WEIR: Advances with technology breakthroughs

Global Weir Edge Services Offerings Expanded

Weir Oil & Gas, a leading upstream provider of pressure pumping and pressure control equipment and services, announced significant enhancements to its Weir Edge™ Services platform at OTC 2019 this year.

Weir Edge™ Services’ new approach is designed to reduce downtime and total cost of ownership and offer expanded support for operators across the globe in the oil and gas industry.

With many of the enhancements impacting its pressure pumping group, Weir Edge™ Services now supports customers utilizing a three-pronged approach:

• An engineering field assist team delivering root cause analysis, and field team training to ensure customers reduce non-productive time and improve operational output on the frac site.
• Repairs rooted in a traceable engineering process to ensure quality aftermarket support delivered by Weir’s global service center footprint.
• New digital empowerment tools to strengthen operator field teams, optimize maintenance and improve asset management.

New for OTC 2019, Weir’s expanded industry-leading team of engineering experts are available 24/7 to support operators globally with repairs that identify the root cause of equipment issues to prevent reoccurrences. Warrantied equipment repairs take an engineered approach to restore equipment to like-new conditions and extend its life, leveraging a 13-point flow, 16-point pump and 19-point fluid end repair process. Operators have complete visibility to review this process through the SPM® RFID/AMP program, Weir’s time-saving RFID and asset management program (AMP).

Weir’s team of experts operate from the largest pressure pumping global service center footprint. With strategically located facilities in every North American basin, Weir service and support is an average of three hours from any operator’s site. This enables Weir Edge™ Services to reduce repair lead-time to some of the shortest in the industry – as quickly as two weeks for large pumps – while still maintaining quality. Weir Edge™ Services provides warranty repairs for frac pumps, fluid ends and flow iron, which consists of a comprehensive multi-point inspection and repair process along with a certificate of quality. Tiered maintenance packages help operators’ budget for maintenance.

Also new at OTC 2019, were the maintenance instructions that are now printed directly on equipment, such as the new SPM® EXL Frac Pump, to help field teams easily maintain components properly and reduce downtime. A digitally-enabled training platform will be available at the end of Q2 2019 which will provide easy customer access to supporting materials like running procedures, manuals and expert advice. These new capabilities enhance existing tools, such as RFID and AMP, and address the challenges many operators face with onboarding field teams burdened by the need to maintain a broad range of equipment on site.

Weir Edge™ Services engineering experts also optimize operations and safety standards with offerings such as SafeEdge™ Safety Rental Systems, designed to mitigate and minimize the impact of incidents caused by over-pressured iron. An example is the recently launched SPM® SafeEdge™ Automated Relief Valve Control (ARC) System, also new at OTC 2019, which reduces non-productive time through its autonomous reporting and monitoring capability while enhancing personnel safety. Highly skilled, trained and audited field crews follow engineered operating procedures to complete installations on-time with safety best practices for iron systems that have the highest level of integrity from the first installment through every subsequent installment.

For easy access to aftermarket parts, Weir Edge™ Services now offers EdgeX™ Expendable Parts and Mobile Trailers which can be deployed to operators’ sites and provide on-the-shelf inventory for expendable parts, further ensuring uptime. This provides customers with on-demand consignment inventory that further increases uptime and lowers inventory cost at the frac site

“Weir understands that reducing downtime and lowering total cost of ownership are essential in order to remain competitive in today’s marketplace. Our expanded, three-pronged approach to Weir Edge™ Services ensures our customers’ operations are functioning at the highest level possible with exceptional access to engineering experts and extensive equipment repairs, aftermarket support, and digitally enabled empowerment tools that enable tracking assets, employee training and equipment maintenance, among others,” said David Paterson, Pressure Pumping President, Weir Oil & Gas. “We believe that by leveraging these offerings globally, this enhanced approach to our Weir Edge™ Services program will deliver a competitive edge to operators.”

Weir’s New SPM® EXL Frac Pump Has Highest Rod Load Rating in its Class

Weir Oil & Gas, a leading upstream provider of pressure pumping and pressure control equipment and services, introduced at OTC 2019 its new SPM® EXL Frac Pump – engineered from the ground up to be the most durable, longest-lasting 2500 horsepower pump on the market. With the highest rod load rating in its class at 238,000 pounds, Weir’s SPM® EXL Frac Pump is designed to withstand today’s harshest fracking conditions and ease maintenance for operators’ field teams.

Weir engineered the SPM® EXL Frac Pump to address major challenges operators currently face: the need for longer pumping hours with extended maintenance cycles and irregular maintenance practices caused by inexperienced field teams struggling to maintain an ever-growing inventory of equipment. To build a pump capable of withstanding the inevitable abuse of today’s operations, Weir examined the most common failure modes of frac pumps and designed targeted engineering solutions to address them. Throughout the development process, Weir applied key learnings garnered from its flagship SPM® QEM 3000 pump, resulting in a pump more reliable than any other in its class.

The new pump frame is constructed with an integrated skid designed to reduce vibrations across the frame and increase stiffness, thus reducing stress on the weld. The frame also drastically reduces the number of internal groove welds to reduce cracking. All welds are located on the outside of the frame, making them more accessible.

To address the higher stresses put on the gear system from high torque encountered when operating at high rod loads, Weir completely redesigned the gears and pinions utilizing the latest manufacturing techniques to provide greater surface area contact on the bull gears and reduce the risk of stripping them.

Additionally, a key focus of the new pump is to reduce the amount of onsite maintenance required for operators. To accomplish that goal Weir introduced the SPM® Everbore™, a hardened steel packing bore which eliminates wash boarding and protects against packing bore wash so there is no need to re-sleeve. It is designed to last the entire lifetime of the fluid end and is intended to eliminate maintenance in the red zone.

“This pump is a true testament to how Weir leverages our engineering expertise to offer our customers a pump with the highest rod load rating in its class with unmatched reliability,” said Paul Coppinger, President, Weir Oil & Gas. “We are committed to driving towards having zero maintenance in the red zone, and this newly engineered pump represents innovation and progress toward that goal for our customers.”

Weir’s new SPM® EXL Frac Pump is designed as a drop-in replacement for existing QWS 2500 pumps and other 2500 pumps, eliminating the need for trailer retrofits. The pump also simplifies maintenance and repair with maintenance guides and information printed directly on the fluid end. Training videos will be available end of Q2 2019.

The SPM® EXL Frac Pump is supported by Weir Edge™ Services, Weir’s global service offering. With service and training centers in every U.S. basin and every part of the globe, Weir Edge™ Services supports operators with a three-pronged approach that includes global access to engineering experts, engineered repairs, highly skilled aftermarket support, and industry-leading digital empowerment tools for Weir and other OEM equipment.

About Weir Oil & Gas

Weir Oil & Gas provides superior products and service solutions to make our customers more efficient and lower total cost of ownership.

More customers choose our pressure pumping solutions than any other. We provide well service and stimulation pumps, flow control products, replacement expendable parts and supporting engineered repair services. Weir’s Pressure Control solutions include wellheads, API valves and frac trees, managed pressure drilling equipment including chokes, separators and containment equipment. Globally we deliver engineered mechanical and rotating equipment repairs and upgrades, oilfield and drilling equipment repair and certification, rapid prototyping of spare parts, robust asset management and field engineering services. Discover more at www.global.weir.