Alloy Steel for Oil & Gas Drilling
Proven Mud Motor Steel
As part of our commitment to quality materials, Pennsylvania Steel Corporation is proud to supply high-quality, versatile, and dependable FLEXOR® alloy steel for oil & gas drilling. FLEXOR® maintains its consistency and high-quality standards from heat to heat, setting itself above other materials in today's highly commoditized steel market.
Composition and Properties of FLEXOR® Alloy Steel
FLEXOR® is consistently one of the most dependable steels on the market, providing equal if not superior wear, toughness, fatigue, and tensile strength characteristics over most other common low alloy steels. It has a high core hardness, good machinability, and dual properties when case hardened. A fine-grain microstructure produces the high fatigue and tensile strength needed for oil & gas applications.
Pennsylvania Steel Corporation’s FLEXOR® steel contains:
- Chromium (0.85%)
- Molybdenum (0.5%)
- Tungsten (0.5%)
- Carbon (0.34%)
- Nickel (0.1%)
- Manganese (0.8%)
- Silicon (.3%)
- Sulfur (0.015%)
It is the only CrMoW steel readily available for the oil and gas industry. It is a dense material with good thermal conductivity and high fatigue and impact resistance. It is suitable for mud motor drive shafts, hydraulic shafts, mandrels, races, drilling bits, and other downhole tools and equipment.
Oil & Gas Applications for FLEXOR® Steel
Its unique properties and extremely consistent performance make FLEXOR® mud motor steel an excellent choice for downhole tools and equipment. It is a solid alloy steel for oil & gas drilling, and is frequently used for:
- Bottom Hole Assembly Tooling
- Bearing Adapters
- Collets
- Chuck Jaws
- Cutter Bodies
- Chuck Bodies
- Diaphragm Chucks
- Drive Conveyors
- Dynamometer Forks
- Gears
- Ground and Polished Shafting
- Hydraulic Shafts
- Induction Hardened Shafting
- Mandrels
- Pump Shafts
- Quill Blocks
- Rams
- Races
- Spindles
- Stub Shafts
- Shafting
- Tool Holders
- Wear Strips
Technical Data and Specifications
Pennsylvania Steel Corporation established our own stringent quality standards for our proprietary FLEXOR® steel. We produce it to be DFARS compliant and to meet the following standards:
- ASTM A29
- ASTM A370
- ASTM E112
- ASTM E45
- ASTM A388
- ASTM 2301
- ASTM E23
- ASTM A322
- DIN 1013
Our facilities meet ISO 900:2015 standards for good manufacturing practices.
Manufacturing Processes
We use electric arc furnaces and vacuum induction melting to produce FLEXOR® alloy steel for oil & gas drilling. Our heat treatment processes include:
- Annealing
- Carburization
- Flame Hardening
PSC offers additional rough machining services with our in-house lathes, mills, and honing equipment. This can provide a better microstructure and reduce further processing and shipping costs. Most of our round bars are stocked as hot rolled or rough turned; decarb free is also available.
Comparing FLEXOR® to Other Steel Alloys
FLEXOR® is a unique steel which is neither a standard alloy steel nor a standard tool steel, though it is often mistaken for both. FLEXOR®'S unique chemistry allows it to be used in thousands of applications often as a superior alternative to other alloy or tool steels.
Click on a steel alloy to learn more about how FLEXOR® is the superior alternative:
FLEXOR® Alloy Steel for Oil & Gas Drilling
Pennsylvania Steel Corporation is proud to provide premium FLEXOR® alloy steel for oil and gas drilling applications. Our proprietary material has a high core hardness, excellent machinability, and dual properties when hardened, setting it above other low-alloy steels. Request a quote to learn more.
FLEXOR® Outperforms 4330V
In recent tests FLEXOR® has been compared to 4330V for high torsional loading and wear resistance in the Oil and Gas Drilling Industry. FLEXOR® has proven to have high toughness even in elevated hardness (40+HRC).
In a typical mud motor, previous drive shafts were known to have abrupt failures causing down and additional tooling issues. The FLEXOR® drive shaft began bent and kept performing until it was discovered on a routine maintenance evaluation.
FLEXOR® had a higher toughness (even in elevated hardness)
FLEXOR® had the longer performance