Selection Guide for Advanced Composites in Oil and Gas Applications

Download the PDF brochure for more information about Toray's advanced composite solutions for the oil and gas industry.

As a major specialty materials supplier, Toray Advanced Composites provides a host of product solutions, including thermoset advanced composite materials, thermoplastic advanced composite materials, bulk composite molding compounds, tooling prepregs, thermoplastic advanced composite materials, compression molding capabilities for part fabrication, honeycomb services, film adhesives and syntactics.

Advanced Composites in the Oil and Gas Industry

All industries demand improved cycle time and shortened downtime. Lowering downtime and maintenance expenses can be achieved using corrosion resistant composite materials.

The deployment of lighter structures, spoolable pipe, and rapid assembly techniques decreases the infrastructure expenses involved in the replacement of pipeline components. Moreover, the work environment will be safer with the use of lightweight materials.

Toray offers lightweight products with a unique combination of high strength, stiffness and improved corrosion resistance. The following are some of the oil and gas applications where Toray products can be used:

• Bridge plugs
• Composite pressure cylinders
• Carbon fiber reinforced tethers
• Electrically pure dielectric structure and enclosures for inspection and monitoring of down holes
• Wrapped pipe and tubing for weight reduction, improved strength, and corrosion resistance
• Molded frac spheres

Toray internal thermoplastic liner and CFRT^® overwrap are used in land and subsea umbilicals (Figure 1). In high pressure applications, downhole bridge plugs have found use as it is easier to drill out composite bridge plugs for removal. Thermoplastics and thermosets can be used in the fabrication of oil and gas pipes.

Figure 1. Land and subsea umbilicals using Toray internal thermoplastic liner and CFRT^® overwrap.

Lightweight compressed natural gas tanks with improved strength can be produced using prepreg tapes as carbon fiber overwraps. Many different gases are stored in compressed gas tanks to open or close valves quickly. For this application, Toray provides a range of thermoset prepregs from epoxy to BMIs for use in high-temperature applications.

The fiber-reinforced spoolable thermoplastic composite pipe is used for umbilicals. It comprises a liner strengthened with glass or carbon fiber utilizing Toray Cetex^® TC1200 polyetheretherketone (PEEK) or Toray Cetex^® TC930 polyethylene (PE) unitapes. The longitudinal reinforcement of this pipe provides high tensile strength and adequate spools ability without fatigue to it.

Thermoplastic Materials Selection Guide

The selection guide for thermoplastic materials is given in the following table:

*For further information on Toray's line of thermoplastic composite materials, please refer to the Toray Cetex^® and CFRT^® Thermoplastic Composite Brochure.

Thermoset Materials Selection Guide

The selection guide for thermoset materials is given in the following table:

Bulk Molding Compounds

Toray's CCS Composites designs and manufactures high-performance compression molded composite components. CCS Composites is a specialist in the design and fabrication of components that take advantage of the properties of molding compounds, especially in the manufacture of extremely high tolerance, geometrically intricate components.

Compression molding is an alternative solution for intricate components typically fabricated from aluminum or titanium (Figure 2). Glass and carbon chopped fiber are the typical reinforcement materials; however other materials are also used.

Figure 2. Compression molding is an alternative solution for intricate structures made of aluminum or titanium.

As a highly controlled process, compression molding uses precise resin infused fiber-reinforced tape made from standard, intermediate or high modulus fibers, and thermoplastic (PEEK, PPS, PEI or Nylon) or thermoset (BMI, cyanate ester, epoxy, and much more) resins.

To make bulk molding compounds, these unitapes are chopped into a fiber length range of 12-258 mm. Smaller length fibers enable molding more intricate structural details into the component, while longer fiber lengths improve strength.

The materials selection guide for bulk molding compounds is given in the following table:

The following table provides comparison of reinforcements:

The following table lists standard weave styles for fabrics:

Conclusion

Toray meets the specific composite material requirements of customers by providing the appropriate solution cost-effectively.

Advanced composites offered by Toray are beneficial to customers in many ways. The advantages include weight reduction, high strength and stiffness, corrosion resistance, excellent toughness and fatigue resistance, ease of fabrication via common molding processes, ability to optimize strength and stiffness, and low flame, smoke and toxicity performance.

This information has been sourced, reviewed and adapted from materials provided by Toray Advanced Composites.

For more information on this source, please visit Toray Advanced Composites.