The Oil & Gas industry is one of the main sectors of the world economy, and the presence of bearings is vital in all its fields. For simplicity it is used to divide the activities related to Oil & Gas into three macro areas depending on whether they refer to the phase of extraction, transport and chemical processing or refining of raw materials, and are called respectively: "upstream", "mainstream" and "downstream".
In the "upstream" phase there is the exploration or localization phase of the areas rich in raw materials, in which they are used and the extraction or production phase that consists in bringing the materials to thesurface, including the drillingphase, in which the mechanical parts work under extremeconditions of mechanical, thermaland chemicalstress. In the "midstream" phase, the extracted materials are transported from the place of extraction to the place of processing. Different methodologies are used depending on the state of the material tobetransported, pipesforiquidi and gas, rail or road shipping for all types of matter. In all cases, the use of conveyor belts, pumps, compressors, valves requires the intensive use of bearings that are in contact or immersed in extracted materials, such as crude oil, coal, natural gas. Finally, in the "downstream" phase, the extracted raw materials are refined and different chemicals are produced for countless uses of modern society,from fuelto fertilizers, to synthetic plastics.
In all three phases, the conditions of use of the machines and bearings operating in them are very chemically aggressive, and corrosion becomes one of the main causes that affect the durability of the machines.
The above chemical environments include acids, bases, organic solvents, and choosing suitable materials can make a difference to the life of the bearing. Some ceramic and plastic materials generally have greater resistance to such aggressive chemical agents than steel. It is important to note that hybrid bearings, while having advantages over their steel-only bearing counterparts, also have the disadvantage of having steel parts (e.g. rings) which are also subject to corrosion. Therefore only full ceramic bearings, with the necessary choices of lubrication, cages and sizing, can offer the highest resistance to corrosion.
Extraction, transport and refining of extracted raw materials.
Corroded bearing used in a fossil fuel pump.
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