how mud pump works factory

What is a mud pump? A mud pump refers to a machine that transports mud or water and other flushing fluid into the borehole during drilling. Types of mud pumps are an important part of drilling equipment. In the commonly used positive circulation drilling, it is to send the surface flushing medium—clear water, mud, or polymer rinsing liquid to the bottom end of the drill bit through a high-pressure hose, faucet, and drill rod center hole under a certain pressure. Cool the drill bit, remove the cut debris and transport it to the surface.

The commonly used mud pump is a piston-type or a plunger type, and the crankshaft of the pump is driven by the power machine, and the crankshaft passes the crosshead to drive the piston or the plunger to reciprocate in the pump cylinder. Under the alternating action of the suction and discharge valves, the purpose of pumping and circulating the flushing liquid is achieved.

During operation, the power machine drives the main shaft and the crank that is fixed thereon by a transmission component such as a belt, a transmission shaft, and a gear. When the crank rotates counterclockwise from the horizontal position from left to right, the piston moves to the power end, the pressure in the liquid cylinder gradually decreases and a vacuum is formed, and the liquid in the suction pool is under the action of the liquid surface pressure, and the suction valve is opened to enter the liquid cylinder. Until the piston moves to the right stop. This working process is called the suction process of the pump.

After the crank completes the above suction process, it continues to rotate counterclockwise. At this time, the piston starts to move toward the hydraulic end (left side in the figure), and the liquid in the cylinder is squeezed. The pressure rises, the suction valve closes, and the discharge valve is closed. Top open, liquid enters the discharge pipe until the piston moves to the left stop. This process is called the pump discharge process. As the power machine continues to operate, the reciprocating pump continuously repeats the process of inhaling and discharging, and the liquid in the suction pool is continuously sent to the bottom of the well through the discharge pipe.

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The drilling industry has roots dating back to the Han Dynasty in China. Improvements in rig power and equipment design have allowed for many advances in the way crude oil and natural gas are extracted from the ground. Diesel/electric oil drilling rigs can now drill wells more than 4 miles in depth. Drilling fluid, also called drilling mud, is used to help transfer the dirt or drill cuttings from the action of the drilling bit back to the surface for disposal. Drill cuttings can vary in shape and size depending on the formation or design of the drill bit used in the process.

Watch the video below to see how the EDDY Pump outperforms traditional pumps when it comes to high solids and high viscosity materials commonly found on oil rigs.

The fluid is charged into high-pressure mud pumps which pump the drilling mud down the drill string and out through the bit nozzles cleaning the hole and lubricating the drill bit so the bit can cut efficiently through the formation. The bit is cooled by the fluid and moves up the space between the pipe and the hole which is called the annulus. The fluid imparts a thin, tough layer on the inside of the hole to protect against fluid loss which can cause differential sticking.

The fluid rises through the blowout preventers and down the flowline to the shale shakers. Shale shakers are equipped with fine screens that separate drill cutting particles as fine as 50-74 microns. Table salt is around 100 microns, so these are fine cuttings that are deposited into the half-round or cuttings catch tank. The drilling fluid is further cleaned with the hydro-cyclones and centrifuges and is pumped back to the mixing area of the mud tanks where the process repeats.

The drill cuttings contain a layer of drilling fluid on the surface of the cuttings. As the size of the drill cuttings gets smaller the surface area expands exponentially which can cause rheological property problems with the fluid. The fluid will dehydrate and may become too thick or viscous to pump so solids control and dilution are important to the entire drilling process.

One of the most expensive and troubling issues with drilling operations is the handling, processing, and circulation of drilling mud along with disposing of the unwanted drill cuttings. The drilling cuttings deposited in the half round tank and are typically removed with an excavator that must move the contents of the waste bin or roll-off box. The excavators are usually rented for this duty and the equipment charges can range from $200-300/day. Add in the cost for the day and night manpower and the real cost for a single excavator can be as much as $1800/day.

Offshore drilling rigs follow a similar process in which the mud is loaded into empty drums and held on the oil platform. When a certain number of filled drums is met, the drums are then loaded onto barges or vessels which take the drilling mud to the shore to unload and dispose of.

Oil field drilling operations produce a tremendous volume of drill cuttings that need both removal and management. In most cases, the site managers also need to separate the cuttings from the drilling fluids so they can reuse the fluids. Storing the cuttings provides a free source of stable fill material for finished wells, while other companies choose to send them off to specialty landfills. Regardless of the final destination or use for the cuttings, drilling and dredging operations must have the right high solids slurry pumps to move them for transport, storage, or on-site processing. Exploring the differences in the various drilling fluids, cutting complications, and processing options will reveal why the EDDY Pump is the best fit for the job.

The Eddy Pump is designed to move slurry with solid content as high as 70-80 % depending on the material. This is an ideal application for pumping drill cuttings. Drill cuttings from the primary shakers are typically 50% solids and 50% liquids. The Eddy Pump moves these fluids efficiently and because of the large volute chamber and the design of the geometric rotor, there is very little wear on the pump, ensuring long life and greatly reduced maintenance cost for the lifetime of the pump.

plumbed to sweep the bottom of the collection tank and the pump is recessed into a sump allowing for a relatively clean tank when the solids are removed. The Eddy Pump is sized to load a roll-off box in 10-12 minutes. The benefit is cuttings handling is quicker, easier, safer, and allows for pre-planning loading where the labor of the solids control technician is not monopolized by loading cuttings. Here, in the below image, we’re loading 4 waste roll-off bins which will allow the safe removal of cuttings without fear of the half-round catch tank running over.

Mud cleaning systems such as mud shaker pumps and bentonite slurry pumps move the material over screens and through dryers and centrifuges to retrieve even the finest bits of stone and silt. However, the pump operators must still get the raw slurry to the drill cuttings treatment area with a power main pump. Slurry pumps designed around the power of an Eddy current offer the best performance for transferring cuttings throughout a treatment system.

Options vary depending on whether the company plans to handle drill cuttings treatment on-site or transport the materials to a remote landfill or processing facility. If the plan is to deposit the cuttings in a landfill or a long-term storage container, it’s best to invest in a pump capable of depositing the material directly into transport vehicles. Most dredging operations rely on multiple expensive vacuum trucks, secondary pumps, and extra pieces of equipment.

Using an EDDY Pump will allow a project to eliminate the need for excavators/operators to load drill cuttings, substantially lowering both labor and heavy equipment costs. The EDDY Pump also allows a company to eliminate vacuum trucks once used for cleaning the mud system for displacing fluids. Since the pump transfers muds of all types at constant pressure and velocity throughout a system of practically any size, there’s little need for extra equipment for manual transfer or clean up on the dredge site.

The EDDY Pump can fill up a truck in only 10 minutes (compared to an hour) by using a mechanical means such as an excavator. For this reason, most companies can afford one piece of equipment that can replace half a dozen other units.

This application for the Eddy Pump has the potential to revolutionize the drilling industry. Moving the excavator out of the “back yard” (the area behind the rig from the living quarters) will make cuttings handling a breeze. Trucking can be easier scheduled during daylight hours saving on overtime and incidences of fatigued driving. Rig-site forklifts can move the roll-off boxes out of the staging area and into the pump loading area. The operator can save money on excavators rental, damages, and keep the technician operating the solids control equipment.

The EDDY Pump is ideal for drilling mud pump applications and can be connected directly onto the drilling rigs to pump the drilling mud at distances over a mile for disposal. This eliminates the need for costly vacuum trucks and also the manpower needed to mechanically move the drilling mud. The reasons why the EDDY Pump is capable of moving the drilling mud is due to the hydrodynamic principle that the pump creates, which is similar to the EDDY current of a tornado. This tornado motion allows for the higher viscosity and specific gravity pumping ability. This along with the large tolerance between the volute and the rotor allows for large objects like rock cuttings to pass through the pump without obstruction. The large tolerance of the EDDY Pump also enables the pump to last many times longer than centrifugal pumps without the need for extended downtime or replacement parts. The EDDY Pump is the lowest total life cycle pump on the market.

When choosing a size and type of mud pump for your drilling project, there are several factors to consider. These would include not only cost and size of pump that best fits your drilling rig, but also the diameter, depth and hole conditions you are drilling through. I know that this sounds like a lot to consider, but if you are set up the right way before the job starts, you will thank me later.

Recommended practice is to maintain a minimum of 100 to 150 feet per minute of uphole velocity for drill cuttings. Larger diameter wells for irrigation, agriculture or municipalities may violate this rule, because it may not be economically feasible to pump this much mud for the job. Uphole velocity is determined by the flow rate of the mud system, diameter of the borehole and the diameter of the drill pipe. There are many tools, including handbooks, rule of thumb, slide rule calculators and now apps on your handheld device, to calculate velocity. It is always good to remember the time it takes to get the cuttings off the bottom of the well. If you are drilling at 200 feet, then a 100-foot-per-minute velocity means that it would take two minutes to get the cuttings out of the hole. This is always a good reminder of what you are drilling through and how long ago it was that you drilled it. Ground conditions and rock formations are ever changing as you go deeper. Wouldn’t it be nice if they all remained the same?

Centrifugal-style mud pumps are very popular in our industry due to their size and weight, as well as flow rate capacity for an affordable price. There are many models and brands out there, and most of them are very good value. How does a centrifugal mud pump work? The rotation of the impeller accelerates the fluid into the volute or diffuser chamber. The added energy from the acceleration increases the velocity and pressure of the fluid. These pumps are known to be very inefficient. This means that it takes more energy to increase the flow and pressure of the fluid when compared to a piston-style pump. However, you have a significant advantage in flow rates from a centrifugal pump versus a piston pump. If you are drilling deeper wells with heavier cuttings, you will be forced at some point to use a piston-style mud pump. They have much higher efficiencies in transferring the input energy into flow and pressure, therefore resulting in much higher pressure capabilities.

Piston-style mud pumps utilize a piston or plunger that travels back and forth in a chamber known as a cylinder. These pumps are also called “positive displacement” pumps because they literally push the fluid forward. This fluid builds up pressure and forces a spring-loaded valve to open and allow the fluid to escape into the discharge piping of the pump and then down the borehole. Since the expansion process is much smaller (almost insignificant) compared to a centrifugal pump, there is much lower energy loss. Plunger-style pumps can develop upwards of 15,000 psi for well treatments and hydraulic fracturing. Centrifugal pumps, in comparison, usually operate below 300 psi. If you are comparing most drilling pumps, centrifugal pumps operate from 60 to 125 psi and piston pumps operate around 150 to 300 psi. There are many exceptions and special applications for drilling, but these numbers should cover 80 percent of all equipment operating out there.

The restriction of putting a piston-style mud pump onto drilling rigs has always been the physical size and weight to provide adequate flow and pressure to your drilling fluid. Because of this, the industry needed a new solution to this age-old issue.

As the senior design engineer for Ingersoll-Rand’s Deephole Drilling Business Unit, I had the distinct pleasure of working with him and incorporating his Centerline Mud Pump into our drilling rig platforms.

In the late ’90s — and perhaps even earlier —  Ingersoll-Rand had tried several times to develop a hydraulic-driven mud pump that would last an acceptable life- and duty-cycle for a well drilling contractor. With all of our resources and design wisdom, we were unable to solve this problem. Not only did Miller provide a solution, thus saving the size and weight of a typical gear-driven mud pump, he also provided a new offering — a mono-cylinder mud pump. This double-acting piston pump provided as much mud flow and pressure as a standard 5 X 6 duplex pump with incredible size and weight savings.

The true innovation was providing the well driller a solution for their mud pump requirements that was the right size and weight to integrate into both existing and new drilling rigs. Regardless of drill rig manufacturer and hydraulic system design, Centerline has provided a mud pump integration on hundreds of customer’s drilling rigs. Both mono-cylinder and duplex-cylinder pumps can fit nicely on the deck, across the frame or even be configured for under-deck mounting. This would not be possible with conventional mud pump designs.

The second generation design for the Centerline Mud Pump is expected later this year, and I believe it will be a true game changer for this industry. It also will open up the application to many other industries that require a heavier-duty cycle for a piston pump application.

Mud pumps for drilling rigs are used in most of the off-shore projects, and it is one of the essential equipment used in these types of projects. The plus point of using the mud pump is that the operation has been appropriately checked and proven in th …

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Before you directly go to the topic of Drilling Mud Pump Companies in Houston, it is important for us to know about this specific pump. So what exactly is this pump and its role?  Well, a mud pump is the one which is basically a reciprocating piston pu …

The drilling mud pumps are of immense utility to the oil companies, for the purposes related to oil well drilling. The pumps have the reciprocating piston for circulating the drilling fluid. These units work at high pressure and provide for low noise, smooth operations, provisions for easy maintenance and disassembly, and stable fluid flows among other features. The drilling mud pumps should be procured from experienced and reputed Houston pump manufacturers only, because of their critical nature, and the circumstances and hazards oil well drilling are exposed to.

The best of drilling well pumps manufacturers in Houston and USA offers a comprehensive range of products and are a one-stop destination for many of your oil well service/drilling pumps and other needs. A good company will offer you all the popular and important pumps including the quintuplex pumps, triplex pumps, well service pumps, horizontal direction drilling pumps, false rotary tables, powered packages, and more. These manufacturers will offer you free of cost consultation upon your contact and will advise you on the best products that will suit your application precisely.

The best of well mud drilling pumps product companies in Houston have the necessary services related to oil well drilling and operations. These include welding, testing, and fabrication services. A reputed pump company offers the products at a very affordable cost and under the guidance of expert technicians. The services also include the maintenance and repair services that may be provided to the client on-site. With a proper and comprehensive inventory of spare parts, the best of drilling mud pumps manufacturers in Houston ensure that your business operations never face undesired downtimes.

A noteworthy and popular drilling well pump manufacturer will have decades of existence and experience. These companies are well known to the local and global oil companies and have a sound market base. Their high quality pumps not only offer reliable performance but also adhere to the standards like the standard pertaining to the operational regions as well as hazardous areas.

When you want to buy a drilling well pump for your well mud drilling, acidulation, cementing, and other operations, you should research on the manufacturers and choose one that has proven experience and years of existence and prominence. The company should offer you a comprehensive range of products and services and should take care of all your maintaining services needed as well.

A mud pump (sometimes referred to as a mud drilling pump or drilling mud pump), is a reciprocating piston/plunger pump designed to circulate drilling fluid under high pressure (up to 7,500 psi or 52,000 kPa) down the drill string and back up the annulus. A mud pump is an important part of the equipment used for oil well drilling and manufactured according to API specification 7K.

The advantages of the drilling mud pump include the ability to move high-solids-content fluids laden with abrasives, the ability to pump large particles, ease of operation and maintenance, reliability, and the ability to operate over a wide range of pressures and flow rates by changing the diameter of pump liners and pistons.

As an important equipment for oilfield drilling operation, a drilling mud pump delivers circulating high-pressure drilling fluid or drilling mud to the bottom of the oil well, flushes the bottom of the well, breaks the rock, cools, lubricates and clean the drill bit, and carries the cuttings back to the ground.

The drilling mud is also used to suspend and carry out drill cuttings from the drill bits as it is brought in and out of the hole. This ensures that the drill bit does not clog and overheat, and makes the entire drilling operation smooth and safe.

Rotational power is supplied to the mud pump through an external power source like a diesel engine or electric motor. The power end of the mud pump converts the rotational energy through a crankshaft to a reciprocating motion of pistons.

The pistons move back and forth in mud pump liners, exerting a force on the cylinder chamber. During the retraction of the piston, valves open to allow the fluid to be drawn into the cylinder. Once the piston has fully retracted, it is pushed back into the cylinder.

These workhorses keep the mud flowing and your rig running. If theyʼre not working, youʼre not working. We make everything from the crankshaft to the liner seal to the skid. Each one is precision engineered for your rig so you can get back to turning.

As oil and gas fields mature, operators must drill wells with large offsets, long laterals, and extended reach applications using rotary steerable systems, mud motors, and bottomhole assemblies that require higher mud pump pressures and flow rates.

To meet this demand, drilling contractors are building and renovating rigs with increased mud pumping capacity, giving drilling engineers greater flexibility with bottomhole assemblies, without having to carefully budget around hydraulic system limitations.The LeTourneau Ellis Williams Co. Inc. (LEWCO) W-3000 mud pump, which the company says is the world"s largest, undergoes testing at the Houston test facility. The facility can test mud pumps up to 7,500-psi discharge pressure and power input of 3,000 hp, driven by either AC or DC motors (Fig. 1).Click here to enlarge image

LeTourneau Ellis Williams Co. Inc. (LEWCO) has developed its new W-3000 mud pump model for oil field drilling service. Described by LEWCO as the world"s largest mud pump, the W-3000 can handle power input of up to 3,000 hp (Fig. 1).

Rowan Cos. Inc. plans to install three pumps each on the Gorilla VIII and the Tarzan class Scooter Yeargain jack up drilling rigs, giving each rig 9,000-hp total mud system capability. The two rigs are scheduled for completion and deployment in the third quarter 2003 and 2004, respectively.

Don Vogelsang, executive vice president of sales for LEWCO, said the company will begin actively marketing the new mud pump after it has been installed and operated in a commercial drilling application.

Atwood Oceanics Inc., Houston, has placed an order for three smaller, but similar design, 2,200-hp triplex piston mud pumps and drives, for their recently announced rig, a Keppel FELS Ltd. MOD V enhanced B-class jack up drilling unit being built in Singapore.

Power endThe inherently-balanced eccentric crankshaft, which is the only one of its kind offered in the industry, minimizes vibration for reduced wear, quieter operation, and longer mud pump life, says the company (Fig. 2).Click here to enlarge image

The manufacturing plant builds the pumps with inherently balanced eccentric crankshafts made of heat-treated, forged-alloy steel for maximum toughness (Fig. 2). The inherent balancing provides for smooth operation, reduced noise and vibration, and extended bearing and crankshaft life, says the company.A nickel coin remains on its edge atop the fluid end of a LEWCO W-3000 mud pump, operating at 2,200 hp while pumping water, at the Houston test facility (Fig. 3).Click here to enlarge image

A nickel coin remains on its edge atop the fluid end of the 3,000-hp mud pump, operating at 2,200 hp while pumping water, at the Houston test facility (Fig. 3).

Additional benefits of the balanced crankshaft design include reduced maintenance and decreased or eliminated vibrational inputs to structures or equipment making contact with the pump, says LEWCO.

To ensure fail-safe lubrication protection, even at very low operating speeds, the pumps have an internal splash-gravity feed, internal gear-driven pump, and external electric motor driven equipment for triple redundant lubrication.

The new pumps have heat-treated steel connecting rods with double-row cylindrical roller bearings in the crosshead end and single-row cylindrical bearings in the crankshaft end to minimize wear and friction under severe operating conditions.

The factory will adapt most third party fluid-end modules to the mud pumps, eliminating the need for drilling contractors to stock fluid end parts from several manufacturers.

The company has built and commissioned a full load pump-testing facility at its manufacturing site in Houston, which it says is the only one owned and operated by a pump manufacturer.

The company requires that each pump undergo full-load testing prior to shipment, which LEWCO says is the final quality-control step to ensure the customer is taking delivery of the pump they selected based on the manufacturer"s published pump ratings.