For your oil well, it is obvious that you will need a sand screen. But the question is, which sand screen will you choose? In the past 40 years, the most popular and widely used sand screens have been wire-wrap screens.
But will it be fair if you choose this particular sand screen, just because we are suggesting it? For better understanding and selection, you should know about the wire wrap screens and how the screens work.
What Is A Wire Wrap Screen?
Wire wrap sand screen is a particular type of sand control application, which supports the gravel pack. A profiled wire is usually wrapped and welded in a specific position on a perforated liner in order to form the screen.
Structure
The wire wrap screen consists of a perforated pipe and, as the name suggests, a wire-wrapped jacket. Around the vertical ribs of this special sand control screen, the keystone-shaped wire is enclosed around, and every point of contact is duly welded.
For mitigating the risks of sand plugging the screen, this particular shaped wire is crafted. Plus, it is also responsible for eliminating or at least minimizing the flow friction and enhancing the self-cleaning action.
With the increasing number of keystone-shaped wires, the screen becomes stronger. For reliability, it is crucial to ensure the wrapping is being accurately controlled and forming a precise and uniform gauge.
Type
There are typically three types of wire-wrapped screens; when you are thinking about buying a wire wrap screens from Completion Products, you should decide which one will fulfill your requirements.
Usage
In stand-alone completions, a pipe-based sand screen is used along with well-sorted formulations. In some cases, a combination of gravel-packed completions and pipe-based sand screens is also used.
This combination always comes with accurate slot opening and obviously superior strength. If we compare this sand screen product with slotted liner, the oil and gas production is maximized here due to the larger inflow area of the wire wrap sand screen.
How Do Wire Wrap Screens Work?
Now you already have a basic idea about wire wrap screens. From the definition to usage, from the structure to types, we have covered almost every basic aspect of it. Now let’s dig into how a wire wrap screen usually works.
The wire wrap screen is all about a lot of measurements and numeric. So, you might feel a bit of difficulty in case you are not from a technical background; you might face some issues in understanding things.
Pointers
- For over 40 years, this particular sand screen design has been used by a huge number of oil and gas companies. So, the performance of these wire wrap screens is no longer a secret.
- The usual fabrication of a pipe-base screen always comes with a jacket made of grade 316L stainless steel, which is placed more than an N-80 pipe base.
- On the basis of other specifications as per the sites, other various types of metals can always be used.
- Now come to the inflow areas, which usually vary from around 6 to 12% or higher than that and depend on the particular slot opening.
- Those wire wrap screens come with slot openings that are the smallest of 6 gauge or 0.006 inches.
- But on the other hand, for large-sized gravel, 10 to 20 mesh, the screen slot openings become approximately near to 18 gauge or 0.018 inches.
- You might be surprised to know that a version of the wire-wrap screen is also a rod-based screen, which only has a jacket.
- But, they might have heavier wire wrap or heavier rods in comparison to the jacket that is used in pipe-based screens.
- Those pipe-based screens are designed for shallow water with a level of around 1,00 ft in depth. So, they do not need super strength.
Bottom Line
We hope now you know how wire wrap screens work. If you have any further doubts or queries, directly contact us. We will always try to offer a reliable and smoother solution for your better understanding.
