mud pump piston failure supplier
Customers said they wanted long-lasting, easy-to-use pistons, and we delivered. Made from domestically sourced steel, GD Energy Products’ pistons feature proprietary bonded inserts and innovative geometry to deliver significantly longer life. This field proven design meets API Standards, and comes with our “Ready Inventory” promise that we’ll have it in stock, when you need it.
Our pistons, along with our new valves and seats, are designed for use in GD Energy Products PZ, F-Series, Bomco, HHA, Emsco and National 12P lines of triplex drilling pumps. Let GD Energy Products be your one-stop shop for your whole fleet of pumps.
FET manufactures a full range of valves and seats for every drilling and well-servicing application as part of our full line of Osprey® mud pump system solutions. All of our valves and seats can be used in water, water base, oil base and synthetic base mud applications. FET offers additional valves and seats not listed below, including drilling valves, frac valves and well service valves. FET’s QC standards for the dimensional and material specs are extremely rigid in comparison to other manufacturers. Contact your FET representative to learn more.
Triplex: This mud pump is used for drilling applications needing high pump pressure. This model works by decreasing the working fluid volume being discharged to generate pressure for producing the flow. There are three pistons in the triplex pump, with the middle piston generating more pressure on the crankshaft. High piston load can lead to excessive pressure and crankshaft failure if the components are not properly sourced.
Quintuplex:Quintuplex mud pump is perfect for pumping fluid at the time of drilling operations. It works as a continuous duty return piston. This is used in terms of its external bearings to provide crankshaft support to ensure the proper functioning of the sheaves.
Duplex: These mud pumps ensure that the mud circulation reaches the well"s bottom from the mud cleaning system. Duplex pumps have binocular floating seals as well as safety valves.
Saigao offers high-quality OEM mud pump spares, consumables, expendables and spare parts. Our mud pump parts are made with the highest standards of quality, offering competitive pricing and exceptional durability.
3NB Triplex and quintuplex piston reciprocating pump are mainly used in oil delivery, oil receiving, circulation mud, slim hole shallow well drilling, etc. This series of mud pumps is easy in operation and maintenance and reliable with the good absorbing property. It can directly absorb from the ground and pools (like mud pool and pool) below 2 meters with absorbing pipe below 4M under the elevation of 1000 meters without poured into, with natural absorption efficiency >95%.
It can also apply to other high-pressure liquid transportation with self-absorb. Cylinder material: alloy steel, stainless steel, duplex steel or aluminum bronze; cylinder liner material: bi-metal or ceramic; piston material: rubber or polyurethane; suction /discharge valve adopt API standard valve, ball valve, plate valve, cone valve, etc.
A mud pump is a reciprocating piston/plunger pump designed to circulate drilling fluid under high pressure (up to 7,500 psi (52,000 kPa)) down the drill string and back up the annulus. A duplex mud pump is an important part of the equipment used for oil well drilling.
Duplex mud pumps (two piston/plungers) have generally been replaced by the triplex pump, but are still common in developing countries. Two later developments are the hex pump with six vertical pistons/plungers, and various quintuplex’s with five horizontal piston/plungers. The advantages that Duplex mud pumps have over convention triplex pumps is a lower mud noise which assists with better Measurement while drilling and Logging while drilling decoding.
Use duplex mud pumps to make sure that the circulation of the mud being drilled or the supply of liquid reaches the bottom of the well from the mud cleaning system. Despite being older technology than the triplex mud pump, the duplex mud pumps can use either electricity or diesel, and maintenance is easy due to their binocular floating seals and safety valves.
A mud pump is composed of many parts including mud pump liner, mud pump piston, modules, hydraulic seat pullers, and other parts. Parts of a mud pump:housing itself
Duplex pumps are used to provide a secondary means of fuel transfer in the event of a failure of the primary pump. Each pump in a duplex set is sized to meet the full flow requirements of the system. Pump controllers can be set for any of the following common operating modes:Lead / Lag (Primary / Secondary): The lead (primary) pump is selected by the user and the lag (secondary pump operates when a failure of the primary pump is detected.
Alternating: Operates per Lead / Lag (Primary / Secondary) except that the operating pump and lead / lag status alternate on consecutive starts. A variation is to alternate the pumps based on the operating time (hour meter) of the lead pump.
Mud pump manufacturers frequently offer both types of pumps. In reality, the pump power end and fluid ends are identical. The difference lies with the method used by the pump to displace the mud.
In the early 1990s, it was generally accepted that the pumps used on mid-size and small boring machines should deliver fluid to the bore at a high pressure (1,800 to 2,200 psi/124 to 152 bar)) and have a low flow rate of 5 to 25 gpm (19 to 95 Lpm).
As the industry matured and operators became more experienced, it was found that a higher mud flow with lower pressures was the superior way to bore. In some formations high pressure, low flow is still preferred and provides the most success. However, in the majority of areas, higher flows are best to provide hole cleaning (removal of solids) and provide adequate bentonite for formation sealing and lubrication.
One advantage of plungers/packing is that the packing can be adjusted by the operator to minimize leakage until the bore is complete and the pump can be serviced.
Pumps with piston/liner technology work in the opposite manner. Pistons work well to prevent leakage when flow pressures are low (below 1,200 psi/83 bar). Pistons are generally larger in diameter than plungers, allowing the pump to run slower-this is good-for the same flow rates.
Pistons have two disadvantages. First, when they fail or start leaking, the operator can do nothing to prolong operation until repairs can be made. Thus, repairs usually have to be made shortly after significant leakage starts. Second, pistons like to run cool and be lubricated. Thus, a piston cooling/lubrication system must be employed to add to piston life.
This system consists of a small centrifugal pump, spray nozzles, piping and collection tank. It sprays a mixture of water and lubricant (non-foaming soap or a small amount of liquid polymer), onto the back of the pistons.
Many boring machines are equipped with plunger pumps. These units are being applied where piston technology should be used, mainly low pressure and higher flows. These pumps frequently have leakage problems. To help operators combat leakage on these boring machines, conversion kits are being developed by some pump manufacturers to allow pumps to be changed from plunger to piston technology. Consult your boring machine or pump manufacturer for availability.
Economically, a good time to consider changing from plunger to piston technology on your pump is when the plungers are no longer serviceable and must be replaced. Conversion kits can be installed in the field and are considered bolt off bolt on upgrades.
If your mud pump has leakage problems, consider that you may be asking your pump to operate in a condition or application for which it was not originally designed.
Since the modern mud (or slush) pump was built approximately 60 years ago, the industry has widely accepted the three cylinder or triplex style pump. Triplex mud pumps are manufactured worldwide, and many companies have emulated the original design and developed an improved form of the triplex pump in the past decade.
As in all single acting pumps, the piston exerts a load on the crankshaft. The load is then transmitted to the crankshaft main bearings, which are set in their retainers in the pump frame or housing (see Figure 2).
The middle piston often exerts seven times greater bending moment on the crankshaft than either of the outer two pistons, causing the crankshaft to bend or flex. Where the force is directed along either of the outer two piston rods to their respective outer two crankshaft cams, the force is close to the bearings and the bending moment is considerably less. However, when the center piston is under pressure and the forces are directed down the middle connecting rod to the central cam, the distance of that central cam from either main bearing is large (sometimes 850 mm or 33 in), thus allowing for a large bending moment and resulting in significant flex in the crankshaft.
That the crankshaft is subjected to extreme bending loads and stress concentration areas is one of the drawbacks of the triplex design. Experience shows that all triplex pumps eventually exhibit crankshaft cracking if the operator is using the pump at higher loads and pressures, which is now common as drilling contractors are facing deeper, longer sections to drill. In the past, drillers rarely pushed the performance limitations of triplex pumps; 5,000 psi rated pumps were usually only operated at a maximum of 2,800 psi 90 percent of the time. Now contractors are encouraged to run pumps at the much higher pressures around 4,300 psi, only leaving a safety margin below the pressure relief valve setting. This means the crankshaft is subjected to extended maximum load, which inevitably shortens time to failure, probably exponentially.
Some may suggest that an increase in the number of pistons to improve flow rate will also reduce piston load. Although the middle piston load may be reduced for the same overall pump horsepower, the distance from the main bearings to the middle cam increases, which is not advantageous. For example, a five cylinder pump with the middle cam 50 in from the main bearing will have the same bending moment as a triplex with a 30 in middle cam to bearing distance. However, installing bearings close to the cams can reduce the cyclic failure problems on any pump.
For the drilling industry, the problem with this design is that few have managed to design a crankshaft where bearings can be installed anywhere other than at the crankshaft ends. Consequently, most pumps currently available have crankshafts unsupported close to the middle cam. With the middle area of the crankshaft unsupported, crankshaft failure is inevitable.
A triplex pump with a large load acting on the middle of the crankshaft of approximately 120,000 lbs and a typical distance of about 30 in from middle cam to either main bearing will exert a bending moment of 300,000 lb-ft on the crankshaft adjacent to the main bearing. If the bearing is not spherical, the bending moment where the shaft meets the bearing will coincide with the point on the shaft that the crank can no longer bend because it is restricted by the fixed bearing, which creates huge stress concentration. That load comes and goes cyclically every revolution of the pump. If the pump is rotating at 100 rpm or strokes, then in one week of drilling the crank will experience one million cycles of 300,000 lb-ft effectively switching on and off.
A spherical bearing solves this problem and will not contribute to crankshaft failure. Spherical bearings allow the crankshaft to have a wave and flex without restraining the shaft and giving rise to stress concentration or shear (see Figure 5).
Another symptom of crankshaft deflection or bending is abnormal main gear wear patterns. The high unsupported load in the middle of the crankshaft effectively bows the shaft and consequently the bull gear is moved off alignment, and a strange wear pattern may appear on the gears. Although this is an undesirable occurrence, it is of little importance compared with crankshaft failure. It does explain abnormal wear on a pump used continuously at high pressure.
A pump that addresses these issues may be the solution. A quadraplex has minimal bending moments due to the close proximity of the main bearings to every cam (see Figure 7).
A fully assembled crankshaft is the best and only way to install multiple bearings close to the cams. Even though there is minimal flexure in this design, spherical bearings eliminate stress concentration or point loading. With cam to bearing distances no more than 10 in, the bending moment on a quadraplex crankshaft will be one quarter that of the triplex or five cylinder pump.
In an environment where few advances have been made in mud pump technology in the last 50 years, designers in the mud pump sector of the drilling industry can develop workable solutions to the problems and limitations inherent in triplex pumps.
The future of mud pump design will involve a solution to excessive crankshaft bending moments and address other needed areas of improvement, including piston speed, module replacement in the field, quality of discharge pressure and smoothness of flow-all combined with ease of transportation.
Tired of changing mud pump pistons? We have your solution. The TD will work in all types of drilling mud including oil based, synthetic and water based. It was specifically designed to work in applications where water based mud is used or in situations where WBM is used on the top side & OBM is used on the bottom end. This eliminates the need for changing the piston midway through the drilling program. The “TD” or “Total Depth” name reflects our commitment to make a single piston that will last from “spud” to “TD”. This piston has been engineered with a unique friction reducing material bonded into the urethane of the sealing lip. Because the TD is built to withstand friction in the liner, wear on your parts is minimized and savings is maximized. The Patriot™ TD is also designed to meet pressures of 7500 psi as well as temperatures up to 220 degrees.