Hydraulic drives keep manufacturer on the front lines

Warrior Manufacturing Services is a Canadian producer of drilling equipment based in Calgary, Alta. Since its start in 2005, the company has seen and undergone significant changes. But one thing that remains in 2014 is Warrior’s trust in Hägglunds direct drives from Bosch Rexroth.

Evolving with Hägglunds

“We’ve seen the oil business come and go,” says sales and marketing representative Stephen McGrath. “That’s the way it works — big booms, big depressions. We’re maybe not seeing as big a boom after 2008 as before, but we seem to be on the upswing again.”

When Warrior started out, it was as a producer of portable drilling rigs, focused on shallow gas and coal bed methane (CBM). At the time, the company used Hägglunds hydraulic direct drives to power its drawworks and mud pumps. Today, Warrior does business in Alberta and beyond, but as a different type of manufacturer.

“We’re serving customers on the oil and gas exploration side of things,” says McGrath. “We’ve switched focus from doing complete rigs to specific components for drilling, like pipe-handling equipment and top drives.” 

Compact torque is essential

Jeff Blacklock, Warrior’s vice-president of engineering and technical services, relates that while there is still CBM work in Alberta, the push in recent years has been toward large horizontal wells and well stimulation. 

“With that, the torque requirements of the top drives are only increasing, and there we see a real advantage with Hägglunds,” he says. “The Hägglunds CA motor has definitely helped us to compete.”

The reason, he says, is the ability to pack a lot of horsepower into a very small footprint. At a supply pressure of 5,000 psi, Warrior can get well over 30,000 ft-lbs of torque to the quill.

This would require a larger installation with an AC drive, and the difference can be of critical importance.

“When retrofitting older rigs, a lot of times the masts simply aren’t designed for top drives,” Blacklock says. “They can be very skinny at the top, which can make a top drive difficult to install. A small drive footprint can actually make the difference between a top drive working or not working.”

Straight from motor to quill

Contributing to the small footprint of the Hägglunds concept is the direct drive concept, which has yet another advantage for Warrior’s hydraulic top drives. When the torque is transferred directly to the drill string, a vulnerability is removed. 

“The Hägglunds design is coupled directly to the quill via the splines inside the motor,” Blacklock explains. “This creates a very high level of reliability and maximizes uptime and minimizes the risk of costly failures.“

The future

For customers, the power and security of Warrior’s hydraulic top drives is complemented by their fully variable speed, and by the two-speed shifting enabled by a Hägglunds motor with a two-speed manifold. 

Blacklock and McGrath agree that there is a real difference in the Hägglunds capabilities, and that customers are pleased with the torque and power characteristics.

For Warrior, there is little question that Bosch Rexroth and Hägglunds direct drives will remain a part of the future.

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