maintenance of mud pump factory

Many things go into getting the most life out of your mud pump and its components — all important to extend the usage of this vital piece of equipment on an HDD jobsite. Some of the most important key points are covered below.

The most important thing you can do is service your pump, per the manufacturer’s requirements. We get plenty of pumps in the shop for service work that look like they have been abused for years without having basic maintenance,  such as regular oil changes. You wouldn’t dream of treating your personal vehicle like that, so why would you treat your pump like that.

Check the oil daily and change the oil regularly. If you find water or drilling mud contamination in the oil, change the oil as soon as possible. Failure to do so will most likely leave you a substantial bill to rebuild the gear end, which could have been avoided if proper maintenance procedures would have been followed. Water in the oil does not allow the oil to perform correctly, which will burn up your gear end. Drilling mud in your gear end will act as a lapping compound and will wear out all of the bearing surfaces in your pump. Either way it will be costly. The main reasons for having water or drilling mud in the gear end of your pump is because your pony rod packing is failing and/or you have let your liners and pistons get severely worn. Indication of this is fluid that should be contained inside the fluid end of your pump is now moving past your piston and spraying into the cradle of the pump, which forces its way past the pony rod packing. Pony rod packing is meant to keep the oil in the gear end and the liner wash fluid out of the gear end. Even with brand new packing, you can have water or drilling fluid enter the gear end if it is sprayed with sufficient force, because a piston or liner is worn out.

There is also usually a valve on the inlet of the spray bar. This valve should be closed enough so that liner wash fluid does not spray all over the top of the pump and other components.

Liner wash fluid can be comprised of different fluids, but we recommend just using clean water. In extremely cold conditions, you can use RV antifreeze. The liner wash or rod wash system is usually a closed loop type of system, consisting of a tank, a small pump and a spray bar. The pump will move fluid from the tank through the spray bar, and onto the inside of the liner to cool the liner, preventing scorching. The fluid will then collect in the bottom of the cradle of the pump and drain back down into the collection tank below the cradle and repeat the cycle. It is important to have clean fluid no matter what fluid you use. If your liners are leaking and the tank is full of drilling fluid, you will not cool the liners properly — which will just make the situation worse. There is also usually a valve on the inlet of the spray bar. This valve should be closed enough so that liner wash fluid does not spray all over the top of the pump and other components. Ensure that the water is spraying inside the liner and that any overspray is not traveling out of the pump onto the ground or onto the pony rod packing where it could be pulled into the gear end. If the fluid is spraying out of the cradle area and falling onto the ground, it won’t be long before your liner wash tank is empty. It only takes a minute without the cooling fluid being sprayed before the liners become scorched. You will then need to replace the pistons and liners, which is an avoidable costly repair. Make a point to check the liner wash fluid level several times a day.

Liner wash fluid can be comprised of different fluids, but it is recommended to just using clean water. In extremely cold conditions, you can use RV antifreeze.

Drilling fluid — whether pumping drilling mud, straight water or some combination of fluid — needs to be clean. Clean meaning free of solids. If you are recycling your fluid, make sure you are using a quality mud recycling system and check the solids content often throughout the day to make sure the system is doing its job. A quality mud system being run correctly should be able to keep your solids content down to one quarter of 1 percent or lower. When filling your mud recycling system, be sure to screen the fluid coming into the tanks. If it is a mud recycling system, simply make sure the fluid is going over the scalping shaker with screens in the shaker. If using some other type of tank, use an inline filter or some other method of filtering. Pumping out of creeks, rivers, lakes and ponds can introduce plenty of solids into your tanks if you are not filtering this fluid. When obtaining water out of a fire hydrant, there can be a lot of sand in the line, so don’t assume it’s clean and ensure it’s filtered before use.

Cavitation is a whole other detailed discussion, but all triplex pumps have a minimum amount of suction pressure that is required to run properly. Make sure this suction pressure is maintained at all times or your pump may cavitate. If you run a pump that is cavitating, it will shorten the life of all fluid end expendables and, in severe cases, can lead to gear end and fluid end destruction. If the pump is experiencing cavitation issues, the problem must be identified and corrected immediately.

The long and the short of it is to use clean drilling fluid and you will extend the life of your pumps expendables and downhole tooling, and keep up with your maintenance on the gear end of your pump. Avoid pump cavitation at all times. Taking a few minutes a day to inspect and maintain your pump can save you downtime and costly repair bills.

The mud pump mainly transports drilling fluid with high sand content, large specific gravity and high viscosity to the bottom of the well at high pressure during the drilling process.

When working, it is used to cool the drill bit, drive the drilling rig, clean the drilling tool, scour the bottom of the well, fix the well wall, break the rock, and take out the cuttings when returning from the bottom of the well, reduce the friction between the hole wall and the drilling tool, and protect the hole wall from collapsing.

Usually the mud pump can be divided into two parts - the power end and the hydraulic end, and its working process can be divided into two steps of suction and discharge.

The power end of the mud pump is composed of connecting rod, eccentric wheel, cross head, crank, etc., which are used to transmit power, convert movement speed and movement mode, so as to provide suitable power for the hydraulic end.

The hydraulic end is composed of a piston, a pump cylinder, a suction pipe, a suction valve, a discharge pipe, a discharge valve, etc. It can convert the mechanical energy into the internal energy of the liquid, which is used for the transportation of mud.

Under the alternating process of suction and discharge, the purpose of circulating and pressurizing the flushing fluid can be achieved. The medium conveyed by the mud pump usually has high viscosity, high sand content, high pressure and certain corrosiveness. Reasonable daily maintenance and maintenance can prolong the service life of the pump.

The mud pump must be installed on a relatively stable foundation. Before the mud pump is turned on, the lubrication condition, tightening state, fitting clearance, etc. of the various components in the pump should be carefully checked.

The frequent pumping of the mud pump should be avoided as much as possible. When the pump is turned on or reversed, the vaporization of the conveying medium in the pump should be prevented, and the temperature of the medium in the pump should not change greatly during the conveying process. It is due to the uneven heating of the pump body caused by the temperature change, which may lead to deformation and aging of the components in the mud pump.

When the mud pump is transporting medium with higher temperature, the pump should be fully warmed before starting, and the pump can be started when the temperature of the pump body is consistent with the temperature of the medium being transported.

The particle size of the sand transported by the mud pump during the construction process is related to the service life of the vulnerable parts of the mud pump. Air leakage is not allowed in the suction pipeline of the mud pump. The size of the particles passing through the pump should meet the requirements to avoid large particles so as to avoid clogging the mud pump with large particles.

The bearing, pump casing and impeller of the mud pump are the most vulnerable parts. The bearing of the mud pump is bent or has a coaxial deviation with the bearing seat, which will increase the wear of the pump parts and cause the vibration of the pump body.

Most of the damage to the blades of the mud pump is caused by the cavitation of the pump or the inhalation of solid and metal impurities. It is necessary to check and replace the vulnerable parts frequently, or try to use more advanced anti-wear technical measures to increase the service life of wearing parts.

The daily maintenance and maintenance of the china hydraulic mud pump should be carried out by special personnel, and the commonly used and easily damaged mud pump accessories should be equipped for emergency use.

Regularly check and maintain the various parts of the mud pump, solve problems in time, and try to avoid problems and losses during the operation of the mud pump.

How to maintain the mud pump well, it is necessary to ensure that the oil quantity and quality of the lubricating oil are clean, part of the oil bottom needs to be released every month and part of the new oil needs to be replenished, and the oil can be changed every six months.

The bearing assembly is clean and dust-free. Check the temperature change of each part of the bearing to see if there is any abnormal noise. If the temperature is too high, the bearing will be burnt. Always check the working conditions of the mud pump piston and cylinder liner so that the piston can be replaced in time.

Check the use of the valve cover and cylinder head sealing ring, check the wear and erosion of the valve seat, valve body, and valve rubber, and replace it in time. normal.

Check the piston and safety pin of the safety valve, and replace the safety pin of the safety valve installed on the driving shaft in time to ensure that the mud pump can operate safely under drilling conditions.

The mud pump needs a comprehensive disassembly inspection every two years to detect the clearance of the bearing, maintenance and repair or direct replacement, and regular disc pumping of the mud pump in order to prolong the service life of the mud pump.

Prior check to the start of a mud pump for clear water inlet and outlet pipes, buttered front and rear bearings and a filled packing. The China mud pump should be equipped with a high-pressure water pump, which pumps water to the sealing fill with a pressure greater than that of the mud pump. As a protection to the fill, never turn off the water pump while the mud pump is in its working state. Otherwise, the sealing part is of immediate wear.

The service life of the mud pump depends on the clearance between the impeller and the guard plate. An unreasonable clearance is responsible for the vibration and the noise of the pump and the damage of overflowing parts. Therefore, when it comes to the impeller replacement, the clearance shall meet the requirements of the design drawing by adjusting screws on the rear bearing. Take the suction capacity of mud into account for the allowable suction range of the mud pump is determined by water transported.

The Construction Department shall have some professional person responsible for the maintenance and repair of the construction machinery. Regular check and maintenance of the mud pump and other machinery, such as the drilling mud pump parts, are useful for the early detection and a prompt solution.

Pay attention to the size of sediment particles, among which the large ones are prone to wear the vulnerable parts of the China mud pumpsuch as pump shells, bearings, impellers, and so on. Timely maintain the use and replace the damaged. Take advanced anti-wear measures to lengthen the service life of vulnerable parts, which can downturn the cost and up forward the efficiency. Meanwhile, keep backup vulnerable parts in stock in case of unexpected replacement needs.

Mud pump refers to a machine that transports mud or water and other flushing fluid into the borehole during drilling. Mud pumps are an important part of drilling equipment, sometimes called sewage pumps and slurry pumps.

(1) Before operating the mud pump, it should be installed on a fixed foundation frame or foundation, and there must be no looseness; after installation, it must be carefully checked whether the joints are tight, the direction of electric rotation is correct, and the clutch is flexible. Reliable, the pipe connection is tight and reliable, the bottom valve is flexible and effective.

(2) In order to ensure the normal operation of the mud pump, the pump should be rotated by hand to make the piston try to make two reciprocating motions. It is determined that there is no obstruction in the machine and the line insulation is good, and the no-load movement can be performed. After the pump body starts to move, can not immediately increase the load, and then gradually increase after the mud pump is running normally.

(3) When the mud pump starts to operate, always pay attention to the sealing condition of each sealing device. If there is a bad seal, it should be adjusted in time. In order to ensure the normal use of the tie rod and the auxiliary rod, it is necessary to apply lubricating oil frequently; It is also necessary to frequently check the sediment content in the mud, and the sand content requirement cannot exceed 10%.

(4) If the mud pump needs to change speed during the operation, it should stop the pump and then shift the gear before starting the operation. It should not be directly changed during the running process. The mud pump with several speeds should be reliable in splash lubrication. During the operation, several speeds will be operated separately, and the time will be no less than 30 seconds.

(5) If the mud pump is abnormal during operation or if the water weight, the pressure is abnormal or the temperature is abnormally high, the pump should be stopped. In normal operation, if there is the no-load condition, stop the pump in time, if the pump is stopped for a long time. It is necessary to open all the water discharge holes, loosen the cylinder head, lift the bottom valve water release rod, and completely drain the mud and sand in the pump body and the pipeline. If it is not used for a long time, it is necessary to thoroughly clean the mud sand of each part. Grease, the lubricant in the crankcase is exhausted, in order to prevent rust, but also take anti-rust and anti-corrosion measures.

If you run a mud rig, you have probably figured out that the mud pump is the heart of the rig. Without it, drilling stops. Keeping your pump in good shape is key to productivity. There are some tricks I have learned over the years to keeping a pump running well.

First, you need a baseline to know how well your pump is doing. When it’s freshly rebuilt, it will be at the top efficiency. An easy way to establish this efficiency is to pump through an orifice at a known rate with a known fluid. When I rig up, I hook my water truck to my pump and pump through my mixing hopper at idle. My hopper has a ½-inch nozzle in it, so at idle I see about 80 psi on the pump when it’s fresh. Since I’m pumping clear water at a known rate, I do this on every job.

As time goes on and I drill more hole, and the pump wears, I start seeing a decrease in my initial pressure — 75, then 70, then 65, etc. This tells me I better order parts. Funny thing is, I don’t usually notice it when drilling. After all, I am running it a lot faster, and it’s hard to tell the difference in a few gallons a minute until it really goes south. This method has saved me quite a bit on parts over the years. When the swabs wear they start to leak. This bypass pushes mud around the swab, against the liners, greatly accelerating wear. By changing the swab at the first sign of bypass, I am able to get at least three sets of swabs before I have to change liners. This saves money.

Before I figured this out, I would sometimes have to run swabs to complete failure. (I was just a hand then, so it wasn’t my rig.) When I tore the pump down to put in swabs, lo-and-behold, the liners were cut so badly that they had to be changed too. That is false economy. Clean mud helps too. A desander will pay for itself in pump parts quicker than you think, and make a better hole to boot. Pump rods and packing last longer if they are washed and lubricated. In the oilfield, we use a petroleum-based lube, but that it not a good idea in the water well business. I generally use water and dish soap. Sometimes it tends to foam too much, so I add a few tablets of an over the counter, anti-gas product, like Di-Gel or Gas-Ex, to cut the foaming.

Maintenance on the gear end of your pump is important, too. Maintenance is WAY cheaper than repair. The first, and most important, thing is clean oil. On a duplex pump, there is a packing gland called an oil-stop on the gear end of the rod. This is often overlooked because the pump pumps just as well with a bad oil-stop. But as soon as the fluid end packing starts leaking, it pumps mud and abrasive sand into the gear end. This is a recipe for disaster. Eventually, all gear ends start knocking. The driller should notice this, and start planning. A lot of times, a driller will change the oil and go to a higher viscosity oil, thinking this will help cushion the knock. Wrong. Most smaller duplex pumps are splash lubricated. Thicker oil does not splash as well, and actually starves the bearings of lubrication and accelerates wear. I use 85W90 in my pumps. A thicker 90W140 weight wears them out a lot quicker. You can improve the “climbing” ability of the oil with an additive, like Lucas, if you want. That seems to help.

Outside the pump, but still an important part of the system, is the pop-off, or pressure relief valve. When you plug the bit, or your brother-in-law closes the discharge valve on a running pump, something has to give. Without a good, tested pop-off, the part that fails will be hard to fix, expensive and probably hurt somebody. Pop-off valve are easily overlooked. If you pump cement through your rig pump, it should be a standard part of the cleanup procedure. Remove the shear pin and wash through the valve. In the old days, these valves were made to use a common nail as the shear pin, but now nails come in so many grades that they are no longer a reliable tool. Rated shear pins are available for this. In no case should you ever run an Allen wrench! They are hardened steel and will hurt somebody or destroy your pump.

One last thing that helps pump maintenance is a good pulsation dampener. It should be close to the pump discharge, properly sized and drained after every job. Bet you never thought of that one. If your pump discharge goes straight to the standpipe, when you finish the job your standpipe is still full of fluid. Eventually the pulsation dampener will water-log and become useless. This is hard on the gear end of the pump. Open a valve that drains it at the end of every job. It’ll make your pump run smoother and longer.

I’ve run into several instances of insufficient suction stabilization on rigs where a “standpipe” is installed off the suction manifold. The thought behind this design was to create a gas-over-fluid column for the reciprocating pump and eliminate cavitation.

When the standpipe is installed on the suction manifold’s deadhead side, there’s little opportunity to get fluid into all the cylinders to prevent cavitation. Also, the reciprocating pump and charge pump are not isolated.

The gas over fluid internal systems has limitations too. The standpipe loses compression due to gas being consumed by the drilling fluid. In the absence of gas, the standpipe becomes virtually defunct because gravity (14.7 psi) is the only force driving the cylinders’ fluid. Also, gas is rarely replenished or charged in the standpipe.

Installing a suction stabilizer from the suction manifold port supports the manifold’s capacity to pull adequate fluid and eliminates the chance of manifold fluid deficiency, which ultimately prevents cavitation.

Another benefit of installing a suction stabilizer is eliminating the negative energies in fluids caused by the water hammer effect from valves quickly closing and opening.

The suction stabilizer’s compressible feature is designed to absorb the negative energies and promote smooth fluid flow. As a result, pump isolation is achieved between the charge pump and the reciprocating pump.

The isolation eliminates pump chatter, and because the reciprocating pump’s negative energies never reach the charge pump, the pump’s expendable life is extended.

Investing in suction stabilizers will ensure your pumps operate consistently and efficiently. They can also prevent most challenges related to pressure surges or pulsations in the most difficult piping environments.

The fluid end of a duplex or triplex pump offers hundreds of opportunities for error. The results of an error in such a high-pressure system can mean (1) expensive downtime on the pump and maybe the entire rig, (2) expensive repair-replacement, and (3) possible injury or death of a crewman or a company man. Under the laws of nature, pump pistons and liners will wear, and there will be some corrosion and metallurgical imperfections, but the majority of pump failures are manmade. Theoretically, thorough training and retraining should avoid most mud pump problems. Realistically, a critical failure analysis during repair will be necessary to determine how to correct the failure. Telltale signs of trouble are distortion of piston rods, frayed piston polymer, discoloration, odor, hard-to-remove piston, rod cracks, pitting, total fracture, valve seat wear, and unsuitable external appearance.

A comprehensive range of mud pumping, mixing, and processing equipment is designed to streamline many essential but time-consuming operational and maintenance procedures, improve operator safety and productivity, and reduce costly system downtime.

Whether onshore or offshore, well drilling sites rely on a multitude of systems to successfully perform the drilling operation. The mud pump is a key component tasked with circulating drilling fluid under high pressure downhole. The mud pump can be divided into two key sections: the power end or crosshead and the fluid end. Proper alignment of the pump’s crosshead to the fluid end liner is necessary to maximizing piston and liner life. Misalignment contributes to

accelerated wear on both the piston and the liner, and replacing these components requires downtime of the pump. Traditional methods of inspecting alignment range from using uncalibrated wooden rods, Faro Arms and micrometers to check the vertical and horizontal alignment of the piston rod OD to the piston liner ID. These are time consuming and cumbersome techniques that are ultimately not well suited to troubleshoot and solve alignment issues.

A “Mud Pump Laser Alignment Kit” enables you to measure where the piston will run through the liner at various positions along the pump’s stroke. It will also project a laser centerline from the fluid end back towards the rear power end of the pump that can be used to determine how much shimming is required to correct any alignment issues. The kit can include either a 2-Axis receiver or a 4-Axis which accepts the laser beam and documents where it falls on the active surface of the receiver. The 4-Axis receiver can decrease alignment time by as much as 50% as it will measure angularity as well as X and Y while the 2-Axis does not and will need multiple measurement locations to get the same information. In addition, the alignment system is a non-intrusive service requiring the removal of only the piston rod which allows for much quicker service and less down time on the pump. As the mud pumps in question are located globally both on and offshore, having a small, portable system is another great advantage. Our recommendation would be Pinpoint laser System’s “Mud Pump Alignment Kit”. They are being used by many of the leading repair service companies and have been their main alignment tool for over 15 years. Manufacturers are also utilizing these for new pump set-up.

Our manufacturer Mud Pump skid is suitable for operations in rough, windy, damp and dusty oilfield conditions. Dependent upon customer horsepower requirements the engine sizes will vary.

All equipment is rated for operating at ambient temperatures up to +120 Deg F at 1200 ft altitude. The unit is built on heavy duty oilfield skid with lift frame. The control system is mounted in a stainless steel box on the side of the unit. The digital display provides all important engine and transmission data. Unit is also equipped with emergency kill function.