You may have heard that shear blades can cut drill pipes and now wondering, “What are shear blades made of?” Shear blades play a vital role in preventing blowouts during drilling operations. Whenever a potential blowout or ‘kick’ is about to happen, the shear blades will cut the drill pipes. That will stop the fluid under pressure from blowing.
What are shear blades made of? Various hydraulic shears manufacturers use different types of steel to make the blades. However, all the types of steel used to make shear blades must have higher strength and toughness. The blade material must also have good wear resistance. The die steel is an excellent example.
What are shear blades made of? Read this article to find out the different shear blade materials and their pros and cons. #BOPProducts #shearblades #oilandgas Share on XNow, let’s look at the shear blade manufacturing process and common shear materials.
Shear Blade Manufacturing Process
Manufacturing shear blades involves using hard steel materials that can resist tear and wear for a very long time. For that reason, manufacturers have to consider material types, a BOP’s maximum shearing capacity, and the strength and thickness of the drill pipe to be sheared. It helps them make shear blades with optimum shear performance.
Common Shear Blade Materials
Here are the common materials used to manufacture shear blades.
- LD Cold-Work Die Steel: This material was initially used for cold heading die development. It’s strong, challenging, and has good wear resistance.
- Hot-Work Die Steel: It’s an air-cooled hardening die steel with excellent toughness and resistance to cold and hot fatigue properties.
- Alloy Tool Steel: It’s a combination of chromium-silicon steel and a particular amount of tungsten to improve the quenching hardness.
- High-Speed Tool Steel: This material consists of high-alloy high-carbon steel. It’s primarily used to make cutting blades with heavy load and high cutting speed.
Pros and Cons of Each Material
Shear blade materials are beneficial in drilling operations. However, they also have a few drawbacks. Here are the pros and cons of the shear blade materials.
LD Cold-Work Die Steel
- Pro: Has a higher strength, toughness, and wear resistance to manufacture various cold-cutting shear blades.
- Con: This shear blade material is relatively costly.
Hot Work Die Steel
- Pro: It has a high vanadium content, making its temperature performance better than some materials.
- Con: It’s only suitable for the hot shear of steel plates whose temperatures are below 800 degrees Celsius.
Alloy Tool Steel
- Pro: Contains tungsten that helps to preserve fine grains during quenching. Alloy tool steel makes hydraulic shear blades prone to impact loads.
- Con: Only common in shear blades that cut ordinary steel
High-Speed Tool Steel
- Pro: It boasts a high hardness and incredible wear resistance. Most importantly, it can cut other materials at a high cutting speed.
- Con: Despite the benefits, his shear blade material is also very costly.
BOP Products
The good news is that you now know the answer to that question. All you have to do now is select a material that suits your drilling project. Thankfully, you can get all the blowout preventer accessories at BOP Products.
Contact us to learn more about shear blades.
