General Electric Company
SCALING AND CORROSION RESISTANT FLUID CONDUIT

Abstract:

A fluid conduit (10) is provided having (a) a fluid conduit exterior surface (14); (b) a fluid conduit interior surface (16); (c) an electroless nickel protective coating (18) disposed upon one or both of the fluid conduit interior surface and the fluid conduit exterior surface; and (d) a layer (20) of Ni.sub.3S.sub.2 disposed upon and substantially covering the electroless nickel protective coating. The fluid conduit can be any fluid conduit through which a fluid may be caused to pass, such as a downhole tubular used in oil and gas production, or a gas liquid cyclonic separator. And a hydrocarbon production tube, a method of producing a fluid conduit comprising a nickel sulfide protective layer, a machine component comprising at least one surface having a protective outer layer are provided. The combination of the electroless nickel inner protective coating with an outer layer of Ni.sub.3S.sub.2 affords articles such as fluid conduits and machine components with exceptional scale and corrosion resistance.