how a triplex mud pump works factory

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.

As the crankshaft is subjected to these extremely high bending moments, it is inevitable that the crankshaft will suffer from cracking and fatigue (see Figure 3).

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.

To maintain the advantages of multiple cylinders, as required by many industrial applications, the solution has always been to position bearings close to the line of action. For example, in an industrial application, a bearing would be adjacent to every "big end" or connecting rod crankshaft cam, as in a large diesel engine (see Figure 4).

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.

Bearing types can amplify or reduce the loads exerted on a flexing crankshaft. If the bearing is a straight roller or taper bearing, the crankshaft is restricted, which causes a stress concentration problem where the crankshaft meets the bearing. This concentrated load creates cracks and sometimes shearing of the shaft exactly at the edge of the bearings.

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.

The case for welding or casting a crankshaft is arguable. While the cast crankshaft is strong and sometimes quite reliable, it is easy for casting anomalies like porosity and inclusions to be undetectable in inspection. Welded crankshafts always have a problem with the weld of the cams so close to a large diameter change, which can create stress concentration-induced problems. One way of avoiding both these problems is to have a modular crankshaft, which is assembled and disassembled without any welding or the need for subsequent heat-treating during manufacturing. All the crank components would be assembled from high quality forged parts that will last longer in any application and are unlikely to ever fail under normal or extreme conditions so long as the crankshaft is supported properly. (Figure 6 shows close bearing proximity to cams and spherical bearings.)

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.

Positive displacements pumps are generally used on drilling rigs to pump high pressure and high volume of drilling fluids throughout a drilling system. There are several reasons why the positive displacement mud pumps are used on the rigs.

The duplex pumps (Figure 1) have two cylinders with double acting. It means that pistons move back and take in drilling mud through open intake valve and other sides of the same pistons, the pistons push mud out through the discharge valves.

When the piston rod is moved forward, one of intake valves is lift to allow fluid to come in and one of the discharge valve is pushed up therefore the drilling mud is pumped out of the pump (Figure 2).

On the other hand, when the piston rod is moved backward drilling fluid is still pumped. The other intake and discharge valve will be opened (Figure 3).

The triplex pumps have three cylinders with single acting. The pistons are moved back and pull in drilling mud through open intake valves. When the pistons are moved forward and the drilling fluid is pushed out through open discharge valves.

When the piston rods are moved forward, the intake valves are in close position and the discharge valves are in open position allowing fluid to discharge (Figure 5).

On the contrary when the piston rods are moved backward, the intake valve are opened allowing drilling fluid coming into the pump (Figure 6). This video below shows how a triplex mud pump works.

Because each pump has power rating limit as 1600 hp, this will limit capability of pump. It means that you cannot pump at high rate and high pressure over what the pump can do. Use of a small liner will increase discharge pressure however the flow rate is reduces. Conversely, if a bigger liner is used to deliver more flow rate, maximum pump pressure will decrease.

As you can see, you can have 7500 psi with 4.5” liner but the maximum flow rate is only 297 GPM. If the biggest size of liner (7.25”) is used, the pump pressure is only 3200 psi.

Finally, we hope that this article would give you more understanding about the general idea of drilling mud pumps. Please feel free to add more comments.

The NOV FC-1600 Triplex Mud Pump is made of rugged Fabriform construction and designed for optimum performance under extreme drilling conditions. It is compact and occupies less space, yet delivers unequaled performance. The pumps are backed by several decades of design and manufacturing experience, and are considered leaders in the field.

NOV FC-1600 Triplex Mud Pump is conservatively rated at relatively low rpm. This reduces the number of load reversals in heavily stressed components and increases the life of the fluid end parts through conservative speeds and valve operation.

The NOV FC-1600 Triplex Mud Pump design provides an inherently balanced assembly. No additional counterbalancing is required for smooth operation. No inertia forces are transmitted to the pumps’ mountings.

A Triplex Mud Pump sometimes referred to as a drilling mud pump or mud drilling pump. NOV FC-1600 Triplex Mud Pump is a reciprocating piston/plunger pump designed to circulate drilling fluid under high pressure (up to 7,500 psi) down the drill string and back up the annulus. A mud pump is an important part of the equipment used for oil well drilling.

Bruce Suggs, vice president of marketing and sales for White Star, speaks with DC editorial coordinator Katherine Scott about White Star’s quadraplex mud pump at its headquarters in Waller, Texas, on 17 February.

Drilling Contractor visited the manufacturing facility of White Star Pump Company in Waller, Texas, on 17 February to view a demonstration of the company’s quadraplex mud pump, which was designed to address the challenges of the conventional triplex pump.

“After working on all the different brands of (triplex) pumps, it became evident that they all had the same common issues,” said Bruce Suggs, vice president of marketing and sales for White Star. “(We) tried to build a triplex and ended up with the Quatro.”

Instead of taking an existing triplex pump and trying to make it better, White Star approached the project with a clean-sheet design. The Quatro pump features a width of only 82 in. and easily fits on a standard-width trailer, a potential advantage in areas with limited space, such as on offshore rigs and in shale plays like the Marcellus. With the fluid modules sitting inside the frame, change-out time can be reduced to 23 minutes versus up to 10 hours for conventional triplex pumps. The quadraplex pump also uses a fully assembled crankshaft that requires no castings or welding. Using a crankshaft that is fully assembled and supported by modern bearing placement dramatically reduces crankshaft bending and cracking.

Additionally, the Quatro is equipped with two pulsation dampeners, one for each pair of pistons, unlike the triplex, which carries only one. This allows mud to be dampened before it gets to the strain across, creating a quieter, smoother fluid flow and reducing vibrations.

triplex mud pumps and triplex mud pump parts meet the industry standards established by the American Petroleum Institute (API). As a global supplier of quality oilfield equipment to the oil and gas industry, we ship our products around the world.

Besides triplex mud pumps and triplex mud pump parts, we supply drilling rigs, workover rigs, top drives, drilling equipment, blowout preventers, BOP control systems, choke and kill manifolds, well service pumps for well cementing and hydraulic fracturing, wellhead equipment, casing heads, tubing heads, X-mas trees, FC type gate valves, etc. Please visit our company website

We supply unitized mud pump packages driven by DC or AC electric motors or diesel engines for electric and mechanical drilling rigs. The client can select DC or AC motors and diesel engine brands such as Caterpillar, Detroit, Cummins or others. Our unitized mud pump packages including everything on the skid and usually they are ready to work at delivery.

Our headquarters are located in the energy capital Houston, USA and we ship our products around the world. One important thing about us is that our prices are very competitive and our delivery time is short.

DRILLMEC’s GD Series is the new generation of Gear Driven Triplex Mud Pumps in the ranging from 1600 to 2400 hp for both onshore and offshore drilling operations.

The direct gear driven transmission between the AC motor and the cranshaft together with the top mounted configuration gives to the GD Series Mud Pumps a very compact design despite their high volume and high pressure capabilies.

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.

Centerline Manufacturing is committed to the highest level of customer service quality.  Every Centerline pump is comprehensively and repeatedly tested at diverse pressure levels to assure that it goes to our customer in perfect operational order. Centerline technicians work to ensure that our customers fully understand the operation of the model being delivered.  If a customer"s pump is down, we understand the importance of timely response and parts availability.  Centerline technicians will assess the problem and make repairs to bring the pump back into new specification. The Centerline mud pump technicians are well versed and qualified to operate and repair any product that is provided to the customer.

Comprehensive testing, performance evaluation and documentation done at Ingersoll-Rand manufacturing plant, Garland, Texas. Results in adoption of the Centerline pump as an optional offering on Ingersoll-Rand drilling rigs

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