Trelleborg opens inspection facility

STOCKHOLM, Sweden—Trelleborg Sealing Solutions has opened a dedicated, climate-controlled swivel stack inspection facility in the Netherlands for the validation of custom seals for the oil and gas market.

It also has unveiled new elastomers aimed at the oil and gas industry, while Trelleborg's oil and marine hose business has launched a new line to handle floating liquefied natural gas extraction.

Trelleborg's new global seal inspection plant is based in Barendrecht, Netherlands, and provides a temperature controlled environment to avoid fluctuation in the dimensions of the seals caused by climate changes, the firm said.

In addition, the center has specialist storage racks allowing seals to be acclimated prior to inspection, and a bespoke inspection table has been installed upon which seals up to 3,000 millimeters can be measured, aided by special lighting.

“The new facility is the only one of its kind within Trelleborg and services our global swivel stack customer base,” said Barry Clough, marketing manager for Trelleborg Sealing Solutions U.K. He said the complex is dedicated to the inspection and validation of only large diameter Floating Production Storage and offloading swivel stack seals.

A permanent staff is in place at the site, a spokeswoman said, “with the best technology on hand to visually inspect seals in offshore applications.”

One of the Trelleborg A.B. group of companies, the firm added the facility to help ensure Floating Production Storage and Offloading operators achieve the highest possible quality for their components, according to Henk-Willem Sanders, technical manager for oil and gas and FPSO Focus Group leader.

The FPSO Focus Group, comprised of a team of experts trained to inspect specialist seals, operates the plant with a staff of four full-time members, Clough said.

“Oilfield operators need to be confident about their equipment,” he said. “If a seal fails during an operation, this can lead to lost production revenues amounting to millions of dollars.”

Clough said the quality of seals for the company's customers “is of the upmost importance, and we are continually striving for excellence, which is why we have launched this dedicated seal inspection and validation facility.

“Typical FPSO seals are from 11 millimeters up to 2,000 millimeters in large cross sections,” he said. “The controlled environment, in combination with the fact that large diameter seals can be inspected, gives our customers unrivalled reassurance when selecting a seal partner.”

Trelleborg Sealing Solutions has come out with two new advanced elastomers, which it said are engineered to withstand extremely low temperatures while meeting rigorous international standards for elastomeric material in oil and gas production.

Its newest offerings—Isolast XploR J9523 perfluoroelastomer (FFKM) and XploR V9T82 fluoroelastomer (FKM)—are engineered to maintain excellent sealing function at very low temperatures while subjected to high pressure conditions, the company said.

Both have met the ISO 23936 standard and revision three of NORSOK M-710.

Trelleborg maintained that oil operators dealing with extreme low temperatures, such as in the North Sea or around Canada and Alaska, can reduce costs with the new elastomers and eliminate the need for pre-heated equipment.

“Low temperature sealing is becoming more common in oil and gas applications, but standard hydrogenated nitrile butadiene rubber and FKM materials offer limited sealing capability below freezing when operated at high pressures,” said Andrew Longdon, United Kingdom technical manager for Trelleborg Sealing Solutions.

He said when an elastomer reaches its glass transition temperature point, its properties change from being elastic and pliable to becoming solid and brittle, making the seal ineffective.

Typical operating temperatures for Isolast XploR J9523 range from -40°C to +240°C or -40°F to +464°F. XpolR V9T82 can normally operate in temperatures from -48°C to +200°C and -54°F to +392°F.

Longdon said “Isolast XploR J9523 and XploR V9T82 are both designed to stand up to rapid gas decompression, are suitable for sour service conditions and have an outstanding extreme low temperature performance.”

He said they also may be a good fit for drilling and intervention equipment stored in subzero conditions before being deployed into high pressure situations.

Trelleborg's oil and marine hose operation has unveiled a new dedicated seawater intake hose engineered specifically to handle the unique requirements of floating liquefied natural gas extraction facilities.

Remote gas extraction presents a variety of challenges because of the critical role of the cooling process in reducing the volume of gas by compressing it into liquid form (LNG) to maximize efficiencies in transportation, the firm said.

It said Trelleborg's new Swiline range of hoses can be used in lengths up to 1,968 feet or more, enabling the use of seawater from greater depths, which can be up to 20°C / 68°F cooler than water at the surface, for the liquefaction process.

The FLNG facilities “offer the potential to effectively extract vast amounts of LNG for industrial and domestic use, but to do that—and ensure the LNG is transported as cost efficiently as possible—effective cooling is critical,” according to Jonathan Petit, project manager for oil and marine hoses at Trelleborg.

That means using seawater that is as cold as possible, he said.

“Our Swiline solution draws on proven proprietary Trelleborg technology to deliver a guaranteed solution in even the most demanding conditions,” Petit said.

The Swiline hose line offers a combination of steel cables in a rubber matrix to minimize creep and has typical tensile strength as high as 1,600 tons for 40-inch hose. The firm said that is a key attribute for higher weights needed to maintain the position of the hose in high currents.