Honghua HHF-1300 HHF-1600 with Blak-JAK Mud Pump

Rack Structure and Stress Elimination Process

The HHF series mud pump frame employs a high-strength steel plate welded structure. Compared to traditional cast frames, this welded design achieves enhanced rigidity while significantly reducing weight. To eliminate residual thermal stresses from welding, all frames undergo rigorous overall annealing prior to machining. This critical process prevents geometric deformation under prolonged high-load alternating stress (HHF-1600 operating at 120 SPM). Such deformation would cause coaxiality deviations between the crankshaft, pinion shaft, and crosshead guide plate, ultimately leading to bearing overheating and premature wear on moving components.

Transmission System: Dynamic Advantages of the Herringbone Gear

Both the HHF-1300 and HHF-1600 utilize herringbone gears for primary drive with a gear ratio of 4.206:1. This design choice over straight or bevel gears addresses the critical need for stable torque transmission in deep well drilling operations.

• Axial force self-balancing: The A-frame gear consists of two helical gears with opposite helix angles. This structure ensures that the axial thrust generated during gear meshing cancels each other out. As a result, the main bearings of the pinion shaft and crankshaft are not subjected to additional axial loads, significantly extending their service life.
• The overlap degree and stability: The V-gear has a higher overlap degree, that is, more teeth are engaged at the same time. This makes the load distribution more uniform, the transmission more stable, and the vibration and noise at high speed are significantly reduced, which is very important for protecting the precision instrument and the auxiliary pipeline on the pump body.

crankshaft and cross head assembly

The crankshaft, the core moving component of the power end, features an integral eccentric design in the HHF series, cast or forged from alloy steel. This design offers superior overall strength and fatigue resistance compared to composite crankshafts.

• Crosshead and Guide Plate: The crosshead, a critical component connecting the connecting rod and intermediate rod, is designed for wear resistance in HHF pumps. Typically made of ductile iron and equipped with replaceable guide plates, it primarily withstands lateral thrust (Side Thrust) generated by connecting rod oscillation, ensuring only pure axial force is transmitted to the piston rod at the hydraulic end.
• Extension Rod and Sealing: The extension rod (Extension Rod) features a double-seal structure that penetrates the power-side partition plate, effectively preventing drilling fluid from the hydraulic side from entering the power-side oil reservoir while also blocking lubricant leakage.

Lubrication System: Dual Protection of Splash and Forced Lubrication

To ensure that all friction pairs in the power end can be fully lubricated under various working conditions, the HHF-1300/1600 adopts a compound lubrication system combining forced lubrication and splash lubrication.

• Forced lubrication: The gear oil pump delivers lubricating oil directly to key components like the main bearing, connecting rod bearing, and crosshead pin through pipelines. This not only lubricates these parts but also dissipates heat generated by friction.
• Splash lubrication: relies on the rotation of the large gear to splash the oil in the oil pool to the tooth surface and the cross head guide plate, as an auxiliary lubrication means, to ensure that the oil pump sudden failure or start instant can also provide basic lubrication protection.

Frictional Dilemma and "Hammer Effect" of Threaded Connection

Traditional cylinder casing fixation and valve cover sealing rely on large-sized threaded retainers or flange bolts. On drilling sites, these threaded connections face severe challenges:

Thread galling: Solid particles in drilling fluids, salts, and micro-wear under high-pressure conditions can easily cause corrosion or particle jamming in thread gaps.

1. The nonlinear relationship between torque and preload: Engineering principles indicate that only about 10% of the torque applied to a nut is converted into actual bolt tension (i.e., clamping force), while the remaining 90% is dissipated by thread friction and end face friction. This ratio becomes even lower when the threads are rusted or poorly lubricated.
2. Dangers of hammer disassembly: To overcome the enormous static friction when removing a seized nut, workers must use a heavy hammer to strike a specialized wrench.
3. HSE risks: This is a high-risk zone for personal injury accidents on drilling platforms, where finger crush injuries, eye injuries from flying debris, and chronic musculoskeletal damage are common occurrences.

Device damage: repeated violent impact will lead to thread deformation, frame mounting hole cracking, even damage the hydraulic end module body.

The problem of eccentric wear caused by rigid centering

In the standard configuration, the connection between the piston rod and the intermediate tie rod is rigid. However, due to the settlement of the frame foundation, the wear of the crosshead guide plate, or minor errors during the installation of the cylinder liner, it is difficult to maintain absolute alignment between the piston centerline and the cylinder liner centerline.

This **coaxiality deviation (Misalignment)** causes the piston to exert a persistent lateral force on the cylinder liner's inner wall during reciprocating motion.

• The consequence is that the polyurethane rubber on one side of the piston is over-compressed, the friction heat is increased sharply, the rubber is aged and peeling off quickly, the sealing failure may occur on the other side, and the "sting piston" accident may happen.

Maintenance Efficiency and Non-Production Time (NPT)

Cylinder liner and piston replacement is the most frequent maintenance task for mud pumps. Under traditional hammering methods, replacing all components of a three-cylinder pump typically takes 3-4 hours, requiring at least three skilled workers to work in shifts. For drilling platforms with high daily rates (especially offshore platforms), this 4-hour downtime translates to direct economic losses of tens of thousands of dollars.

Blak-Jak Cylinder Pressing System: Decoupling of Hydraulic Tensioning and Mechanical Locking

This is the core of the Blak-Jak system, physically separating the functions of 'generating clamping force' and 'maintaining clamping force' between Hydra-CEL™ and Lok-CEL™ respectively.

Lok-CEL™ (Mechanical Locking Unit)

The Lok-CEL is a permanent pump body component designed to replace traditional threaded gland assemblies. Constructed from high-yield alloy steel, it can withstand extreme cyclic loads generated by pumps operating at discharge pressures of 5000 PSI or 7500 PSI.

• Design features: The Lok-CEL eliminates complex hydraulic mechanisms, ensuring absolute reliability in harsh operating conditions. It maintains the cylinder liner position through a manually rotating locking ring (Locking Ring).

Hydra-CEL™ (Hydraulic Tensioning Tool)

Hydra-CEL is a detachable hydraulic tool designed exclusively for cylinder liner installation or removal.

• Materials Science: Designed for single-user operation, the Hydra-CEL's main body is constructed from aviation-grade aluminum alloy. This material features a low density (approximately one-third that of steel), reducing tool weight by over 25%. Its anodized surface provides exceptional corrosion resistance, effectively resisting erosion from both brine and drilling fluids.
• operational principle ：

1. Installation phase: Mount the Hydra-CEL onto the Lok-CEL and connect the manual hydraulic pump.
2. Hydraulic Tensioning: Hydraulic oil is pumped in, generating substantial axial force from Hydra-CEL to stretch the connecting bolts of Lok-CEL while simultaneously compressing the cylinder liner inward. This process compresses the cylinder liner gasket to its designed load capacity.
3. Zero-torque locking: With hydraulic pressure maintained, the operator simply manually tightens the locking ring on the Lok-CEL until it contacts the pump body's end face.
4. Release and Removal: Release the hydraulic pressure. The bolt's spring force is absorbed by the locking ring, securing the cylinder liner firmly. Remove the Hydra-CEL tool.

• Advantage analysis: The entire process requires no hammering, as the clamping force applied to the cylinder liner flange is entirely determined by hydraulic pressure, ensuring extreme precision and uniformity. This eliminates flange deformation or localized overload of the sealing gasket caused by uneven bolt preload.

HydrA-LIGN™ self-centering piston rod assembly

1. Floating mechanism: The HydrA-LIGN rod design incorporates a specialized joint that enables the piston to perform both radial movement and angular deflection relative to the intermediate rod.
2. Frictional effect: This "floating" capability allows the piston to automatically seek the geometric center of the cylinder liner. In fluid lubrication theory, it helps maintain a uniform lubricating film between the piston rubber and the cylinder liner wall, preventing dry friction.
3. Prolonged service life: Field data indicates that the use of HydrA-LIGN rods significantly extends the service life of pistons and cylinder liners by eliminating lateral loads, while also reducing wear on the intermediate rod stuffing box.

Torque Pro™ Quick-assembly Valve Cover System

The HHF-1300/1600 utilizes API 7# valve housings, whose heavy and hard-to-disassemble valve covers are addressed by the Torque Pro system through hydraulic technology integration.

• Quarter-turn disassembly: The system uses a hydraulic wrench to tension the valve cover plate. Once the hydraulic pressure releases the preload, the operator simply needs to rotate the plate a quarter turn to remove it.
• Safety enhancement: This eliminates the need to swing a large hammer in the narrow space of the pump head, significantly reducing operational risks.

Hydraulic end module metallurgical specifications

For working pressures ranging from 5000 PSI to 7500 PSI, the hydraulic end module must demonstrate exceptional strength and toughness.

• Material selection: The hydraulic end modules in the HHF series are typically forged from AISI 4135 (chromium-molybdenum alloy steel) or AISI 8620 (nickel-chromium-molybdenum alloy steel).

AISI 4135: With excellent hardenability and fatigue resistance, it is suitable for high-pressure pulsating loads.

AISI 8620: As a surface-hardening steel, it achieves exceptional surface hardness and outstanding wear resistance after carburizing, while maintaining excellent toughness in its core.

• Heat treatment: the forging is normalized, quenched and tempered to obtain the range of Brinell hardness HB 285-330.

Lower hardness limit (HB 285): Ensures the inner cavity will not suffer 'washout' under high-pressure fluid erosion.

Hardness upper limit (HB 330): prevents material from becoming excessively brittle and avoids fatigue cracks at stress concentration areas (e.g., intersection line or hole openings).

• Processing quality: The chamfering and surface finish at the cavity intersection are critical. The HHF module requires that the contact area between the two positioning taper holes be no less than 75% after rolling to ensure rigid connection with the frame.

HHF-1600 Comprehensive Performance Data Sheet

Table 1: Performance parameters of Macro HHF-1600 Slurry Pump (based on 12 inch /304.8mm stroke)

Note: The HHF-1300 has a rated input power of 1300 HP. While maintaining the same flow rate (as the hydraulic end is universal), the rated pressure will be correspondingly reduced under the same cylinder liner dimensions.

Job Process Comparison: Replacement of All Three Cylinders

Table 2: Comparison of Maintenance Operation Time and Action Decomposition

Economic benefit calculation

Assuming a deepwater drilling platform has a daily spread rate of $100,000, this translates to approximately $4,166 per hour.

• Cost of the traditional approach: 4 hours of downtime = $16,664.
• Cost of Blak-Jak method: $4,166 for 1 hour downtime.
• $12,498 saved per job.

Considering the frequency of changing cylinder liner, piston and valve seat in a year, the pump can save tens of thousands of US dollars of hidden non-productive time cost per year, which does not include the huge compensation and legal risk avoided because of reducing the work accident.

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