Material science, tooling and wear-resistant solutions provider Kennametal Inc. (Latrobe, Pa.) announced it has signed a multimillion-dollar distribution agreement for its KennaFlow valve seats with Gardner Denver (Milwaukee), a global provider of industrial equipment and related parts and services to oil and gas and other markets. Under the agreement, announced at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, Gardner Denver becomes a Kennametal authorized distributor of KennaFlow long-lasting, solid tungsten carbide seats for fracturing pumps.
Valves and seats are mission-critical components in hydraulic fracturing pumps. As the intensity of frac service increases and the timing between stages decreases, there is growing demand for components that provide superior abrasion resistance and longer life. KennaFlow seats achieve an operating life of up to 1100 hours compared to traditional steel seat operating life of approximately 100 hours, reducing expensive downtime due to change-outs. KennaFlow seats feature a full open seat design, improved geometry, and optimized dimensions to better meet industry needs.
“We know that downtime in the field is expensive to our customers, so we engineered KennaFlow seats to deliver up to 10 times the component life of steel seats,” said Ron Port, vice president of Kennametal Inc., and president of the infrastructure business segment. “It’s game-changing technology, and we’re pleased to partner with Gardner Denver to bring Kennametal innovation to our global customers.”
Greg Hash, vice president of engineering at Gardner Denver Pumps, added: “At Gardner Denver, we’re in the business of delivering solutions that help solve our customers’ biggest operational challenges. Longer-wear KennaFlow seats are a huge leap forward in flow technology for fracking, and we’re proud to partner with Kennametal to bring these to the oil and gas market.”
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