John C. Welch

Properties of Extruded Disintegrable Metal Composites

Recently, a lightweight, disintegrable material with high strength and high ductility has been successfully used in oilfield tool applications to save well operation time and cost. The material is a powder metallurgy composite consisting of a metal matrix and mechanical/chemical reinforcements. Warm extrusion was used to produce rods and tubes of the material from cold pressed green preform. Disintegration rates of the extruded materials with different compositions range from 0 – 300 mg/cm2/hr in 3% KCl at 93.3 °C with a strength of > 60 ksi (414 MPa) and ductility of 7 – 15%. This paper presents the micro structure, disintegration, and mechanical properties of the extruded composite. The results prove that disintegration properties can be controlled by altering the chemical composition of the reinforcements while maintaining good strength and ductility.