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Kocsis LockBox™ Accumulators

Kocsis  LockBox™ AccumulatorsKocsis-Logo

 As featured in Oil, Gas & Petrochem Equipment magazine:

KTI Introduces Patent Pending Design

A new piston accumulator design now addresses the issues of offshore accumulator service and reduces disassembly times of piston accumulators from weeks to minutes.

Kocsis Technologies, Inc. (KTI) has developed a new piston accumulator design to address the issues of offshore accumulator service.  This new patent pending design is called Lockbox™.

lockbox

The common maintenance interval between overhauls is five years.  During this essential maintenance period the piston accumulators are disassembled, inspected, repaired and recertified.  This process is something that is not easy and certainly does not happen fast.  In an industry that time really does mean money, downtime can approach and surpass the seven figure mark quite rapidly.  In an effort to minimize the impact of this downtime, rig personnel will attempt to disassemble these accumulators offshore. The most often results in frustration and disappointment as the units are not easily serviced without complex tooling. In some instances, the offshore service may damage the accumulators beyond repair resulting in the need for the accumulators needing to be completely replaced.

KTI has been supplying piston accumulators for the offshore industry since the early 2000's and has seen its fair share of units come back from the field for recertification.  Some of the units have been repairable and some are not.  The traditional design features a threaded retaining ring which holds the head into place at the end of the housing. This configuration is commonly supplied by various piston accumulator manufacturers and has been the industry standard. The problem is the large thread, sometimes exceeding 18 inches in diameter, is quite susceptible to corrosion even when made out of common subsea grades of stainless steel. When this corrosion "eats away" at the parent material of the ring and housing it often fuses the two parts together thus making offshore service nearly impossible.lockbox-illust

We at KTI have used this opportunity to solve a major industry problem.  Recently, with the help of an incredibly innovative staff of engineers, Todd Peterson, KTI Engineering Manager, has developed this patent pending design to solve this problem.  The result of over a year of work is a unit that successfully eliminates this issue.  This revolutionary design takes the issue of corroded large threads out of the equation.  The unique end configuration makes service of piston accumulators on the rig less complicated.  Disassembly times can now be measured in minutes instead of weeks.  With the use of common tooling, which is easily found offshore, the accumulators can be disassembled, inspected, have the seals replaced and be reassembled in a fraction of the time.

“We are excited about the new Lockbox™ product,” said Brandon Richards, General Manager.  “This design was created based on feedback from our customers and the difficulty they were having in servicing piston accumulators offshore.  The simplicity of the Lockbox™ makes servicing the accumulators on the rig more efficient and gets the product back into service quicker.”

In an effort to prove the Lockbox™ design's robust nature, a prototype has been manufactured and tested. Not only was it subjected to factory hydrotesting at 1.5 times the working pressure, but it was also extensively tested in a hyperbaric chamber at a third party lab to prove reliable function at depth.  The results have proven that the unit not only works as intended but it can be assembled, tested and disassembled multiple times without issue.  Significant interest has been given to this product by various oil and gas equipment builders and drillers alike.  We hope that you are as excited about this new product as we are to sell it.

Strumco Air Starter
Ph:  780.468.0050
sales@strumco.com