape of the flange. The material will be under the effect of stresses and hence the stresses can be trapped therefore the material when it will be working might rupture. The other reason is the same, for every new type of flange a new die is required which is too costly. On the other hand if we go CNC programmed machining, this is a good process in the long term. The process is flexible for any change and the resultant strength required can be achieved with high surface finish and timely product. Centrifugal Casting is not recommendable for this process it is because flanges have different features which cannot be achieved through centrifugal casting, hence programmed machining is compulsory. Why not use CNG programmed machining from the inception?? Definitely both in terms of cost and process reliability CNC programming is the best option for manufacturing a flange. The orders that clients make every time is neither exactly similar, not these are entirely different. This means that group technology should be implemented in such manufacturing facility. Every type of flanges is associated with part classification and coding scheme. For every order a part family is to be selected which suits the order best. A part family should be grouped on similar designing features, so that a new order can be easily designed on the basis of existing part family design (W Quan, 2006). Few alterations will be enough and the soft version of the design is then to be programmed automatically through CNC, and then the resultant part is produced in just the nick of time. There should be a composite part for each part family that contains all the complex features of all the parts in part family. This composite part is actually to be modified with the help of CAD software available with the CNC. This how an optimum proposal of manufacturing plans for above assembly of flange can be designed. The assembly of the two mating flanges is simple. A nut, bolt and stud are required. The spacing area is filled with the ring gasket while the flanges are joined with the help of nuts, studs and bolts on all the required areas of the flange. The flange assembly looks like as ring gaskets sandwiched between two male and female flanges. BIBLIOGRAPHIES: American Petroleum Institute. API Composite List. API. [Online] Available from: http://compositelist.api.org/. [Accessed: 5 August 2011] API (2004) 6A Specification for Wellhead and Christmas Tree Equipment. Northwest Washington, API. API. API 2010 Publications Programs and Services. s.l.: API, 2010. Baker, Ron. A Primer of Oilwell Drilling. 6th edition: Amazon Publishers. Nayyar, Mohinder. (1999). Piping Handbook. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1999. ISBN 0070471061 OPEC. Annual Statistical Bulletin 2010-11. Austria: Ueberreuter Print und Digimedia. Pakistan, Department of Industrial and manufacturing (2010) Feasibility Study Of a Manufacturing Facility to Develop API 6a License IMD NEDUET KARACHI. Quan, W. (2006) Study on Collaborative Mechanism for Product Design in Distributed Concurrent Engineering. IEEE. Rabia, H. (1985). Oilwell drilling engineering: principles and practice . London: Graham and Trotman, 1985. ISBN / 0860106616 William C. Lyons (1996) Hand book of petroleum and natural gas engineering Houstan, Texas Gulf publishing company. William C. Lyons, Gary J Plisga (2005) Standard Hand book of petroleum and natural gas engineering Houston, Texas, Gulf professional publishing. Read More