Ballantine Drill Pipe Overview
Ballantine offers HDD pipe to fit virtually every make and model (both current and older models) of horizontal directional drills. Ballantine offers both upset forged and forged inertia welded pipe, this includes HIWS1 and HIWS2 drill pipe. Like all of our products, Ballantine HDD tubulars meets or exceeds OEM technical specifications so you can be assured of a receiving a dependable, reliable product.
Drill Pipe Manufacturing Methods
Forged or Integral Forged Drill Pipe –
- Is made up solely from one piece of material so that it has the same chemical makeup for the threaded connections and the mid-body tube with no weld zone between them.
- Raw material, or green tube, is saw cut to an exact calculated length to ensure proper finished length tolerances.
- Ends of the green tube are then heated to produce a workable material for the forging or upsetting process.
- Upsetting process forms the steel to create the desired outside diameter, inside diameter and tong length required for the pin and box connection.
- The tube is then heat-treated to a specified grade or hardness and straightened.
- The upset ends are then precision machined and threaded.
Forged, Inertia Welded Drill Pipe –
- Made of three separate pieces – the tube and two threaded connections (tool joints).
- Inertia welding process – forges the metal together without causing a melt to occur. A melt would change the chemistry of the steel.
- Green tube saw cut to length, upsets forged on each end.
- Mid-Body tube is held stationary and tool joints are clamped in a spindle. Spindle is accelerated until a precise speed when the tube and tool joint are forced together.
- Metal-to-metal fusion creates 100% weld penetration.
- The weld zone is then machined, heat-treated and inspected for proper strength and hardness.
Composite aka Press Fit & Welded –
- This process is one of the oldest drill pipe manufacturing processes.
- Similar to the inertia welded pipe in that the tool joints are made separately from bar stock. The mid body is machined so the tool joints can be pressed in the ends of the tube.
- After they are precisely pressed, they go through a migwelding process. After they are welded, the weld zone is properly heat-treated to ensure precise strength and hardness.