Gas industry sparks new product design

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA — Australia's burgeoning coal seam gas industry has created a new opportunity for a Brisbane-based injection molder.

B&C Plastics Pty. Ltd. co-director Royston Kent said his company has designed and manufactured a cable-carrying centralizer, used to monitor gas within wells, on behalf of Brisbane-based QGC Pty. Ltd., part of British BG Group plc and one of the largest coal seam gas mining companies operating in the state of Queensland.

“We engaged in our production process, designing and developing a prototype, researching tooling, and testing injection molding,” Kent said.

He told Plastics News the centralizer, manufactured from high-impact nylon 6, is made from only two parts, eliminating 12 parts in earlier designs. Having fewer parts significantly reduces assembly time at mine sites.

The centralizers allow coal seam gas miners to keep core monitoring tubes central when lowering them into the wells, while also helping run cables down.

The first version of the product, created three years ago, won an innovation award for QGC in the United Kingdom in 2012, despite being more complex than the current prototype.

Kent said B&C Plastics is now manufacturing the third version of the centralizer, with 1,000 produced so far.

“While it's not a big part of the business yet, it will be a significant component moving forward,” he said.

B&C now aims to manufacture more coal-seam gas well products. “There will be different challenges but we can apply what we learned manufacturing the centralizers,” Kent said.

Queensland's coal seam gas industry has grown rapidly over the past 15 years, with the annual number of wells drilled rising from 10 in the early 1990s to more than 1,350 in 2013.

Kent, an injection molding technician, and B&C co-director Bob Halsall, a toolmaker and designer, bought the then 20-year-old company in 2006.

B&C has five injection molding machines with clamping forces ranging from 22-375 metric tons.