Elastomers
The elastomers are key components used in most of Saltel Industries products. It is the base material of the inflatable packers and also the means of sealing our Expandable Steel Patches and Packers. R&D knowledge includes
- Development, mixing and tests of new compounds (HNBR, FKM, FEPM, FFKM)
- Swelling elastomers
- Elastomer-to-metal bonding
Many tests can be performed internally on Saltel Industries proprietary elastomer compounds such as tensile tests, compression set measurement, hardness tests, air/fluid aging, HCl compatibility, swelling pressure tests, and elastomer-to-metal bonding shear tests.
Metallic materials
Metallic materials knowledge is crucial to develop reliable and life-of-the-well expandable steel solutions. Metallic materials should be compatible with the well conditions and the expansion process. R&D knowledge includes
- Metallurgy
- Corrosion (NACE, Literature, Tests…)
- Plastic deformation
- Welding
As an example, elongation and tensile properties of several metallurgies with different manufacturing processes and heat treatments have been tested internally with our tensile testing equipment.
FEA (Finite Element Analysis)
Elastomer, steel, fluid and rock models are incorporated within FEA analysis to validate and improve the design at early stages. The FEA is used for
- Products general design
- Metal / Elastomer / Borehole interfaces
- Expandable seals for HP/HT and Cased hole / Openhole
- Multiphysics (Thermal effects, Fluidics…)
- Stress applied to the formation
- Non-Liner Simulation
Downhole tool design
Design rules specific to downhole tools have been acquired through the development of the product range. This knowledge such as design rules, CAD tips, calculation sheets are put in a unique R&D Best Practice document. This document is available to all the R&D engineers on the knowledge management platform.
- Design rules and Calculation sheets
- Design guidelines and Best practices
CAD (left) and R&D Best Practice document (right)
Expandable steel patch downhole expansion tools
